Here at least there is nothing original in Ratke’s precept. A goodly array of authorities have condemned learning “upon compulsion.” This array extends at least as far as from Plato to Bishop Dupanloup. “In the case of the mind, no study pursued under compulsion remains rooted in the memory,” says Plato.[58] “Everything depends,” says Dupanloup, “on what the teacher induces his pupils to do _freely_: for authority is not constraint—it ought to be inseparable from respect and devotion. I will respect human liberty in the smallest child.” As far as I have observed there is only one class of persons whom the authorities from Plato to Dupanloup have failed to convince, and that is the schoolmasters. This is the class to which I have belonged, and I should not be prepared to take Plato’s counsel: “Bring up your boys in their studies without constraint and in a playful manner.” (_Ib._) At the same time I see the importance of self-activity, and there is no such thing as self-activity upon compulsion. You can no more hurry thought with the cane than you can hurry a snail with a pin. So without interest there can be no proper learning. Interest must be aroused—even in Latin Grammar. But if they could choose their own occupation, the boys, however interested in their work, would probably find something else more interesting still. We cannot get on, and never shall, without the _must_. § 16. VI. _Nothing may be learnt by heart._ It has always been a common mistake in the schoolroom to confound the power of running along a sequence of sounds with a mastery of the thought with which those sounds should be connected. But, as I have remarked elsewhere (_supra_, p. 74, note), the two things, though different, are not opposed. Too much is likely to be made of learning by heart, for of the two things the pupils find it the easier, and the teacher the more easily tested. We may, however, guard against the abuse without giving up the use. § 17. VII.[59] _Uniformity in all things._ Both in the way of learning, and in the books, and the rules, a uniform method should be observed, says Ratke. The right plan is for the learner to acquire familiar knowledge of one subject or part of a subject, and then use this for comparison when he learns beyond it. If the same method of learning is adopted throughout, this will render comparison more easy and more striking.[60] § 18. VIII. _The thing itself should come first, then whatever explains it._