reading not all words by any means have the same value. Children in
the third year of school who are reading Whittier's _Barefoot Boy_
ought to be able to recognize and spell the word _robin;_ perhaps,
also, _woodchuck_ and _tortoise;_ but _eschewing_ is not a part of
their vocabulary and will not soon be, and probably the less said
about that word by the teacher the better.

The moment we turn to other subjects, facts are found to vary almost
infinitely in value, just as metals do. Judged by the space they
occupy, they may appear to be equally important; but they are not to
be judged in this way, any more than men are. According to their
nature, thoughts or statements are large and small, or broad and
narrow, or far-reaching and insignificant. A general of an army may be
of more consequence to the welfare of a nation than a thousand common
soldiers; so one idea like that of evolution may be worth a full ten
thousand like the fact that "our neighbor's cat kittened yesterday."

_2. They are dependent upon one another for their worth_

In the second place, facts can by no means be regarded as independent.
As before, to be sure, the three R's and spelling afford some
exception to this rule. In spelling, writing, and beginning reading it
is important that any one of a large number of words be recognized or
reproduced at any time, without reference to any others. All of these,
together with the combinations in the fundamental operations in
arithmetic, are often called for singly, and they must, therefore, be
isolated from any possible series into which they might fall, and
mastered separately.

Aside from these subjects, facts are generally dependent upon their