CHAPTER VII
PERCEPTION
No young child at first sees objects as we see them, or hears sounds as we hear
them. This power, the power of perception, is a gradual development. It grows
day by day out of the learner's experience in his world of sights and sounds, and
whatever other fields his senses respond to.
1. THE FUNCTION OF PERCEPTION
Need of Knowing the Material World.—It is the business of perception to give
us knowledge of our world of material objects and their relations in space and
time. The material world which we enter through the gateways of the senses is
more marvelous by far than any fairy world created by the fancy of story-tellers;
for it contains the elements of all they have conceived and much more besides. It
is more marvelous than any structure planned and executed by the mind of man;
for all the wonders and beauties of the Coliseum or of St. Peter's existed in
nature before they were discovered by the architect and thrown together in those
magnificent structures. The material advancement of civilization has been but
the discovery of the objects, forces, and laws of nature, and their use in
inventions serviceable to men. And these forces and laws of nature were
discovered only as they were made manifest through objects in the material
world.
The problem lying before each individual who would enter fully into this rich
world of environment, then, is to discover at first hand just as large a part of the
material world about him as possible. In the most humble environment of the
most uneventful life is to be found the material for discoveries and inventions
yet undreamed of. Lying in the shade of an apple tree under the open sky,
Newton read from a falling apple the fundamental principles of the law of
gravitation which has revolutionized science; sitting at a humble tea table Watt
watched the gurgling of the steam escaping from the kettle, and evolved the
steam engine therefrom; with his simple kite, Franklin drew down the lightning
from the clouds, and started the science of electricity; through studying a ball,