ts receives the
name book, another stove, etc. The work of observing, comparing, and
classifying is a perpetual operation in the child's active moods. In
this way, what may appear at first as an interminable confusion or blur
of objects in nature begins to fall into groups and classes with
appropriate names. It is the child's own way of bringing order out of
the apparent chaos of his surroundings. All this process of
classification is natural and nearly unconscious, and results in a
better understanding and interpretation of the things around him.

Observe next the work of an educated _adult_, and how he increases and
arranges his knowledge. If he is an incipient dry-goods merchant he
learns by sight and touch to detect the quality of goods. He compares
and classifies his experiences and becomes in time an expert in judging
textile fabrics. On the other hand he becomes acquainted by personal
contact with various customers and learns how to classify and judge
them both as buyers and as debtors.

If a _botanist_ finds a new plant he examines its stem, leaves, root,
flower, seed, and environment. While entering into these details he is
also comparing it with familiar classes of plants. Finally, he is not
satisfied till he can definitely locate it in his previous system.
With every new plant that he discovers he travels over the whole road
from the individual particulars to the general classes of his whole
system. The merchant and the scientist follow out with painstaking
care and industry the same course which was involuntarily taken by the
child; namely, observation of particulars, comparing and grouping into
classes. The same habit of mind may be observed in all people who are
growing knowledgewards and who possess any thoughtful instincts. In
building up concepts, especially with the adult, induction is
constantly mingled with deduction. As fast as general notions are
formed they are used to interpret new objects. As the amount of this
organized and classified knowledge increases, we reason more and more
deductively.

In acquiring knowledge along the line of induction, we are on the road
to the solution of the _puzzle_, that nature puts to every child. To
every infant, indeed, the world is an enormous riddle or puzzle, whose
parts lie in fragments about him, waiting the operation of his curious
and inventive mind toward the reconstruction of the whole. Endless
variety and complexity confront us all in