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Herbert Spencer remarks substantially in one of his works that the difference between the manifestation of the lowest form of reflex action and the intelligence required to calculate an eclipse is a difference of degree and not one of kind. While few psychologists would be willing to accept this statement, yet it must be admitted that human spontaneousness, or self-determination, is first set in motion, first brought into exercise in connection with influences derived from sensation. Sensation is one of the conditions necessary, so far as our observation goes, to the first manifestations of instinct as well as of intelligence. Both in their exercise are at the outset, reactive. Later comes self-originating thought, feeling and action.

In the case of our pupils, then, we meet, first, with an undeveloped or torpid nervous centre that does not respond promptly to impressions from without. And human spontaneity, as has just been stated, is reactive if not strictly reflex in its first manifestations.

In the second place, the nerves of relation are impaired in function, or defective in structure, so that the natural stimuli to the exercise of spontaneousness are not transmitted promptly and clearly.

Thirdly, there is a defect or a default in the nervous organization by which the mandates of the will are executed; in other words, in the machinery of human action and expression the normal organic co-ordination, essential to the well-doing of the commonest act of childhood, may be defective.

The first step, then, in this physiological education will be in opening communication with the torpid nervous centre. This is done by efforts to render sensation more distinct. Contrasts of heat and cold appeal to the lowest range of human sensation. They affect the whole exterior nervous apparatus. Pungent odors come next in the series of active stimuli. The marked contrasts reported by the sense of taste will serve to awaken dormant consciousness. These may be followed by the presentation of sharp distinctions of sound and sight.

When communication with the pupil is established by the means suggested, there will be usually an accompanying consciousness of the presence and the agency of the master, and later, more or less subordination to his will. In fact, he soon comes to depend measurably upon this superior will. And then, after a period of apprenticeship to a series of exercises compelling responsive action, the controlling will is withdrawn, and he is brought to the point of self-originating movements, and in time to a greater or less degree of spontaneous use of his faculties and powers.

The peculiar methods by which the machinery of self-determination is set in motion, by appeals to awakened appetites, to the instinct of self-preservation in its various forms, and to the faculty of imitation, can only be described briefly.

Every one knows that imitation performs an important part in the development of every human being. So far as any germ of this faculty is manifested in any idiot, or, as in some instances, a precocity in this respect, we are to avail ourselves of either in the work before us. Below this faculty of imitation there is an analogous attribute which seems to be organic, because it is in early life quite irresistible. It is the unconscious mimicry of the movements or expression of surrounding persons. It precedes conscious imitation and prepares the way for it. It is common certainly in some other forms of animal life, and we may therefore assume that it is the necessary outcome of certain physiological conditions. A group of children watching the feats of an acrobat or the movements of a contortionist are seen to follow the motions with sympathetic muscular action. Even an audience of self-controlled adults yields a subdued tribute to the sway of expression and action in the presence of an accomplished actor. And the effect is still greater when the impulse falls upon a class or crowd touched by the same chord of sympathy.

It is this principle that is available in a very marked degree in the whole course of training of idiots or feeble-minded children. It meets them at the very door of institution life. There are constant class movements inspired and guided by the energetic voice and action of the attendant in charge; soon habit reinforces the impulse thus given in the direction of orderly and spontaneous action.

It follows them to the school-rooms. There the will of the teacher acts vicariously, supplementing the feeble will of the single pupil through the animating power of voice and gesture, but has an increased motive power when sustained by the conjoint influence imparted by surrounding wills similarly affected. In other words, in the bracing atmosphere of associated will-force the feebler members are moved onward to a degree beyond our preconceived notions.

Hence the advantages of institution life where class training and individual instruction can be combined. When we reach a more advanced stage of this special form of education, there are other advantages of association in classes that will suggest themselves to every one familiar with teaching. In fact, some things quite desirable in the case of our pupils can only be acquired under such circumstances.