We remember best
by associated facts, and, while with the child this is less so than with
the man, one great object of this work is to teach him to remember in
that way.
4. Experiments should never be performed for mere show. Of two
experiments which illustrate a fact equally well it is often best to
select the most striking and brilliant one. The attention and interest
of the child will be gained in this way when they would not be to so
great an extent in any other. The point of the experiment, however,
should never be lost sight of in attention to the merely wonderful in
it.
With older pupils, and especially with those who use books for
themselves and perform the experiments there considered, the fact that
experiments demand work, downright hard work, with care, and patience,
and perseverance, and courage, cannot be kept too prominently before
them.
5. Every lesson should have a definite object. Not the general value of
the experiment, but some _one thing_ which it shows should be the object
considered.
6. Each experiment should be associated with some truth expressed in
words. The experiment should be remembered in connection with a definite
statement in each case. The memory of either the experiment, or the
principle apart from the experiment, is a species of half knowledge
which should be avoided. An unillustrated principle must, when the
necessity arises, be stored in the memory; and in the systematic study
of books this necessity will often come.
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