he first thing the teacher takes into account.
While it is obvious that an examination in joy could not be conducted in
any set fashion, every great joy in the world has its natural diviners
and experts, and teachers of literature who know its joy have plenty of
ways of divining this joy in others.

In the sixth place, pupils will be dropped and promoted by a teacher, in
such a class as has been described, according to the spirit and force
and creativeness of their daily work. Promotion will be by
elimination--that is, the pupil will stay where he is and the class will
be made smaller for him. The superior natural force of each pupil will
have full sway in determining his share of the teacher's force. As this
force belongs most to those who waste it least, if five tenths of the
appreciation in a class belongs to one pupil, five tenths of the teacher
belongs to him, and promotion is most truly effected, not by giving the
best pupils a new teacher, but by giving them more of the old one. A
teacher's work can only be successful in proportion as it is accurately
individual and puts each pupil in the place he was made to fit.

In the seventh place, the select class will be selected by the teacher
as a baseball captain selects his team: not as being the nine best men,
but as being the nine men who most call each other out, and make the
best play together. If the teacher selects his class wisely, the
principle of his selection sometimes--from the outside, at least--will
seem no principle at all. The class must have its fool, for instance,
and pupils must be selected for useful defects as well as for virtues.
Belonging to such a class will not be allowed to have a stiff, definite,
water-metre meaning in it, with regard to the capacity of a pupil. It
will only be known that he is placed in the class for some quality,
fault, or inspiration in him that can be brought to bear on the state of
being in the class in such a way as to produce results, not only for
himself but for all concerned.

V

Natural Selection in Theory

The conditions just stated as necessary for the vital teaching of
literature narrow themselves down, for the most part, to the very simple
and common principle of life and art, the principle of natural
selection.

As an item in current philosophy the principle of natural selection
meets with general acceptance. It is one of those pleasant and
instructive doctrines which, when applied to existing instituti