Theory And Practice of Teaching

he nation is to benefit by it. At the same time it has been assumed, and with truth, that mankind in general will not busy themselves in acquiring skill which is not likely to bring any return; or in other words, that a reasonable hope of a market will always be an important factor in determining the work of the majority. Nevertheless the auctioneer's hammer, and the swineherd's horn, have been shown to reach but little way, to be very inadequate as motives even where they reach, to be destructive of the welfare of many, and not to touch the main subject at all. Something is needed which the lowest can get and feel the 84 Plato's testimony. gain of, and the highest can never reach beyond; something for all. If this is a true statement the heaping up of knowledge cannot satisfy this demand, and may stand very much in the way of it. Plato has given a standard to refer to, which may serve by an entirely independent experience to introduce in a striking manner another side of the question. He is engaged in arguing for the immortality of the soul, and bringing proof that human life is not bounded by the narrow limits of birth and death. In the course of his argument he makes the following remarkable statement . " The immortality of the soul," he said, " appeared to him to receive decisive proof from the rapidity with which boys leamt. For they seized on knowledge so readily that they seemed to have come from a previous life, and to be picking up again what the...