TRAINING THE SENSES
All through life you are accumulating knowledge, and storing it away for future usefulness. This knowledge becomes yours through one process, which is a series of impressions carried to your brain by the nerves connecting it with the sense organs of your body.
The future value of this knowledge will depend largely upon the accuracy of the first sense impression. If the sense impression is dim and indefinite the resulting knowledge will be uncertain and useless. If the sense impression is inaccurate the resulting knowledge will be an error and cause a mistake in judgment. The senses are the tools, by the use of which the mind accumulates the knowledge which it uses in memory, thought, judgment, imagination, and all the mental operations.
Professor W. Prior says: "The foundation of all mental development is the activity of the senses."
The first step in mental growth is the making of impressions on the brain by the senses. The senses are the instruments by the use of which all knowledge is acquired.
Sense training is the logical beginning of all Education.
You give your child an education to help him to succeed in life. First give him sharp tools—keen senses—that he may get the best results from the time spent in study.
An understanding of the proper use of the senses will enable you to make these impressions lasting—instead of fleeting.
Lack of ability to properly use the senses is a handicap in life and a subtle foe to success.
In the beginning all the brain does is to store the simple sense impressions. The baby sees his mother many times before he recognizes her. The eye nerve carries to the brain the picture of the mother's face and stores it there. Soon the brain perceives the similarity and the child recognizes her. The fact that in some way the brain retains the first, second, third, etc., impressions becomes the foundation of recognition.
If the sense nerve failed to carry the image of the face there would be no comparison and no recognition. Without sense impression there can be no knowledge. Imperfect sense impressions can only result in imperfect knowledge.
Each set of sense nerves carries its impressions to a different area of the brain. Each set has a distinct and localized memory. The ear memory is the auditory memory. There is the gustatory memory of taste; the olfactory memory of smell, and the tactual memory of touch.
The visual memory is the most accurate and lasting. The nerves connecting the eyes with the brain are many times larger than those of the other sense organs. Psychological tests have also proven the eye to be the most accurate of all the senses. Next to the eye comes the ear in both strength and exactness.