In short, the inductive process is a natural
highway of human thought in every line of study, bringing all the
mental forces into an orderly, successive, healthful activity. We may
yet discover that the inductive process not only gives the key to an
interesting method of mastering different branches of knowledge, but in
developing mental activity it brings the various mental powers into a
strong natural sequence.
One of the great ends of intellectual culture is gradually _to
transform this careless, unconscious, inductive tendency in children
into the painstaking and exact scrutiny of the student, and later of
the specialist_.
Although the inductive process is a common highway of thought in all
stages of intellectual growth from childhood to maturity, certain parts
of the road are much more frequently traveled in childhood, and still
others in youth and maturity. It is the work of pedagogy to adapt its
materials to these _changing phases_ of soul life in children. In the
analysis of the inductive and deductive processes we desire to come at
the solution of this problem.
Considered as a whole, there is a simple phase of the inductive process
which is best explained by the terms absorption and reflection.
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