music and drawing. Instrumental music leads to no sort of information; drawing is an auxiliary to many arts and sciences. Music stands isolated; the perfect command of an instrument may be attained without the aid of any branch of knowledge whatever; skill in painting, on the contrary, cannot be attained without a serious study of perspective, history, anatomy, natural history, or other sciences, according to the department of painting to which the learner devotes himself. Folly and ignorance may exist with high digital power on an instrument; but an eminent painter must be a man of sound sense, deep observation, and extensive reading. As, by a natural effect of sympathy and assimilation, men seek each other's society according to the similitude of their tastes and pursuits, an instrumentalist or a vocalist will often be in company with the votaries of pleasure, for the most part frivolous and dissipated people; while the draughtsman and the painter will be likely to associate with architects, engineers, naturalists, and other industrious wellinformed persons.

From these remarks there can be no hesitation as to which of these arts the preference is due. Yet we do not, for a moment, think that instrumental music should be altogether abandoned : it contributes too largely to the charm of society. Let it be cultivated, especially by those who have a taste for it, but as a secondary, not as a primary branch of education; as a means of enlivening the family circle, not as a means of exhibiting in large assemblies, and exciting in young persons an inordinate love of admiration. Let it not, above all, engross a time claimed by more useful and more intellectual acquirements.

CHAPTER II.

PRACTICAL COURSE OF THE NATIVE TONGUE.

CONVERSATIONS ON OBJECTS.

Preliminary Remarks.

We will now enter upon the course of elementary instruction which is proposed as a substitute for classical studies, and as a means highly calculated not only to cultivate the perceptive, observant, and reflective powers of children, but also to extend their practical acquaintance with the native tongue, by making it the vehicle of diversified knowledge, and the ground-work of mental discipline. But as the conversations and intellectual exercises of which this course consists should be proportioned to the progressive development of reason, which varies in different individuals, it must be observed that the age which has been assigned for commencing them is only approximative..

Although the order in which the various conversations on objects have been introduced may be modified according to circumstances, it must not be regarded as altogether a matter of indifference; for we have endeavoured to conform to that which nature follows in gradually inuring the mind to habits of investigation. She imperatively enjoins that the first efforts of the child should be directed to the improvement of those powers by which he may form clear and correct notions of things. He should therefore be made to pass progressively through the exercises in perception, observation, reflection, and reasoning.

Another rule which should be strictly adhered to is, that, whenever a topic, an exercise, or a branch of information, acknowledged to be useful, has been entered upon, it should be Occasionally repeated, until the children have a clear insight into the subject brought before them, or until the object proposed from it has been attained. It should also be borne in mind that the following course, although intended as a preparation for the scholastic instruction of boys, is equally suitable to girls; for,

until the age of twelve, the intellectual education should be the

same.

SECT. I.-EXERCISES IN PERCEPTION.

1. Names of objects, their Parts, Matter, and Colour. From the moment that a child articulates distinctly, various familiar objects should be offered to his notice, and their use explained; their names being, at the same time, clearly uttered for him, he should be made to repeat them slowly and aloud. But he must not be forced into premature efforts to speak, lest he should acquire habits of indistinct and defective utterance. Premature walking is not more injurious to the organs of motion than is premature speaking to the vocal organs. In order also to guard against fatiguing him by a dry repetition of words, the instructor should enliven the exercise by making, in plain language and in a playful manner, some simple observations on the nature and use of the things which he is called upon to name. This exercise should, at first, be limited to a few objects at one time, and the same things should be repeatedly presented to him associated with their names, until he perfectly knows these names. His vocabulary should be gradually extended by the introduction of new objects which he is made to observe and name, such as articles of dress, food, furniture, everything which he can hold in his hand, or which may be seen either from the window or out of doors. This mode of proceeding will soon put a young child in possession of a considerable number of useful nouns. It is a triple exercise in perception, articulation, and memory, which must, from the variety of objects and the movement required in passing from one to the other, be more interesting to the child, as it certainly is more profitable at this age, than the ordinary practices of conning for months over the same six-and-twenty, to him, unmeaning letters, reading nonsensical trash, or learning by rote the unconnected words of a spelling-book or dictionary.

As the child's intellect opens and becomes capable of examining objects minutely, of distinguishing their resemblances and differences, of noticing their parts, their matter, their colour, their form, and their number, his attention should be successively directed to all these points. Thus will his mind be early brought in contact with the external world, and be duly exercised by ascribing to every object of sense its qualities and peculiar condition. He will

also easily remember the words, when the ideas they signify are once clearly apprehended. A correct acquaintance with the meaning and application of words must not be deemed a matter of little moment in the first years of life. If we consider the disastrous results to which ignorance on these points has led, and the inconvenience which often arises to the best educated among us from this single source, we shall find that time well employed, which is devoted to securing a knowledge of the meaning of words. This practical instruction may be commenced with the second period of youth-at the age of six. Curiosity and the perceptive powers being then in full activity, the child's attention may be easily cultivated through them, and a spirit of observation, analysis, and comparison, the foundation of a correct judgment, be early fostered.

The first inquiry to be made in the examination of an object consists in ascertaining the parts of which it is composed. These are sometimes so minute that considerable attention is requisite to discern them all. So important is this inquiry, that an acquaintance, for example, with all the parts of a plant, and with their forms and colours, constitutes the knowledge of its botanic character, and involves a considerable portion of the botanic technology. The child must be shown how all the parts of an object are connected, how they harmonise, and how far each is indispensable to the completion and pleasing effect of the whole thus will he be accustomed to discriminate what is principal from what is accessory, what is useful from what is merely ornamental.

By attending to the matter of which the object and its parts are composed, the child will learn how to distinguish animal, vegetable, and mineral substances; he will form clear ideas of what is natural and artificial, simple and compound, native and foreign, indigenous and exotic.

The next consideration will be that of colour: this beautiful property of matter, diffused over all the works of nature and art, will, by the infinite variety of its shades and combinations, offer to the visual faculty an endless means of exercise. Accuracy of perception in reference to it will prove useful for various branches of knowledge and pursuits in life. A due attention to the diversity of colours, to the proportion of parts, and to the gracefulness of forms, considered as the elements of beauty, will sow the seeds of taste.

An acquaintance with colours can be very early imparted to a

child. To enable him the better to distinguish them and recollect their names, the instructor should be provided with a tabular illustration of their prismatic order; he should, first, point out to him the primitive colours, red, yellow, and blue, then the three intervening compound colours, orange, green, and violet; and, afterwards, their various shades, from the lightest to the deepest hue. Glasses of different colours, placed by pairs one over the other, would afford him the means of perceiving the effect of the mixture of colours. He may be shown that white is the colour of light, or the blending of the prismatic colours, and that black is the absence of them. As all imaginable shades of colour can be produced by a diversified mixture of red, yellow, blue, white, and black, the child may be exercised in discovering which of these elements prevails in any compound colour presented to his sight.

2. Numbers; Ball-Frame.

The elements of arithmetic may enter as part of the exercises of this early period: the practical nature of its first rules is well suited to the understanding of children. Relations of number and arithmetical calculations are also, from their simplicity and mathematical accuracy, admirably adapted to the training of the young mind to habits of attention and reasoning. But, before a child is exercised in mental calculation, which at this early period might overtask his reflective powers, and before he is taught the numerical figures, which are signs of abstract ideas, he should be accustomed to associate the numerical adjectives with the names of objects which admit of computation; for these adjectives, when used by themselves, being mere abstractions cannot impart clear and correct notions of number. A variety of similar things should be employed, particularly the current coins of the country, counters, cards, inch square, or cubic blocks, which, by gradual addition and subtraction of units and groups, would teach the value and relation of numbers as also the fundamental rules of arithmetic; he should be taught to express in numbers the dimensions of objects by applying to them a unit of measure, the inch or foot, as the case may require. When the child has frequently associated real objects with the ideas of number, the numerical names and figures will easily pass in his mind from the concrete to the abstract state.