already mentioned ways in which a child
can be helped in gaining power and facility in reasoning. In this
paragraph we shall discuss the matter more fully. There are three
aspects of training in reasoning, one with reference to original
experience, one with reference to the organization of this experience as
just discussed, and one with reference to certain habits of procedure in
the recall and use of experience.

(1) _Original experience._ Before reasoning in any field, one must have
experience in that field. There is no substitute for experience. After
having the experience, it can be organized in various ways, but
experience there must be. Experience may be primary, with things
themselves, or it may be secondary, received second hand through books
or through spoken language. We cannot think without ideas, and ideas
come only through perceptions of one kind or another.

Originally, all experience arises out of sensations. Language makes it
possible for us to profit through the perceptual experience of others.
But even when we receive our experience second hand, our own primary
experience must enable us to understand the meaning of what we read and
hear about, else it is valueless to us. Therefore, if we wish to be able
to reason in the field of physics, of botany, of chemistry, of medicine,
of law, or of agriculture, we must get experience in those fields. The
raw material of thought comes only through experience. In such a subject
as physical geography, for example, the words of the book have little
meaning unless the child has had original experience in the matter
discussed. He must have seen hills and valleys and rivers and lakes and
rocks and weathering, and all the various processes discussed in
physical geography; otherwise, the reading of the text is almost
valueless. The same thing is true of all subjects. To reason in any
subject we must have had original experience in it.

(2) _The organization of experience._ After experience comes its
organization. This point has already been fully explained. It was
pointed out that organization consists in thinking our experience over
again in helpful relations. Here parents and teachers can be of very
great service to children.

(3) _Habits of thought._ There are certain habits of procedure in
reasoning, apart from the association of the ideas. One can form the
habit of putting certain questions to oneself when a problem is
presented, so that certain types of relatio