ands more from the pupil than does the more concrete objective
method. For instance, the child who is able to see an actual mountain,
lake, canal, etc., is far more likely to obtain an accurate idea of
these, than the student who learns them by means of illustrations. The
cause for this lies mainly in the failure of the child to form a perfect
image of the real object through the exercise of his imagination. In
fact it sometimes happens that he makes very little use of his
imagination, his mental picture of the real object differing little from
the model placed before him. The writer was informed of a case in which
a teacher endeavoured to give some young pupils a knowledge of the earth
by means of a large school globe. When later the children were
questioned thereon, it was discovered that their earth corresponded in
almost every particular with the large globe in the school. The
successful use of the illustrative method, therefore, demands from the
teacher a careful test by the question and answer method, to see that
the learner has properly bridged over, through his imagination, the gulf
separating the actual object from its illustration. For this reason an
acquaintance with the mental process of imagination is of great value to
the teacher. The leading facts connected with this process will be set
forth in Chapter XXVII.

PRECAUTIONS IN USE OF MATERIALS

In the use of objective and illustrative materials the following
precautions are advisable:

1. Their use in the lesson should not be continued too long. It should
be remembered that their office is illustrative, and the aim of the
teacher should be to have the pupils think in the abstract as soon as
possible. To make pupils constantly dependent on the concrete is to make
their thinking weak.

2. The pupils must be mentally active while the concrete object or
illustrative material is being used, and not merely gaze in a passive
way upon the objects. It requires mental activity to grasp the abstract
facts that the objects or illustrations typify. A tellurion will not
teach the changes of the seasons; bundles of splints, notation; nor
black-board examples, the law of agreement; unless these are brought
under the child's mental apprehension. The sole purpose of such
materials is, therefore, to start a flow of imagery or ideas which bear
upon the presented problem.

3. The objects should not be so intrinsically interesting that they
distract the attention from w