a new experience in an indirect, or theoretic, way, and thus avoid the
harsher lessons of direct experience. The child, for example, who knows
the discomfort of a pin-prick may apply this, without actual expression,
in interpreting the danger lurking in the thorn. In like manner the
child who has fallen from his chair realizes thereby, without giving it
expression, the danger of falling from a window or balcony. It is in
this indirect, or theoretic, way that children in their early years
acquire, by injunction and reproof, much valuable knowledge which
enables them to avoid the dangers and to shun the evils presented to
them by their surroundings. By the same means, also, man is able to
extend his knowledge to include the experiences of other men and even of
other ages.

=Relative Value of Experiences.=--While the value of experience consists
in its power to adjust man to present or future problems, and thus
render his action more efficient, it is to be noted that different
experiences may vary in their value. Many of these, from the point of
their value in meeting future problems or making adjustments, must
appear trivial and even useless. Others, though adapted to meet our
needs, may do this in a crude and ineffective manner. As an
illustration of such difference in value, compare the effectiveness and
accuracy of the notation possessed by primitive men as illustrated in
the following strokes:

1, 11, 111, 1111, 11111, 111111, etc.,

with that of our present system of notation as suggested in:

1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000, etc.