mmon consent, the first duty of the educator is that of
doing no harm: first do no harm, a precept also accepted in
the practise of medicine. To obey it to the letter is,
indeed, _impossible, because every method of scholastic
education is in some way prejudicial to the normal
development of the child_. But the educator will seek to
_alleviate the injury which instruction necessarily entails_"
(_op. cit._).

This is indeed cold comfort, after all these studies and researches! A
confession that problems have arisen at every step, and that not a
single one has been solved! Indeed, underlying all this is the
_problem of problems_: how to make that place attractive and joyous
where hitherto the body has been tortured and contorted, and the blood
poisoned by weariness! It is impossible to educate without doing harm;
but we must do harm that will give pleasure! This is truly an
embarrassing position! And this is why an interminable string of notes
of interrogation serves as the decorative motive of this new science,
which might be more appropriately styled: _ignorabimus_.

And it is for this reason that the considerations indicated by hygiene
and psychology now tend to do away altogether with the sum total of
irreparable evils, "commuting the sentence," that is to say,
abbreviating hours of study, cutting down the curriculum, avoiding
written exercises. Thus a new specter, that of ignorance, and
henceforth the abandonment of the child for the greater part of the
day, present themselves as a substitute for the specter of
destruction. Meanwhile our epoch demands an intensive care of the new
generation, and the preparation of a culture ever vaster and more
complex.

True, it would appear that to-day a way of escape may be offered by
the discovery of the anti-toxine for fatigue. "Just think!" exclaims
Claparede, "a serum against fatigue. How valuable this would be!" From
this point of view, I should say that the ponogenic co-efficients
might find a more practical and rational application than that of the
revelation of "programs"; indeed these co-efficients indicating the
production of toxines would appear destined to determine the dose of
anti-toxine necessary to nullify the evil effects resulting from each
different subject of instruction. In the not far distant future, when
these auxiliary sciences of the school and pedagogy shall have made
due progress, we shall perhaps see, side by side with th