CHAPTER II

THE NATURE OF STUDY, AND ITS PRINCIPAL FACTORS



Our physical movements ordinarily take place in response to a need of
some sort. For instance, a person wishing to reach a certain point, to
play a certain game, or to lay the foundations for a house, makes such
movements as are necessary to accomplish the purpose desired. Even
mere physical exercise grows out of a more or less specific feeling of
need.

The mental activity called study is likewise called forth in response
to specific needs. The Eskimo, for example, compelled to find shelter
and having only blocks of ice with which to build, ingeniously
contrives an ice hut. For the sake of obtaining raw materials he
studies the habits of the few wild animals about him, and out of these
materials he manages by much invention to secure food, clothing, and
implements.

We ourselves, having a vastly greater variety of materials at hand,
and also vastly more ideas and ideals, are much more dependent upon
thinking and study. But, as in the case of the Eskimo, this thinking
and study arises out of actual conditions, and from specific wants. It
may be that we must contrive ways of earning more money; or that the
arguments for protective tariff seem too inconsistent for comfort; or
that the reports about some of our friends alarm us. The occasions