I shall not be surprised, if some of you finish this course of instruction with me by saying: "Why! we knew all that before." In part, I am hoping to avoid this crushing piece of criticism, and to make the lectures of more use in the daily routine of the schoolroom, by illustrating and enforcing the principles, as we go along together, with much more material taken from concrete experiences, with which all may not be quite so familiar, or with which they may not have happened previously to have seen the principles connected.
As to the Divisions of the subject: I am proposing, for purposes of convenience and clearness in our procedure, to discuss it under the following four heads. And, first, we shall raise this inquiry: How do the principles which constitute the practical philosophy of education underlie, and apply to, the Functions of the teacher? I have already intimated that teaching seems to me to resemble in many important respects a high-class form of art. But in all forms of human artistic activity, principles need to be, not so much learned as generalizations that may prove useful in the discovery or explanation of concrete facts, as incorporated in habits of action and made ways of expressing the ideals and motives that control the spiritual life. In this part of the subject, therefore, we shall consider the workman at his work—what that work is, and how it ought to be done if it is to adapt
