take an active part in their own education. Thus, early accustomed to observe, compare, reflect, and judge for themselves, they will preserve through life the useful habit of examining everything, will draw correct inferences from all that passes within their sphere of observation, and will be likely, from this practical logic, to take a greater interest in the abstract precepts and metaphysical speculations of science.

Not only can conversations on objects impart valuable information and make science interesting, but they are the best preparation for scholastic instruction, for the study of foreign languages, and for all philosophical pursuits. The variety of subjects which is offered to the consideration of children, and the active part which they take in the conversations, suit the liveliness and buoyancy of the first period of life much better than reading, which condemns them to a mental calm and physical immobility, in direct opposition to the imperative demands of nature. Truths which appear dull in the solitude of the study, become most interesting when discussed in conversation.

Oral instruction presents, at an early age, several advantages over book instruction: it is capable of being made more intelligible; it permits the entering into more minute details, employing more familiar terms, and using repetitions which serve to impress the subject better on the mind of a child. The inflections of the instructor's voice indicate the degree of importance to be attached to the words he uses, or to the ideas he conveys. He passes rapidly forward, or dwells on such particular statements as he conceives are needed by his pupils.

These lessons cultivate in young people the talent of rational conversation, which, in ordinary education, is entirely left to chance, although it is the most useful, the most social, and the most intellectual of all talents. They impart that free excursive acquaintance with various learning which makes the pleasing and instructive companion, and if they were generally adopted, they would not fail, in the course of time, to raise the tone of conversation in society. The powers of language of the learners being constantly called forth in proposing and answering questions, in stating the results of their observations, and in making verbal or written summaries of the subjects on which they have conversed, they will necessarily acquire great facility of expression in connection with great clearness of thought. And if they excel in conversation they have every prospect of success in public speaking.

The variety of sensations and the pleasing action of the mental faculties throughout these animated lessons, will, by rousing the creative powers of imagination, produce fertility of thought and aptitude for extempore speaking. Under the influence of the agreeable emotions, arising from the contemplation of nature and the admiration of its wonders, the power of association in the young will retain that vividness and that freshness which are the life-springs of eloquence. The most beautiful images of oratory are those which it borrows from the material realities of nature. The more diversified the instruction, the greater will be the number of ascertained facts, and the more extensive the command of language. Expressions and facts thus treasured up by the mind will remain ready for future use. So deep and lasting are the impressions and associations of early life that they are vivid in the recollection of a person advanced in years, when those which were received in maturity have long since vanished from the memory.

The advantages of this practical course of elementary instruction are not confined to the mere acquisition of facts: they are multiplied by the infinite resources it offers to the mind for coming at new facts and guarding from the prejudices which result from a narrow circle of observation. The early exercise of the senses, in connection with the cultivation of the intellect, open the mind to conviction, by furnishing frequent opportunity of knowing that to be true which, at a previous period, appeared improbable. A young person is led to conclude that there are in nature many laws and phenomena yet unknown to him; in other words, he learns to distrust appearances and to desire the experience of others to corroborate the testimony of his own senses and his own reason. This feeling will naturally awaken in him an eager curiosity to know what others have thought and written on the same subjects. He attaches to the facts which have not come within his observation and are communicated to him, the degree of probability which is due to them, and which he is enabled to appreciate, not only from his acquaintance with similar facts, but also from the habit he has acquired of tracing back the causes which may produce analogous effects. Neither blind scepticism, nor weak credulity can be the portion of him who is accustomed to careful observation and mental activity; who, in the search after truth, depends as much on the data furnished him by his own reason and his own senses as on the testimony of others.

It has been justly remarked by Dr. Beattie, that a mind prepared by proper discipline for making discoveries of its own, is in a much higher state of cultivation than that of a mere scholar who knows nothing but what he has been taught.* The method of instruction above unfolded admirably answers this idea of intellectual education; it will be found the most efficient means that can be devised to render the mind a fit instrument for discovering, applying, and obeying the laws of the Creator. It will scarcely be disputed that investigation of the works of nature and of man, observation of the facts and phenomena of the material universe, intimate acquaintance with the properties of things, and insight into the laws of the moral, intellectual, and physical constitution, are as far superior to the exclusive study of words, as the substance is superior to the shadow. It is impossible to calculate the benefits which would accrue to a nation, if all its families and schools were to send forth their hundreds and thousands thus educated. (18.)

* See Essay on the Utility of Classical Learning.

CHAPTER III.

ELEMENTARY READING.

SECT. I.-AGE AT WHICH READING SHOULD BE TAUGHT.

READING, in order to be profitable, requires an acquaintance with things and a degree of reflection which cannot exist at an age when words do not as yet convey clear and precise ideas to the mind. Its object is to correct, extend, and perfect the notions acquired by previous observation and experience. Books, as the records of traditional knowledge, supply the deficiencies of oral instruction; they should be resorted to when the authority of parents and instructors is no longer sufficient for the complete enlightenment of the young mind. Initiation into them must therefore be deferred until they can be made instrumental to intellectual acquisitions-that is, towards the middle of the second period of youth.

When a child reads at a very tender age, he necessarily meets in books with many words and forms of speech with which he is unacquainted: contrary to a fundamental principle in education, his mind takes cognisance of the signs before it is impressed with the ideas signified. Unaware of the intellectual purport of this art, he is often satisfied that he has read a book when he has pronounced every word of it. A great number of children who begin to read very early acquire the habit of running over the words without attaching to them their real sense, or attending to their logical connection. A child will be less exposed to this danger who is not taught to read until after the age of seven or eight, and who has been duly prepared by an extensive acquaintance with language gained from the conversation of well-informed persons.

Under the mistaken notion that reading cannot be commenced too early, a child is usually taught the names of the letters as a step to spelling, long before his judgment and power of discrimination can be effectually directed to these abstract and arbitrary signs. To learn the alphabet is to him a task equally painful and useless," painful, because there is no tie to hold the letters

together in the memory, and useless, because he never meets with the letters again in the same sequence, till he come to consult a dictionary." The absurdity of the spelling process and the immaturity of the learner's age combine in causing months, even years, to be consumed in acquiring what could, at a proper age, be attained in a few weeks by a rational method.

When, after much time, labour, and annoyance, the child begins to pronounce words at sight, he has to be furnished with books of the lightest and most amusing character, suited to his immatured mind, and embellished with coloured prints and often detestable caricatures, which deprave his taste, in order to coax him into a liking for reading, and keep up the practice until his ability to read may be made subservient to the acquisition of knowledge. But the end is defeated by the means; for the habit of frivolous and ridiculous reading prevents future relish for the unvarnished narratives of history and the simple truths of science or morality. Besides, young people, by indulging in the perusal of childish nonsense, only gain familiarity with the most common words and trivial modes of speech. Under such training how can a child be expected to advance in intelligence and literary acquirements?

Among the works written for children under the age of seven, few contain any information which could not be better acquired from the daily incidents of social life. They are frequently mere speculations on the weakness of parents, who, usually prepossessed in favour of the abilities of their offspring, imagine that, by early initiating them into reading, they will secure to them through life that intellectual superiority which they fancy nature has conferred on them. Yet, experience proves the contrary; and in most cases it would be extremely difficult to discover a difference between the mental acquirements of two persons twenty years old, one of whom began to read at the age of four, and the other at the age of eight or nine. "Where is any evidence,” exclaims Dr. Brigham, "that books put into the hands of children before the age of seven or eight, are of any lasting benefit, either to the body or to the mind?"+

If reading be commenced at eight, the child, setting out, as may be expected, with more steady attention, greater desire for information, a consciousness of the value of reading, a mastery of the pronunciation, better and more extensive knowledge of

* Professor Pillans. The Rationale of Discipline, &c.

On the Influence of Mental Cultivation and Mental Excitement on Health.