Part 13 (1/2)
Only Nature accomplishes such miracles
If, then, psychical manifestations have their root in Nature, it was necessary, in order to understand and help Nature, to study it in its initial periods, those which are the si truths which would serve as guides for the interpretation of later and ists have done; but, applying the analytical y, they did not start froical sciences derive their knowledge of life: that is, the _liberty_ of the living creatures they desire to observe If Fabre had notthem free to carry out their naturalhis presence to interfere in any ith their functions; if he had caught insects, had taken them into his study, and subjected them to experiment, he would not have been able to reveal the ists had not instituted, as a method of research, an environards nutritive substances and conditions of teht live freely” and thus manifest their characteristics; if they had confined theerms of a disease under the microscope, the science which to-day saves the lives of innumerable men and protects whole nations from epidemics would not exist
Freedom to live is the true basis for everycreatures
_Liberty_ is the experi the phenoh to re ical concoans of sense; an acco child, which requires to develop itself according to Nature An object not adapted to become a useful stimulus to the powers of accommodation in process of develop attention as a psychical fact, but would also, as a physiological fact, weary or actually injure the organs of accommodation such as the eye and ear
But the child who _chooses_ the objects, and perseveres in their use with the utmost intensity of attention, as shown in the ive mimetic expression to his face, evidently experiences _pleasure_, and pleasure is an indication of healthy functional activity; it always accoans of the body
Attention also requires a _preparation_ of the ideative centers in relation to the external object for which it is to be demanded: in other words, an internal, psychical ”adaptation” The cerebral centers should be excited in their turn by an internal process, when an external sti a person, sees hi from a considerable distance; not only because the person presents himself to the senses, but because he was ”expected” The distant figure claimed attention because the cerebral centers were already excited to that end By htest sound ame in woods In short, two forces act upon the cerebral cell, as upon a closed door: the external sensory force which knocks, and the internal force which says: Open If the internal force does not open, it is in vain that the external stiest stimuli may pass unheeded The absent-minded man may step into a chasm Thein the street
The central action that constitutes attention is the factor of the greatest psychological and philosophic value, and the one which has always represented the y
The whole art of teachers has consisted, in substance, in preparing the attention of the child tothe cooperation of those internal forces which should ”open the door” when they ”knock” And as the thing which is quite unknown, or that which is inaccessible to the understanding, can awaken no interest, the fundaradually from the known to the unknown, from the easy to the difficult It is the preexistent ”knohich excites expectation and _opens the door_ to the novel ”unknown”; and it is the already present ”easy work” which opens neays for penetration, and puts the attention into a state of expectation
Thus, according to the conceptions of pedagogy, it should be possible to ”prepare good offices for oneself,” the cooperation of the psychical conco would depend on skilful manipulation between the known and the unknown and sireat ist, who prepares the plan of a battle upon a table; andhi been theto Herbert Spencer, the mind is at first, as it were, an indifferent day, on which external i tracesto hilish empiricists, the constructive factors of the hest activities Man is what experience hasa suitable structure of experiences, it is possible to _build up the man_ A conception not less materialistic than that which presented itself for a anic chemistry, when the series of syntheses succeeded that of analyses It was then believed that a species of albuht be anic basis of the cells, and as the huht one day be manufactured on the chemist's table The conception of man as the creator of man was quickly discredited in the material do the practical conceptions of pedagogy
No che more than a simple clot of nucleated protoplasm, that _activity sine matter_, that potential vital force, that mysterious factor which causes a cell to develop into man
And the elusive attention of children would seeous laws of auto-creation
The ists, to which Willianized, in the concomitant of attention, a fact bound up with the nature of the subject, a ”spiritual force,” one of the ”mysterious factors of life”
” Froht, Man therefore knows not; or his appetites Their first affection; such In you as zeal In bees to gather honey”
(Carey's translation, Dante's _Purgatorio_, Canto XVIII)
There is in s, which forms part of his nature, and determines its character The internal activities act as cause; they do not react and exist as the _effect_ of external factors Our attention is not arrested by all things indifferently, but by those which are congenial to our tastes The things which are useful to our inner life are those which arouse our interest Our internal world is created upon a selection from the external world, acquired for and in harmony with our internal activities The painter will see a preponderance of colors in the world, the musician will be attracted by sounds It is the quality of our attention which reveals ourselves, and we manifest ourselves externally by our aptitudes; it is not our attention which creates us
The individual character, the internal form, the difference between onemen who have lived in the same environment, but who from that environment have taken only as necessary for each The ”experiences” hich each constructs his _ego_ in relation to the external world do not form a _chaos_, but are _directed_ by his intimate individual aptitudes
If there were any doubt as to the natural force which directs psychical formation, our experiences with little children would furnish a decisive proof No teacher could procure such phenomena of attention by any artifices; they have evidently an internal origin
The power of concentration shown by little children from three to four years old have no counterpart save in the annals of genius These little ones see an extraordinary power of attention, such as Archi over his circles, fro of Syracuse had failed to distract hiot to eat; or Vittorio Alfieri, riting a poe procession which was passing with shouts and clamor before his s
Now, these characteristics of the attention of genius could not be evoked by an ”interesting” teacher, however subtle his art; nor could any accumulation of passive experiences becoies
If there be a spiritual force working within the child, by which he may open the door of his attention, the problem which necessarily presents itself is a probleic art effecting the construction of his mind The bestowal of the nourishment suitable to psychical needs, by means of the external objects, and readiness to respect liberty of development in the most perfect ical point of view, should be laid down for the construction of a new pedagogy
It is no longer a question of atte to create the homunculus, like the che the lantern of Diogenes and going in search of the man A science should establish _by means of experiments_ what is necessary to the primordial psychical requirements of the child; and then we shall witness the developence, the will, and the character develop together, just as the brain, the stomach, and the ether
Together with the first psychical exercises, the first coordinated cognitions will be fixed in the child'sthe first ger his instinctive interest When this takes place, a state of things begins to establish itself which has soogists of to-day take as the basis of the art of teaching The transition from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, from the easy to the difficult, is reproduced, from a certain point of view; but with special characteristics