In History. — Thus we may think of the life and public
services of Alexander Hamilton as wholes. And, in ac-
cordance with the principle we have been discussing, the
student will be best assisted in getting clear ideas of the
life of that great man by having his attention called to its
broad general characteristics first, before these are modified
and qualified. If the student learns that Hamilton was
first a Tory, then a Democrat, and finally a believer in a
strongly centralized aristocratic republic, the broad out-
lines of Hamilton's political creed lie before him. The
qualifications and specific description of these character-
izations will put before him the changes in and final
character of Hamilton's political creed with the utmost
definiteness. So if your object is to give your class a
clear idea of Hamilton's public services, first give them
a clear idea of the great work of his life — the strengthen-
ing and centralizing of the general government; then they
are ready for the details — the measures and influences by
which these ends were reached. 1

From the Known to the Unknown. — That we must
proceed from the known to the unknown is another well-
established rule in Pedagogy. It is hardly necessary to
say that it is based on the fact that all knowing consists
to so great an extent in discriminating and assimilating.
When I learn a new fact — till then, of course, unknown
— I put it in a class of already known facts.
From the Simple to the Complex. — That we must
proceed from the simple to the complex, from the indefinite
to the definite, from the unqualified to the qualified, is

1 See on this subject De Garmo on Method-wholes.
