Note 97 — XI. THE GENTLEMEN OF PORT-ROYAL.[88]

Rollin somewhat extends Quintilian’s statement: “The desire of learning rests in the will which you cannot force.” About attempts to coerce the will in the absence of interest, I may quote a passage from a lecture of mine at Birmingham in 1884, when I did not know that I had behind me such high authorities as Quintilian and Rollin: “I should divide the powers of the mind that may be cultivated in the school-room into two classes: in the first I should put all the higher powers—grasp of meaning, perception of analogy, observation, reflection, imagination, intellectual memory; in the other class is one power only, and that is a kind of memory that depends on the association of sounds. How is it then that in most school-rooms far more time is spent in cultivating this last and least-valuable power than all the rest put together? The explanation is easy. All the higher powers can be exercised only when the pupils are interested, or, as Mr. Thring puts it, ‘care for what they are about.’ The memory that depends on associating sounds is independent of interest and can be secured by simple repetition. Now it is very hard to awaken interest, and still harder to maintain it. That magician’s wand, the cane, with which the schoolmasters of olden time worked such wonders, is powerless here or powerful only in the negative direction; and so is every form of punishment. You may tell a boy—‘If you can’t say your lesson you shall stay in and write it out half-a-dozen times!’ and the threat may have effect; but no ‘instans tyrannus’ from Orbilius downwards has ever thought of saying, ‘If you don’t take an interest in your work, I’ll keep you in till you do!’ So teachers very naturally prefer the kind of teaching in which they can make sure of success.”