length of time, that is, the number of recitations required in working out this general truth through all the five steps, depends upon the simplicity or complexity of the central truth itself, and the amount of data required to develop and apply it.

Relation of the lesson

unity to the general truth.

CHAPTER X

THE VALUE OF TYPES

THE magnet which lies at the centre of every weighty lesson is the general truth which is to be worked out and applied. The entire foregoing discussion of the succession of steps in the handling of a lesson unity unfolds the growth of a general truth in the mind. A proper lesson unity is a topic which has such an embryo truth in it, and the lesson process follows the growth of the truth in the child's mind up to maturity and fruitage. This elaboration of a general truth involves the complete circuit of mental action from the observation and comparison of particulars up to the clear grasp of the general notion, and back again to a broad and ready interpretation in its light of the varying objects and situations in life.

All the illustrative lesson unities in Chapters II and X are examples of the working out and application of such general truths. In irrigation is explained the process by which water from rivers and lakes is brought upon arid lands and utilized. This process, with modifications, is the same for hundreds of irrigating ditches, and presents one of those

general truths of agriculture which deserves our attention. In the battle of King's Mountain the independent spirit and energy of the common people are exhibited in a striking and successful raid against the English troops. By a close comparison we find this same spirit at Bennington. When we come to expand this truth, and interpret other events in its light, as, for example, Bunker Hill and The Cowpens, we find this spirit breaking out on many important occasions. In other words, a general truth is strongly suggested by the careful study and comparison of two battles, and this is the chief reason for their elaborate presentation. The study of Minneapolis and the other cities of the Northwest was to set forth in clear and unmistakable outlines the general notion of a trade centre in lumber and flour. The rule for the addition of fractions, the metamorphosis of the milkweed butterfly, the Golden Touch, and national unity illustrate the same centering of a whole lesson unity in a single thought or general notion. How to get at these general truths is undoubtedly the one problem of recitation method. How far does the study of types render us direct The relation of the type to aid in the struggle to master general truths? The the general very word type seems to bridge the chasm between truth. the particular and the general. The type itself is always an object, a particular thing, action, or process; but in so far as it is a type, it is a representative object, it stands for a whole class, the

Is the type a short-cut in

induction?

features of a general truth shine out more distinctly through it than through other objects of the same class. We say that Peter Cartwright was a type of the backwoods itinerant preachers. Garrison was

a type of the uncompromising abolitionists, Asa Gray, of scientific students, Spurgeon, of Baptist preachers of England; but in the typical or representative man the general truth seems to stand out enlarged, magnified, more forcible and tangible than in the average man, in whom it seems to be obscured by dulness or personal defects.

A type, therefore, has all the interest and concrete intensity of a particular or personal and conspicuous object, while at the same instant it displays to the thoughtful person the clear outline of a general truth. This does not appear to the child at first as a general truth, but a little later, by comparison, it is brought out clearly. If general truths are what we aim at, and if the type points the way to the general truth with greater precision and strength, then why not select the best typical objects as the centres of our lesson unities? But in setting up types as the pivotal points in recitation method we are met at the threshold with vigorous objections. Are we trying to discover or invent a short-cut from the particular to the general notion? Does not induction require that we study the individuals one by one before comparing and deriving the general notion ? In saying that a type is both particular

and general, are we not throwing into confusion our whole inductive plan? How can a child see a general notion in a single object before others have been brought to his notice? Of what value is the step of comparison if the type idea in a single object is so significant?

The answer to these questions and objections may reveal to us more definitely than any other means the practical and modified working of the inductive process in dealing with the new forms of truth as they arise in children's minds.

It must be confessed that the study of a type is a short-cut toward a general truth, but it is an abbreviation of the process which the trained scientific, as well as the untutored, mind inevitably takes.

A child first makes the acquaintance of its own father through a multitude of successive daily experiences, revealing many sides of his character. A little later, in meeting other fathers in the neighborhood, he is inclined to project this familiar notion of his own father into these other fatherly characters. Certain it is that he does not make a second, third, and fourth elaborate study of neighboring fathers, and then sit down and patiently compare them in order to discover the type idea. The dominant notion in the child's mind is the idea of his own father, and this is modified from time to time by the incidental experiences met with in the neighborhood. Even the strict and exact scientist in collecting his data for later ultimate