ificance, but because there is always a question as to how seriously
those involved may be hurt. One of the clearest illustrations of the
force of the uncertain is found attending baseball games. Let the score
stand at 10 to 2 in the eighth inning and the grandstands and bleachers
begin to empty. Few spectators care to remain. The game is too clearly
settled. As the boys say, it is "sewed up" and there is nothing
uncertain to grip interest. But let the score stand 3 to 2 or 2 to 2 in
the eighth and even the man scheduled home for dinner stays to the end.
He wants to know how the game is "coming out."

It is easier also to be interested in concrete than in abstract things.
General truths are not gripping--concrete illustrations of those truths
are. If I declare that it is important to have faith, I create but
little interest in an audience. But if I tell that same audience how
some individual has been miraculously healed through faith, I have their
interest completely. Concrete illustrations fit into and link up with
our own experiences so easily and forcefully that they are particularly
interesting.

So, too, with things that are similar. The mind naturally links like
with like. We are fond of making comparisons. The interest in the
similar is due to that fundamental law of learning that we proceed from
what is known to that which is unknown and we proceed along points of
similarity.

And how natural it seems to be interested in things antagonistic! Our
love of contests of all sorts is evidence of the fact. Who can resist
the interest that attaches to a quarrel--a fight--a clash of any kind.
The best of classes will leave the best of teachers, mentally at least,
to witness a dog fight. Our champion prize fighters make fortunes out of
man's interest in the antagonistic.

And then, finally, we are interested in the animate. We like action.
Things in motion have a peculiar fascination. Who does not watch with
interest a moving locomotive? Advertising experts appreciate the appeal
of the animate, as is evidenced by the great variety of moving objects
that challenge our interest as we pass up and down the streets of a city
and we respond to the challenge. In fact, it is natural to respond to
the appeal of all of these seven terms--hence their significance in
teaching.

* * * * *

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER XII

1. Discuss the force of individual differences in choosing material