It has always been a common mistake in the schoolroom to confound the power of running along a sequence of sounds with a mastery of the thought with which those sounds should be connected. But, as I have remarked elsewhere ([supra, p. 74, note]), the two things, though different, are not opposed. Too much is likely to be made of learning by heart, for of the two things the pupils find it the easier, and the teacher the more easily tested. We may, however, guard against the abuse without giving up the use.
§ 17. VII.[59] Uniformity in all things.
Both in the way of learning, and in the books, and the rules, a uniform method should be observed, says Ratke.
The right plan is for the learner to acquire familiar knowledge of one subject or part of a subject, and then use this for comparison when he learns beyond it. If the same method of learning is adopted throughout, this will render comparison more easy and more striking.[60]
§ 18. VIII. The thing itself should come first, then whatever explains it.
To those who do not with closed eyes cling to the method of their predecessors, this rule may seem founded on common-sense. Would any one but a “teacher,” or a writer of school books, ever think of making children who do not know a word of French, learn about the French accents? And yet what Ratke said 250 years ago has not been disproved since: “Accidens rei priusquam rem ipsam quaerere prorsus absonum et absurdum esse videtur,” which I take to mean: “Before the learner has a notion of the thing itself, it is folly to worry him about its accidents or even its properties, essential or unessential.” Ne modus rei ante rem.[61]
This rule of Ratke’s warns teachers against a very common mistake. The subject is to them in full view, and they make the most minute observations on it. But these things cannot be seen by their pupils; and even if the beginner could see these minutiæ, he would find in them neither interest nor advantage. But when we apply Ratke’s principle more widely, we find ourselves involved in the great question whether our method should be based on synthesis or analysis, a question which Ratke’s method did not settle for us.
§ 19. IX. Everything by experience and examination of the parts. Or as he states the rule in Latin: Per inductionem et experimentum omnia.
Nothing was to be received on authority, and this disciple of Bacon went beyond his master and took for his motto: Vetustas cessit, ratio vicit (“Age has yielded, reason prevailed”); as if reason must be brand-new, and truth might wax old and be ready to vanish away.