ad in
class? What part shall they read at home? What part, if any, shall we
read to them? What questions are necessary to insure appreciation? How
many of the allusions need be run down in order to give the maximal
effect of the masterpiece? How may the necessarily discontinuous
discussions of the class--one period each day for several days--be so
counteracted as to insure the cumulative emotional effect which the
appreciation of all art presupposes? Should the story be sketched
through first, and then read in some detail, or will one reading
suffice?

These are problems, I repeat, that stand to the chief problem as means
stand to end. Now some of these questions must be solved by every
teacher for himself, but that does not prevent each teacher from solving
them scientifically. Others, it is clear, might be solved once and for
all by the right kind of an investigation,--might result in permanent
and universal laws which any one could apply.

There are, of course, several ways in which answers for these questions
may be secured. One way is that of _a priori_ reasoning,--the deductive
procedure. This method may be thoroughly scientific, depending of course
upon the validity of our general principles as applied to the specific
problem. Ordinarily this validity can be determined only by trial;
consequently these _a priori_ inferences should be looked upon as
hypotheses to be tested by trial under standard conditions. For example,
I might argue that _The Tale of Two Cities_ should be placed in the
third year because the emotional ferment of adolescence is then most
favorable for the engendering of the ideal. But in the first place, this
assumed principle would itself be subject to grave question and it would
also have to be determined whether there is so little variation among
the pupils in respect of physiological age as to permit the application
to all of a generalization that might conceivably apply only to the
average child. In other words, all of our generalizations applying to
average pupils must be applied with a knowledge of the extent and range
of variation from the average. Some people say that there is no such
thing as an average child, but, for all practical purposes, the average
child is a very real reality,--he is, in fact, more numerous than any
other single class; but this does not mean that there may be not enough
variations from the average to make unwise the application of our
principle.

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