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.

the words which he will meet in books, will rapidly get over the mechanical part of the art, and will probably take at once an interest in such books as will contribute to his moral and intellectual improvement.

SECT. II.-OF LEARNING THE ART OF WRITING BEFORE THAT OF READING.

Not only is penmanship practicable at the age which we have fixed for learning to read, but it may be affirmed, consistently with reason, that it can, with the utmost propriety, be taught before reading. It is an imitative art, and, as such, it is more interesting to a young child than its sister art. If, as we recommended, he has been early exercised in linear drawing, of which it is a minor branch, and especially in the sketching of geometrical figures, he will readily and successfully endeavour to form letters which are but modifications of these figures. The very attempt to sketch the letters would be to him an easy and interesting way of learning the alphabet. The precedence which may be claimed for the learning of the mechanical process of writing over that of reading is conformable to the relative progress in the development of the physical powers; for the hand is capable of forming the few straight and curved lines, which are the object of penmanship, before the voice can utter all the sounds and articulations of a language. Writing is less intricate than reading: it engages only two organs, the eye and the hand; whilst learning to read requires the almost simultaneous action of three organs, the eye on the form of the letters and the composition of the words, the ear on the elements of pronunciation, and the voice on their utterance. The act of writing gratifies the child's natural propensity to imitate, and presents little difficulty, as the letters are invariable in their forms. Reading, on the contrary, requires great effort of attention and memory, by reason of the ever-changing pronunciation of letters, syllables, and words. The elements to be acquired in writing are only twenty-six in number; those to be acquired in reading, consisting of the various import of the alphabetic characters, amount in English to above three hundred. But what greatly facilitates the learning of writing is, that it does not, like reading, necessarily demand the uninterrupted assistance of a teacher. A set of engraved models, a few general directions, and an occasional glance at the child's performance,

would supply all the assistance he needs. By means of a transparent slate, or by following the method of Taupier, which consists in writing over a model traced in red ink, a young child might, without almost any other aid, commence the practice of this art long before he could with propriety be taught to read. Thus would linear drawing, writing, and reading be taught in a natural order, drawing being anterior to writing, and writing to reading.

So simple, easy, and purely imitative is the art of writing, that its acquisition entirely rests with the learner, not on the caligraphical powers of a teacher, whose office may, in most cases, be dispensed with. Of all the directions given to beginners, when in the act of writing, the only one we think really valuable is the caution against stooping over their copy-books; and a knowledge of anatomy, rather than of penmanship, would qualify an instructor for enforcing this hygienic law. In schools in which a large number of children are simultaneously engaged in this elementary branch of instruction, the writing-master does very little more than mend the pens of his pupils; and he often dismisses them after having looked at their performance only just enough to give them a good or a bad judgment. Should a willing child be left to himself altogether, he would have the whole credit of his improvement; and the consciousness he would thus acquire of his independence, would early create in him the valuable habit of self-instruction.

Some instructors write model lines in their pupils' copy-books; this practice, whatever be the motive-economy, display of skill, or a, pretension of usefulness-is prejudicial, because it consumes much time, especially in a large class; and this written model being seldom equal to an engraved one, the imitative powers of the learners are ill-directed, and their chance of arriving at good hand-writing consequently diminished. With regard to the manner of holding the pen, which this practice may be supposed to teach by example, should it require to be taught, this may be best effected by the instructor exhibiting the right way, whilst the learners are themselves engaged in writing. However, in the upper and middle ranks of society, children are afforded frequent opportunities of seeing people write, and hence learning by imitation how to hold the pen, no writing-master is needed to teach this part of the art.

We cannot dismiss this subject without observing, that penmanship not being, like the fine arts, practised for its own sake,

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