ther, that narrow and circumscribed ideas shall come before
ideas of a wide range. It means, therefore, that the whole system of
education shall follow in the steps that must have been taken by the
ideas themselves in the course of their formation. But whenever any of
these steps are skipped or left out, the instruction is defective, and
the ideas obtained are false; and finally, a distorted view of the
world arises, peculiar to the individual himself--a view such as
almost everyone entertains for some time, and most men for as long as
they live. No one can look into his own mind without seeing that it
was only after reaching a very mature age, and in some cases when he
least expected it, that he came to a right understanding or a clear
view of many matters in his life, that, after all, were not very
difficult or complicated. Up till then, they were points in his
knowledge of the world which were still obscure, due to his having
skipped some particular lesson in those early days of his education,
whatever it may have been like--whether artificial and conventional,
or of that natural kind which is based upon individual experience.

It follows that an attempt should be made to find out the strictly
natural course of knowledge, so that education may proceed
methodically by keeping to it; and that children may become acquainted
with the ways of the world, without getting wrong ideas into their
heads, which very often cannot be got out again. If this plan were
adopted, special care would have to be taken to prevent children
from using words without clearly understanding their meaning and
application. The fatal tendency to be satisfied with words instead of
trying to understand things--to learn phrases by heart, so that
they may prove a refuge in time of need, exists, as a rule, even in
children; and the tendency lasts on into manhood, making the knowledge
of many learned persons to consist in mere verbiage.

However, the main endeavor must always be to let particular
observations precede general ideas, and not _vice versa_, as is
usually and unfortunately the case; as though a child should come
feet foremost into the world, or a verse be begun by writing down the
rhyme! The ordinary method is to imprint ideas and opinions, in the
strict sense of the word, _prejudices_, on the mind of the child,
before it has had any but a very few particular observations. It is
thus that he afterwards comes to view the world and gather expe