alize
the higher forms of will effort, we must look to the fountains and
sources out of which it springs. If a young man has laid up abundant
and interesting stores of knowledge of architecture, he only needs an
opportunity, and there is likely to be great will-energy in the work of
planning and constructing buildings. But without this interest and
knowledge there will be no effort along this line. In like manner
children cannot be expected to show their best effort unless the
subject is made strongly interesting from the start, or unless
interest-awakening knowledge has already been stored in the mind. To
make great demands upon the will power in early school years, is like
asking for ripe fruits before they have had time to mature. Knowledge,
feelings, and will-incentives of every sort must be first planted in
the mind, before a proper will-energy can be expected. In teaching, we
should aim to develop will power, not to take it for granted as a ready
product. As the will should ultimately control all the mental powers,
its proper maturity is a later outcome of education. Even supposing
that the will has considerable original native power, it is a power
that is likely to lie dormant or be used in some ill-direction, unless
proper incentives are brought to bear upon it. The will is so
constituted that it is open to appeal, and in all the affairs of school
and life, incentives of all sorts are constantly brought to bear upon
it. Why not make an effort to bring to bear the incentives that spring
out of interest, that steady force, which is able to give abiding
tendency and direction to the efforts? Why not cultivate those nobler
incentives that spring out of culture-bringing-knowledge? There are,
therefore, important preliminaries to full will energy, which are
secured by the cultivation of knowledge, the sensibilities, and desires.

There is a common belief that any subject can be made interesting if
only the teacher knows the secret of the how; if only he has proper
_skill_. But it is hard even for a skillful workman "to make bricks
without straw," to awaken mental effort where interest in the subject
is entirely lacking. It is often claimed that if there is dullness and
disgust with a study it is the fault of the teacher. As Mr. Quick
says, "I would go so far as to lay it down as a rule, that whenever
children are inattentive and apparently take no interest in a lesson,
the teacher should always look fir