vation, and the origin of the borrowed term; but its due signification is not always connected with the word. Too often it conveys no more than the idea of an indiscriminate developement of the faculties, without any definite rule or object. And yet it is the object which should ever be paramount, and the exercises for the right and harmonious developement of the faculties should always be subservient to it. Those who would utterly deny all mental cultivation in childhood, seem never to have learnt how to distinguish use from abuse; and the latter always stares them in the face, because of the fatal consequences it has entailed upon states and families. But they are not aware that by this denial, they rise in open rebellion against Heaven; for has not God endued man with various talents, not to be indolently folded in a napkin, but to be improved, since all will one day have to give an account of what they have received? Here an interesting circumstance occurs to my mind. In 1820 I was presented at Geneva to Madame la Marquise de who belonged to a Committee of Ladies at Paris for the superintendence of girls' schools; and she wished to converse with me on the subject of education. A clamour had just been raised against the plan of mutual instruction, and indeed against general education for all classes in society, which was supposed to be replete with danger, if not with evil; and this lady was uneasy on the subject. In my answer I allowed that to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and recitation, without endeavouring to train the mind in the right way, would indeed only supply it with the means of doing more mischief, if it were inclined. I added that the object of my school was education, and that to attain it, I sought to develope to the utmost all the faculties of childhood. When I took leave of her, she promised to visit my school the following summer, in order to see with her eyes what she could hardly picture to herself. She came according to her promise. In the apartment of the little children, she gave full attention to the vivá voce exercises which I had added to the barren elements of reading, writing, arithmetic, and recitation, in order to commence the cultivation of the mind and heart. We then went to the second apartment, where were given the first lessons in language. The pupils were engaged in them at the time, some in classes vivá voce; others writing at their tables. Madame la M. examined all their work, and then she exclaimed, "Now I understand you; you cultivate, indeed, the minds of these children, but you yourself give the direction." A most acute observation, which I have never heard from any other visitor! We afterwards passed through the two upper departments of the school, and she there traced the progressive series of lessons in language as adapted to education. One thing that surprised her was the gradually decreasing number of students. In the first department there were upwards of one hundred and fifty; in the fourth only thirty-two. "Whence this decrease ?" said she eagerly; "do you hinder the greater number from reaching this class?" "By no means; I do all I can to bring all my pupils to it, for they are alike my children." "Why is it then that most lag behind?" "Such is the "How so?" "Providence does will of Providence." 66 not give to all alike. The children who have received most talents advance the most rapidly, and will reach this last class in four or five years. The generality advance more slowly for want of intelligence. Sooner or later comes the time for active employment, and they must give up study in order to earn a livelihood. Thus God has provided for public order and for the various wants of social life. I have faith in His wisdom, and I believe it to be my duty to improve whatever gifts He has bestowed." "This idea is little known; it ought to be promulgated." "This idea, Madam, will naturally occur to those who have eyes to see, and who believe that God is wiser than we are; and it is vain to talk to others." Thus ended our conversation. CONCLUSION. When we propose to make instruction in the mothertongue effectual for mental cultivation, we ask that grammarians should entirely remodel their whole course of lessons; for they must be graduated from beginning to end, and a definite doctrine must be inserted which shall contain the germ of intellectual developement. This proposal, however strange and startling it may appear, is nevertheless the inevitable result of all that I have stated above. I dare then to avow it, and to urge it seriously on the conscience of teachers, and that without exceeding the duties which they took upon themselves when they professed to be masters of language. What is language but the expression of thought? and it is only by cultivating thought that we can develope and regulate its expression. Nor let it be said that instruction based on the gradual exercises of the understanding is not adapted to children; for this would amount to saying that it is easier to understand a thing without its meaning than with it. It is high time to realize the cheering prediction of the worthy successor of the Abbé de L'Epée, at the head of the Deaf and Dumb Establishment : : "Our pupils," said he, "will henceforth think, while they learn to speak, and will speak, because they have ideas. By knowing their signs, they will better know how to combine them." And again, when passing in review common grammatical teaching, he added, "The failure of those methods which are adverse to the march of intellect, proves the necessity of adopting a different one. Hitherto we have begun at the wrong end, but now we shall in good earnest begin at the beginning." The venerable benefactor of this interesting portion of mankind, wished them to transform instruction in the mothertongue into a graduated logic. The experience which he acquired among the deaf and dumb led to the following result, viz., that he must select from the countless multitude of human thoughts a certain class, which might answer a double purpose: first, that of rescuing instruction in language from the vague confusion in which it is plunged by the string of examples which are indiscriminately heaped together in grammar, and of fixing it on some subject which shall be both fertile and elevating; and, secondly, of producing by this selection such a mode of thinking in his pupils, as accords with the dignity of our nature, and with our wants through life. In short, he found that it was necessary to insert in his new course of language what we have termed direct instruction. BOOK IV. INSTRUCTION IN THE MOTHER-TONGUE THE language of common life, and that which we adopt, distinguishes the heart from the head, and designates by these two words, something very different from what they signify in their primitive acceptation. By the head, it denotes the whole aggregate of our intellectual faculties ; as thinking beings, our abode is in the head, amidst the organs of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and speech. Direct experience proves that in the upper part of our organization, is placed the laboratory, as it were, of our thoughts, and that the head, according to its variable state, either aids or impedes the workings of the mind. Therefore, taking the abode for the inhabitant, and the instrument for the artist, we speak of a good or bad head, &c. My head, in this sense, is myself, but myself only as a thinking being. Thus Now I am something more than a being who perceives, compares, judges, reasons, and invents; for I experience a variety of sensations, agreeable and disagreeable. I enjoy or I suffer-in a word, I feel. As a sentient being, I am passive, for I experience sensations, whatever may be their source. But these various sensations excite in me a continual and diversified activity. To some I incline; from others recoil. These sensations find in me corresponding inclinations and aversions, which spring from my own activity and prove it. Now it is the aggregate of these sensations, and of the emotions which they occasion, that the language of life calls the heart. These sensations and their corresponding emotions enter indisputably into our thoughts, because it is still the same indivisible self which thinks, feels, loves, or hates; besides, sympathies and antipathies presuppose a definite or vague idea of the objects to which they refer: we cannot sepa |