one
thing upon which we are all agreed to-day it is this: that it is what
our pupils do that counts, not what they know. The knowledge that they
may possess has value only in so far as it may directly or indirectly be
turned over into action.

Let us not be mistaken upon this point. Knowledge is of the utmost
importance, but it is important only as a means to an end--and the end
is conduct. If my pupils act in no way more efficiently after they have
received my instruction than they would have acted had they never come
under my influence, then my work as a teacher is a failure. If their
conduct is less efficient, then my work is not only a failure,--it is a
catastrophe. The knowledge that I impart may be absolutely true; the
interest that I arouse may be intense; the affection that my pupils have
for me may be genuine; but all these are but means to an end, and if the
end is not attained, the means have been futile.

We have faith that the materials which we pour in at the hopper of sense
impression will come out sooner or later at the spout of reaction,
transformed by some mysterious process into efficient conduct. While the
machinery of the process, like the mills of the gods, certainly grinds
slowly, it is some consolation to believe that, at any rate, it _does_
grind; and we are perhaps fain to believe that the exceeding fineness of
the grist is responsible for our failure to detect at the spout all of
the elements that we have been so careful to pour in at the hopper. What
I should like to do is to examine this grinding process rather
carefully,--to gain, if possible, some definite notion of the kind of
grist we should like to produce, and then to see how the machinery may
be made to produce this grist, and in what proportions we must mix the
material that we pour into the hopper in order to gain the desired
result.

I have said that we must ask of every subject that we teach, How does
it influence conduct? Now when we ask this question concerning history a
variety of answers are at once proposed. One group of people will assert
that the facts of history have value because they can be directly
applied to the needs of contemporary life. History, they will tell us,
records the experiences of the race, and if we are to act intelligently
we must act upon the basis of this experience. History informs us of the
mistakes that former generations have made in adjusting themselves to
the world. If we know history, we can