ersons' facts conjointly, and with proper
discrimination, in reaching conclusions. To do other than this tends
to abort the reasoning attitude and power, and teaches the pupil to
stand passive in the presence of facts and to divorce facts and
conclusions. The fear is, of course, that the students will get wrong
conclusions and acquire the habit of jumping prematurely to
generalizations. But this situation, while critical, is the very glory
of the method. What we want to do is to ask them continually,--wherever
possible,--_where_ _their facts seem to lead them_. Their conclusions
are liable to be quite wrong, to be sure. But our province as teachers
is to see that the facts ignorance of which made this conclusion wrong
are brought to their attention,--and it is not absolutely material
whether they discover these facts themselves or some one else does.
What we want to compass is practice in reaching conclusions, and the
recognition of the necessity of getting and discriminating facts in
doing so, together with a realization that there are probably many
other facts which we have not discovered that would modify our
conclusions. This keeps the mind open. In other words, the student may
thus be brought to realize the meaning of the "working hypothesis" and
the method of approximation to truth. It makes no difference if one
"jumps to a conclusion," if he jumps in the light of all his known
facts and holds his conclusion _tentatively_. It is much better to
reach wrong conclusions through inadequate facts than to have the mind
come to a standstill in the presence of facts. Instead of being a
threat, reaching a wrong conclusion gives us the opportunity to train
students in holding their conclusions open-mindedly and subject to
revision through new facts. Reaching wrong or partial conclusions and
correcting them may be made even more educative than reaching right
ones at the outset. This would not be true if the conclusion were
being sought for the sake of the science. But it is being sought
solely for the sake of the student. The distinction is important. The
inability to make it is one of the reasons why research men so often
fail as teachers.

All through life the student will be forced to draw conclusions from
two types of facts,--both of which will be incomplete: those he
himself has observed and those which came to him from other observers.
While he must always feel free to try out any and all facts for
himself, it is quit