The classification of interests into two groups, namely, (a) those which arise from knowledge, and (b) those which arise from association with others, and the subdivision of each of these into three groups, making six in all, is one not of necessity, but of convenience. The knowledge interests are, (a) empirical, (b) speculative, (c) æsthetic; the interests arising from association are, (a) sympathetic, (b) social, (c) religious. This classification is adopted without criticism by most Herbartian writers. That the classification is made simply for convenience may be seen from such considerations as the following:—

It must be granted, however, that Herbart’s classification is convenient, even if not especially scientific.

The empirical interest is the mental eagerness aroused by direct appeal to the senses, as by novel shapes, colors, sounds, odors, and the like. Its first stage is wonder, admiration, fear, awe. The child that drops his picture-book to chase a butterfly abandons one empirical interest for a stronger one. This form of interest is usually transient; unless it develops into a new kind of interest, it is soon abandoned for some other attraction. A primary teacher may catch but cannot hold the attention of a child by sensuous devices leading to nothing beyond themselves.

The speculative interest is more permanent than the empirical. It rests primarily on the perception of the relations of cause and effect; it seeks to know the reasons of things. On this account it is a higher form of apperception, or mental assimilation. The most fundamental idea in the speculative interest is that of purpose. We want to know the purpose of things, the function they are to perform, the end they are expected to reach. Thus a child has a key to the understanding of even so complicated a machine as a self-binder, or a printing press, provided he sees clearly the purpose of each. Until this is perceived the facts are an unintelligible jumble of particulars. A crude form of the speculative interest is seen very early in the child, when he demands a reason for everything. It always remains the mainspring of intellectual life; when it ceases to be a motive power to thinking, thought is dead.

The æsthetic interest rests upon the enjoyment of contemplation, when an ideal, sometimes distinct, sometimes vague, can be perceived through a sense medium. In the Greek statue of Apollo Belvidere, a divinity is represented in marble. In the painting, Breaking Home Ties, the feelings of a lad and his mother upon parting are portrayed upon canvas. In music the ideal is usually vague, in poetry it is clear and distinct. The æsthetic value of the latter is enhanced by good oral recitation, both because appeal is made to an additional sense, and because the ears of men were attuned to beautiful poetry long before the eye learned to apprehend it.

All of these interests, the empirical, the speculative, and the æsthetic, may be classed as individual, since they rest upon purely subjective grounds. They might belong to any Robinson Crusoe who became isolated from his fellows. But the remaining groups, the sympathetic, the social, and the religious, rest upon the idea of intercourse with others. They are, therefore, of supreme importance for civilized life. Without the sympathetic coöperation of men civilization would become impossible. Mephistopheles in “Faust” defines himself as “the Spirit that ever denies.”[12] Consequently any man who becomes so absorbed in his individual concerns as to deny all social duties and renounce all social benefits becomes thereby a kind of civic devil. The cynics of old repudiated all social obligations, thus making themselves bitter civic devils, while the Cyrenaics, choosing self-indulgence, but denying likewise social duties, transformed themselves into sensualistic civic devils.

It is an imperative duty of the teacher, therefore, to arouse the social and civic interests of the children, since upon these as active forces the welfare and possibly the stability of society rest.

The school is the place, the studies and daily intercourse the means, whereby this class of interests may be aroused. Pupils brought up in isolation by private tutors are likely to become non-social in their disposition. Idiosyncrasies are fostered, there being little or no development of ideals of social coöperation. The kindergarten, however, when rightly conducted, is nearly always able to foster the social instincts so powerfully that even the lack of later education is not able to obliterate them. When this training is reinforced by the well-governed school, a solid foundation for civic character is likely to be laid. The studies most important for the fostering of social and civic interests are literature, history, civil government, and geography, though others have a more or less intimate relation to them.