V ■ 'A' J •*^»- *
^ r T' n
« . I4'
liv
::3ir'^-
<^:<?':,.,>i.^l.'
c^ J^f
.'f^, ^.
f;4'
J--'V/ .-"'•■ ■■■•3'
11";^^'
,U1
?"*Xi.7l'4'''i^i
Ai. s ". ."; ^' :*'
California
Regional
acility
/7l^^ ^.^'V^.^w^^.^v
PRACTICAL EDUCATION:
Br MARIA EDGEWORTH,
AUTHOR OF LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES, AND THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT;
AND BY
RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH,
F.R.S. and M.R.I. A.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL's CHVRCH-YARD. 1798.
■*a
C
PREFACE.
We fhall not imitate the invidious example of feme authors, who thin'i it neceflary to deftroy the edifices of others, in order to clear the way for their own. We have no peculiar fyftem to fup- port, and, confequently, we have no temptation to attack the theories of others ; and we have chofen the title of Praftical Edu- cation, to point out that we rely entirely upon pra6lice and ex- perience.
To make any progrefs in the art of education, it muft be pa- |l tiently reduced to an experimental fcience ; we are fully fenfible of the extent and difficulty of this undertaking, and we have not the arrogance to imagine, that we have made any confiderable pro- grefs in a work, which the labours of many generations may, per-
A haps.
VI
PREFACE.
hdps, be infufficient to complete ; but we lay before the public the refult of our experiments, and in many inftances the experi- ments themfelves. In purfuing this part of our plan, we have fometimes defcended from that elevation of ftyle, which the reader might expedl in a quarto volume ; we have frequently been obliged to record fads concerning children which may feem trifling, and to enter into a minutenefs of detail which may ap- pear unneceffary. No anecdotes, however, have been admitted without due deliberation ; nothing has been introduced to gratify the idle curiofity of others, or to indulge our own feelings of do- meftic partiality.
In what we have written upon the rudiments of fcience vrc have purfued an oppofite plan ; fo far from attempting to teach them in detail, we refer our readers to the excellent trcatifes on the different branches of fcience, and ou the various faculties of the hum.an mind, which are to be found in every language. The chapters that we have introduced upon thefe fubje(3:s, are intended merely as fpecimens of the manner in which we think young chil- dren fliould be taught. We have found from experience, that an early knowledge of the firfl principles of fcience may be given in converfation, and may be infenfibly acquired from the ufual in- cidents of life: if this knowledge be carefully affociated with the technical terms which common ufe may preferve in the memory, 3 much
PREFACE.
vu
much of the difficulty of fubfequent iuftrudtlon may be avoided.
The fketches we have hazarded upon thefe fubjedls may to fome appear too flight, and to others too abftrufe and tedious. To thofe who have explored the vaft mines of human knowledge, fmall fpecimens appear trifling and contemptible, whilll: the lefs accuftomed eye is fomewhat dazzled and confufed by the ap- pearance even of a imall coUeftion : but to the moft enlightened minds new combinations may be fuggeited by a new arrangement of materials, and the curiofity and enthufiafm of the inexperienced may be awakened, and excited to accurate and laborious r&- fearches.
With refpedl to what is commonly called the education of the heart, we have endeavoured to fuggeft the eafieft means of in- ducing ufeful and agreeable habits, well regulated fympathy and benevolent affeftions. A witty writer fays, " II eft permis d'en- *' nuyer en moralites d'ici jufqu' a Conftantinople." Unwilling to avail ourfelves of ihis permiffion, we have feduloufly avoided declamation, and, wherever we have been obliged to repeat ancient maxims, and common truths, we have at leaft thought it becoming to prefent them in a new drefs.
On religion and politics we have been filent, becaufe we have
A 2 no
riii PREFACE.
no ambition to gain partlzaus, or to make profelytes, and becaufe we do not addrefs ourielves exclufively to any fe<£t or to any party. The fcrutiuizing eye of criticllm, ia looking over our table of contents, will alfo, probably, obferve that there are no chapters on courage and chaflity. To pretend to teach courage to Britons would be as ridiculous as it is unneceflary ; and, except amongft thofe who are expofed to the contagion of foreign manners, we may boaft of the fuperior delicacy of our fair countrywomen ; a delicacy acquired from domeftic example, and confirmed by public approbation. Our opinions concerning the female charadler and underftanding have been fully detailed in a former publication * ; and, unwilling to fatigue by repetition, we have touched but flightly upon thefc fubjefts in our chapters on Temper, Female Accomplifliments, Prudence, and Economy.
We have warned our readers not to expedl from us any new theory of education, but they need not apprehend that we have written without method, or that we have thrown before them a heap of defultory remarks and experiments, which lead to no general conclufions, and which tend to the eftablifhment of no ufeful principles. We aflure them that we have worked upon a regular plan, and where we have failed of executing our defign, it has not been for want of labour or attention. Convinced that it is
* Letters for Literary Ladies.
the
PREFACE. ix
the duty and the Interefl of all who write, to inquire what others hav» faid and thought upon the fubje£t of which they treat, we have examined attentively the works of others, that we might collecl whatever knowledge they contain, and that we might neither arrogate inventions which do not belong to us, nor weary the pubVc by repetition. Some ufeful and ingenious elTays may probably hxve efcaped our notice, but we flatter ourfelves, that our readers will not find reafon to accufe us of negligence, as we have perufed with diligent attention every work upon education, that has obtained tbq fandlion of time or of public approbation, and, though we havt never bound ourfelves to the letter, we hope, that we have beer faithful to the fpirit of their authors. With- out incumbering oarfelves with any part of their fyftems which has not been authorized by experience, we have fteadily attempted immediately to apply to praftice fuch of their ideas as we have thought ufeful ; but vvhilft we have ufed the thoughts of others, we have been anxious to avoid mean plagiarifm, and wherever wc have borrowed, the debt has been carefully acknowledged.
The firll: hint of the chapter on Toys was received from Dr. Beddoes ; the Iketch of an introduftion to cheraiflry for children was given to us by Mr. Lovell Edgeworth ; and the refl of the work was refumed from a defign formed and begun twenty years ago. When a book appears under the name of two authors, it ig natural to inquire what fhare belongs to each of them. All that
relates
X PREFACE.
relates tD the art of teaching to read in the chapter on Tafks, the- chapters on Grammar and Claffical Literature, Geography, Chro- nology, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Mechanics, were writtm by Mr. Edgeworth, and the reft of the book by Mifs EdgeA'orth. She was encouraged and enabled to write upon this irrportant fubjed, by having for many years before her eyes the caidud of a judicious mother in the education of a large family. The chapter ;J on Obedience was written from Afrs. Edgeworth's ixjtes, and was exemplified by her fuccefsful pradlice in the management of her children ; the whole manufcript was fubmitted W her judgment,, and flie revifed parts of it in the laft ftage of a fital difeafco
CONTENTS.
CONTENTS.
Chap. Page
I. Toyi 1
\l.rafks 37
III. On Attention 75
IV. Servants 119
V. Acquaintance 135
VI. On Temper 155
VII. On Obedience 1 73
Till. On Truth 191
IX. On Rewards and Puni/hments 227
X. On Sympathy and Senjibility 265
XI. On Faulty, Pride, and Ambition 299
XII. Books 317
XIII. On Grammar, and Clajfical Literature 387
XIV. On Geography and Chronology 417
XV. On Arithmetick 425
XVI. Geometry 447
XVII. On Mechanicks 453
XVIII. Chemifiry 489
XIX. On Public and Private Education 499
XX. On Female AccompUJhments, Majhrs, and Governejffes 519
XXI. Memory and Invention 553
XXII. Tojtc and Imagination 603
XXIII. TFit and Judgment 647
XXIV. Prudence and Economy ^89
XXV. Summary ']l'^
APPENDIX.
Holes, centaining convsrfations and anecdites of childrtn ,.,.,. • JfjJ
MATERIAL ERRATA,
Page line 32 — 13 for divert, read dired 60— 8 & II, hefore/ather, infert his 88 — 17 for exerted, T. excited
J 09 — 10 for thefe were^ r. this was
120 — 1 1 for danger, r. dinner
135 — 19 for affedion, r. attention
161 — 21 inftead of a period after the word will, infert a comma
J 79 — 16 -iixex fuch and, infert fuch
183 — 14 {ox 'That in the difficulty in which our minds are Jlopped or put in motion, there is fomething analogous to the vis-injita of body, r. the difficulty with which our minds are (topped or put in motion refembles the vis-inertise of body.
204-— 13 for the noife was not heard, r. before the noife was heard.
304 — laft line but two, for opium, r. opinion
349 — 9 for with, r. without
418 — I J for artificers, r. artifices
442 — 23 after twenty, add apples
4g^ — 27 for children leji they, r. a child left he
496 — 16 before by fire, inl'ert it
506 — laft line but one, for chain, r. chance
508 — 17 for arithmetick, r. prudence
^33 — 18 for many, r. marry
537 — 14 for rf/««>yf, r. recourfe
557 — 8 for worth, r. worthy
The reader is requefted to read nor for or in the pages marked in the errata at the end of the vol. and for leffer errata and cor- rections fee the end of the volume.
PRACTICAL
PRACTICAL EDUCATION,
CHAPTER 1. TOYS.
*' VV HY don't you play with your playthings, niy dear? I am *' fuie that I have bought toys enough for you ; why can't you *' divert yourfelf with them, inftcad of breaking them to pieces ?" fays a mother to her child, who flands idle and miferable, furround- ed by disjointed dolls, maimed horfes, coaches and one-horfe chairs without wheels, and a namelefs wreck of gilaed lumber.
A child in this fituation is furely more to be pitied than blamed, for is it not vain to repeat, " Why don't you play with your play- *' things," unlefs they be fuch as he can play with, which is very feldom the cafe ; and is it not rather unjuft to be angry with him for breaking them to pieces, when he can by no other device ren- der them fubfervient to his amufement ? He breaks them, not from
B the
2 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. '-^.
the love of mifchief, but from the hatred of idlenefs ; either he wifhes to fee what his playthings are made of, and how they arc made, or whether he can put them together again if the parts be once feparated. All this is perfe\^ly innocent ; and it is a pity that his love of knowledge and his fpirit of aftivity (hould be reprefled by the undiftinguKbing correction of a nurfery maid, or the un- ceafing reproof of a French governefs.
The more natural vivacity and ingenuity young people poflefs, the lefs are they likely to be amufed with the toys which are iifually put into their hands. They require to have things which exercife their fenfes or their imagination, their imitative, and in- ventive powers. The glaring colours, or the gilding of toys, may- catch the eye, and pleafe for a few minutes, but unlefs fome ufe can be made of them, they will, and ought to be foon difcarded. A boy, who has the ufe of his limbs, and whofe mind is untainted with prejudice, would in all probability prefer a fubftantial cart, in which he could carry weeds, earth, and ftones, up and down hill, to the fineft frail coach and fix that ever came out of a toyfhop : for what could he do with the coach after having admired, and fucked the paint, but drag it cautioufly along the carpet of a drawing- room, watching the wheels, which will not turn, and Teeming to fympathize with the juft terrors of the lady and gentleman within, •who are certain of being overturned every five minutes. When he is tired of this, perhaps, he may fet about to unharnefs horfes which were never meant to be unharneffed j or to currycomb their woollen manes and tails, which ufually come off during the firft attempt.
That fuch toys are frail and ufelefs may, however, be confidered
TOYS. 3
as evils comparatively fmall : as long as a child has fenfe and cou- rage to deftroy the toys, there is no great harm done ; but, in ge- neral, he is taught to fet a value upon them totally independent of all ideas of utility, or of any regard to his own real feelings. Either be is conjured to take particular care of them, becaufe they coft a great deal of money ; or elfe he is taught to admire them as minia- tures of fome of the fine things on which fine people pride them- felvcs : if no other bad confequence were to enfue, this iingle cir- cumftance of his being guided in his choice by the opinion of others is dangerous. Inflead of attending to his own fenfations, and learning from his own experience, he acquires the habit of eftimat- ing his pleafures by the tafte and judgment of thofe who happen to be near him.
" I liked the cart the bed:," fays the boy, " but mamma and " ^very body faid that the coach was the prettiefi: ; fo I chofe the *' coach " — Shall we wonder if the fame principle afterwards go- verns him in the choice of " the toys of age."
A little ^irl, prefiding at her baby tea-table, is pleafed with the notion that fhe is like her mamma ; and, before flic can have any Idea of the real pleafures of converfation and fociety, fhe is con- firmed in the perfuafion, that tattling and vifiting are fome of the moll enviable pri^'ileges of grown people ; a fet of beings whom flic believes to be in pofleflion of all the fvveets of happinefs.
Dolls, befide the prefcrlptive right of ancient ufage, can boafl: of fuch an able champion in Roufleau, tiiat it requires no common fhare of temerity to attack them. As far as they are the means of infpiring girls with a tafl:e for neatnefs in drefs, and with a defire
B 2 to
4 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
to make thofe things for themfelves, for which women are ufually dependent upon milliners, we mufl: acknowledge their utility ; but a watchful eye {hould be kept upon the child to mark the firfl lymptoms of a love of finery and fafliion. It is a fenfible remark of a late female writer, that whilft young people work, the mind will follow the hands, the thoughts are occupied with trifles, and the induftry is Simulated by vanity.
Our objeiflions to dolls are offered with great fubmiffion and due hefitation. With more confidence we may venture to attack baby- houfes ; an unfurniflied baby-houfe might be a good toy, as it would employ little carpenters and fempftrefles to fit it up ; but a completely furnifhed baby-houfe proves as tirefome to a child as a finifhed feat is to a young nobleman. After peeping, for in ge- neral only a peep can be had into each apartment, after being tho- roughly fatisfied that nothing is wanting, and that confequently there is nothing to be done, the young lady lays her doll upon the ftate bed, if the doll be not twice as large as the bed, and falls faft afleep in the midft of her felicity.
Before dolls, baby-houfes, coaches, and cups and faucers, there comes a fet of toys, which are made to imitate the a6tions of men and women, and the notes or noifes of birds and hearts. Many of thefe are ingenious in their conftruiflion, and happy in their effeft, but that efFeCl unfortunately is tranfitory. When the wooden wo- man has churned her hour in her empty churn ; when the ftiff- backed man has hammered or fawed till his arms are broken, or till his employer's arms are tired ; when the gilt lamb has ba — ad, the obftinate pig fqueaked, and the provoking cuckoo cried cuck — 00, till no one in the houfe can endure the noife ; what re- 6 mains
TOYS. 5
mains to be done ? — Woe betide the unlucky little philofopher, who fiiould think of inquiring why the woman churned, or how the bird cried cuckoo ; for it is tea to one that in profecuting fuch an inquiry, juft when he is upon the eve of difcovery, he fnaps the wire, or perforates the bellows, and there enfue " a " death-like filence, and a dread repofe."
The grief which is felt for fpoiling a new plaything might be borne, if it were not increafed,as it commonly is, by the reproaches of friends ; much kind eloquence, upon thefe occafions, is fre- quently difplayed, to bring the fufFerer to a proper fenfe of his folly, till in due time the contrite corners of his mouth are drawn down, his wide eyes fill with tears, and, without knowing what he means, he promifes never to be fo filly any more. The future fafety of his worthlels playthings is thus purchafed at the expence of his underflanding, perhaps of his integrity : for children fel- dom fcrupuloufly adhere to promifes, which they have made to efcape from impending punifhment.
We have ventured to obje£l to fome fafliionable toys ; we are bound at leaft: to propofe others in their place ; and we fhall take the matter up foberly from the nurfery.
The firfl toys for infants fliould be merely fuch things as may be grafped without danger, and which might, by the difference of their fizes, invite comparifon : round ivory or wooden fticks fhould be put into their little hands ; by degrees they will learn to lift them to their mouths, and they will diftinguifh their fizes : fquare and circular bits of wood, balls, cubes, and triangles, with holes of different fizes made in them, to admit the flicks, fhould be their
play-
»6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
playthinos. No greater apparatus is neceflary for the amufment of the firft months of an infant's life. To eafe the pain which they feel from cutting teeth, infants generally carry to their mouths whatever they can lay their hands upon ; but they foon learn to diftino-uifh thofe bodies which relieve their pain, from thofe which gratify their palate ; and, if they are left to themfelves, they will always choofe what is painted in preference to every thing elfe ; nor muft we attribute the look of delight with which they felze toys that are painted red, merely to the pleafure which their eye takes in the bright colour, but to the love of the fweet tafte which they fuck from the paint. What injury may be done to the health by the quantity of lead which is thus fwallowed, we will not pretend to determine, but we refer to a medical name of high au- thority*, whofe cautions probably will not be treated with neg- le£l. To gratify the eye with glittering objeils, if this be necef- fary, may be done with more fafety by toys of tin and polifhed 'iron : a common fteel button is a more defirable plaything to a young child than many expenfive toys ; a few iuch buttons tied together, fo as to prevent any danger of their being fwallowed, would continue for fome time a fource of amufemenr.
When a nurfe wants to pleafe or to pacify a child, (he fluns its ear with a variety of noifes, or dazzles its eye with glaring colours or Simulating light. The eye and the ear are thus fatigued with- out advantage, and the temper is hufhed to a tranfient calm by ex- pedients, which in time muft lofe their effeft, and which can bave no power over confirmed fretfulnefs. The pleafure of exer- cifing their fenfes is in itfelf fufficient to children without any fac-
*Dr. FothergiU.
titious
TOYS. 7
tltious ftimulus, which only exhaufts their excitability, and ren- ders then:i incapable of being amufed by a variety of common ob- jects, which would naturally be their entertainment. We do not here fpeak. of the attempts made to footh a child who is ill ; " to " charm the fenie of pain," fo far as it can be done by diverting the child's attention from his own fufTerings to outward objefts, is humane and reafonable, provided our compaflion does not induce in the child's mind the expectation of continual attendance, and that impatience of temper which increafes bodily fuffering. It would be in vain to read leflures on philofophy to a nurfe, or to expeft ftoicifm from an infant ; but perhaps, where mothers pay attention themfelves to their children, they will be able to prevent many of the confequences of vulgar prejudice and folly. A nurfe's wifli is to have as little trouble as pollible with the child committed to her charge, and at the fame time to flatter the mother, from whom fhe expeds her reward. The appearance of extravagant fondnels for the child, of incefl'ant attention to its humour, and abfurd lubmiflion to its caprices, (he imagines to be the fureft me- thod of recommending herfelf to favour. She is not to be impofed upon by the faint and affeded rebukes of the fond mother, who exclaims, " Oh, nurfe, indeed you do fpoil that child fadly ! — Oh, " nurfe, upon my word (he governs you entirely ! — Nurfe, you " muft not let her have her own way always. — Never mind her
*' crying, I beg, nurfe." Nurfe fmiles, fees that (he has gained
her point, and promifes what (he knows that it is not expeded fhe (hould perform. Now if, on the contrary, (he perceived that the mother was neither to be flattered nor pleafed by thefe means^ one motive tor fpoiling the child would immediately ceafe : ano- ther (Irong one would, it is true, flill remain. A nurfe wi(hes to fave herfelf trouble, and (he frequently confults her own conveni- ence.
8 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
eiice when (he humours an infant. She huflbes it to deep, that fhe may leave it lately ; flie flops it from crying, that (he may not hear an irritating noile, that flie may relieve herlelf as loon as pof- fible from the painful weaknefs of compaflion, or that flie may avoid the danger of being interrogated by the family as to the caufe of the difturbance. It is lefs trouble to her to yield to caprice and ill-humour than to prevent or cure it, or at leaft flie thinks it is fo. In reality it is not ; for a humoured child in time plagues its attendant infinitely more than it would have done with realonable management. If it were polhble to convince nurles of this, they would facrifice perhaps the convenience of a moment to the peace of future hours, and they would not be eager to quell one florm, at the hazard of being obliged to endure twenty more boifterous; the candle would then no more be thruft almoft into the infant's eyes to make it take notice of the hght through the mift of tears, the eternal bunch of keys would not dance and jingle at every peevifli fummons, or would the roarings of paflion be overpowered by infulting fongs, or foothed by artful carefles ; the child would then be carelTed and amufed when he looks fmilin^ and g;ood-hu- moured, and all parties would be much happier.
Pradical education begins very early, even in the nurfery ; ■without the mountebank pretence, that miracles can be performed by the turning of a ftraw, or the dictatorial anathematizing tone, which calls down vengeance upon thofe who do not follow to an iota the injundlions of a theorift. We may fimply obferve, that parents would fave themfelves a great deal of trouble, and their children lome pain, if they would pay fonie attention to their early education. The temper acquires habits much earlier than is ufu- ally apprehended ; the firft impreffions which infants receive, and
the
TOYS. 9
the firft habits which they learn from their nurfes, influence the temper and difpofition long after the flight caufes which produced them are forgotten. More care and judgment than ufually fall to thefliare of a nurfe are neceflary, to cultivate the difpofition which Infants (hew to exercife their fenfes, fo as neither to fuffer them to become indolent and torpid from want of proper objects to occupy their attention, nor yet to exhauft their fenfes by continual exci- tation. By ill-timed refl:raints, or injudicious Incitements, the nurfe frequently renders the child obfl:inate or paflionate. An in- fant fliould never be interrupted in its operations ; whilft it wifhes to ufe its hands, we fliould not be impatient to make it walk, or when it is pacing with all the attention to its centre of gravity that is exerted by a rope-dancer, fuddenly arrefh its progrefs, and infift upon its pronouncing the fcanty vocabulary which wc have compelled it to learn. When children are bufily trying experi- ments upon objeds within their reach, we fliould not, by way of faving them trouble, break the courfe of their ideas, and totally pre- vent them from acquiring knowledge by their own experience. When a foolifli nurfe fees a child attempting to reach or lift any thing, flie runs immediately, " Oh, dear love, it can't do it, it can't ! — rU do it for it, fo I will !" — If the child be trying the difference between pufliing and pulling, roUing or Aiding, the powers of the wedge or the lever, the officious nurfe hafl:ens in- ftantly to difplay her own knowledge of the mechanic powers ; " Stay, love, fl:ay ; that is not the way to do it — I'll ftiew it the " right way — See here — look at me, love." Without inter- rupting a child in the moment of a6lion, proper care might previ- oufly be taken to remove out of its way thofe tilings which can re- ally hurt it, and a juft: degree of attention muft be paid to its firft experiments upon hard and heavy, and more cfpecially upon fliarp,
C brittle.
10 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
brittle, and burning bodies ; but this degree of care (hould not de- generate into cowardice ; it is better that a child (hould tumble
down or burn its fingers, than that it (hould not learn the ufe of its limbs and its fenles. We (hould for another reafon take care to put all dangerous things efFe£lually out of the child's reach, inftead of faying perpetually, " Take care, don't touch that! — •' don't do that ! — let that alone !" — The child, who fcarcely un- derftands the words, and not at all the reafon of thefe prohibi- tions, is frightened by the tone and countenance with which they are uttered and accompanied, and he either becomes indolent or cunning ; either he defifts from exertion, or feizes the moment to divert himfelf with forbidden objedts, when the watchful eye that guards them is withdrawn. It is in vain to encompafs the reftlefs prifoner with a fortification of chairs, and to throw him an old al- manack to tear to pieces, or an old pincu(hion to explore ; the en- terprizing adventurer foon makes his efcape from this barricade, leaves his goods behind him, and prefently is again in what the nurfe calls mifchief.
Mifchief is with nurfes frequently only another name for any fpecies of activity which they find troublefome ; the love whict| children are fuppofed to have for pulling things out of their places, is in reality the defire of feeing things in motion, or of putting things into different fituations. They will like to put the furniture in a room in its proper place, and to arrange every thing in what we call order, if we can make thefe equally permanent fources of aftive amufement J but when things are once in their places, the child has nothing more to do, and the more quickly each chair ar- rives at its deflined fituation, the fooner comes the dreaded ftate of idlenefs and quiet.
7 A tjurfery,
TOYS. 11
A nurfeiy, or a room in which young children are to live, Ihould never have any furniture in it which they can fpoil ; as few things as poffible fhould be left within their reach which they are not to touch, and at the fame time they fhould be provided with the means of amufing themfelves, not with painted or gilt toys, but with pieces of wood of various fhapes and fizes, which they may build up and pull down, and put in a variety of different forms and pofitions ; balls, pulleys, wheels, firings, and flrong lit- tle carts, proportioned to their'age, and to the things which they want to carry in them, fhould be their playthings.
Prints will be entertaining to children at a very early age ; it would beendlefs to enumerate the ufes that may be made of them > they teach accuracy of fight, they engage the attention, and em- ploy the imagination. In J 777 we faw L , a child of two
years old, point out every piece of furniture in the French prints of Gil Bias ; in the print of the Canon at Dinner, he diflinguifhed the knives, forks, fpoons, bottles, and every thing upon the table; the dog lying upon the mat, and the bunch of keys hanging at Jacintha's girdle; he told, with much readinefs, the occupation of every figure in the print, and could fupply from his imagination what is fuppofed to be hidden by the foremofl parts of all the ob- jeds. A child of four years old was afked, what was meant by fomething that was very indiftindly reprefented as hanging round the arm of a figure in one of the prints of the London Cries. He faid it was a glove, though it had as little refemblance to a glove as to a ribbon or a purfe. When he was afked how he knew that it was a glove, he anfwered, " that it ought to be a " glove, becaufe the woman had one upon her other arm, and *' none upon that where the thing was hanging." Having feea
C 2 the
la PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
the gown of a female figure in a print hanging obliquely, the fame child faid, " The wind blows that woman's gown back." Wc mention thefe little circumftances from real life, to fhew how- early prints may be an amulement to children, and how quickly things unknown are learnt by the relations which they bear to what vvas known before. We fhould at the fame time obferve, that children are very apt to mdke ftrange miftakes, and hafty con- clufions, when they begin to reafon from analogy. A child having alked what was meant by fome marks in the forehead of an old man in a print ; and having been told upon fome occafion, that old people were wifer than young ones, brought a print containing feveral figures to his mother, and told her that one, which he point- ed to, was wifer than all the refl ; upon inquiry, it was found that he had formed this notion from feeing that one figure vvas wrinkled, and that the others were not.
Prints for children fhould be chofen with great care ; they fhould reprcfent ob]e(5ls which are familiar, the refemblances fhould be ac- curate, and the manners fhould be attended to, or at leaft the ge- neral moral that is to be drawn from them. The attitude of Se- phora, the boxing lady in Gil Bias, muft appear unnatural to chil- dren who have not lived with termagant heroines. Perhaps, the firll ideas of grace, beauty, and propriety, are confiderably in- fluenced by the firfl piclures and prints which pleafe children. Sir Jofhua Reynolds tells us, that he took a child with him through a room full of pi£lures, and that the child flopped, with figns of averfion, whenever it came to any pidure of a figure in a con- flrained attitude.
Children foon judge tolerably well of proportion in drawing,
where
TOYS. 13
where they have been ufed to fee the objeds which are reprefent- ed : but we often give them prints of objects, and of animals efpe- cially, which they have never feen, and in which no fort of propor- tion is obferved. The common prints of animals muft give chil- dren falfe ideas. The moufe and the elephant are nearly of the fame fize, and the crocodile and whale fill the fame fpace in the page. Painters, who put figures of men amongft their buildings, give the idea of the proportionate height immediately to the eye ; this is, perhaps, the beft fcale we can adopt ; in every print for children this (hould be attended to. Some idea of the relative fizes of the animals they fee reprelented would then be given, and the imagination would not be filled with chimeras.
After having been accuflomed to examine prints, and to trace their refemblance to real objeds, children will probably wifh to try their own powers of imitation. At this moment no toy, which we could invent for them, would give them half lb much plcafure as a pencil. If we do not put a pencil into their hands before they are able to do any thing with it, but make random marks all over a Iheet of paper, it will long continue a real amufement and occupa- tion. No matter how rude their firft attempts at imitation may be ; if the attention of children be occupied, our point is gained. Girls have generally one advantage at this age over boys, in the ex» clufive pofHefiion of the fciffars : how many camels, and elephants with amazing trunks, are cut out by the induftrious fciffars of a bufy, and therefore happy little girl, during a winter evening, which pafTes fo heavily, and appears fo immeafurably long, to the idle.
Modelling in clay or wax might probably be a ufeful amufe- ment
14 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
ment about this age, if the materials were fo prepared, that the children could avoid being every moment troublefome to others whilft they are at work. The making of bafkets, and the weaving of fafli line, might perhaps be employment for children ; with proper preparations, they might at leaft be occupied with thefe things; much, perhaps, might not be produced by their labours, but it is a great deal to give early habits of induftry. Let us do what we will, every perfon who has ever had any experience upon the fubjed-, muft know that it is fcarcely poffible to provide fufficient and fuitable occupations for young children : this is one of the firft difficulties in education. Thofe who have never tried the experi- ment, are aftonifhed to find it fuch a difficult and laborious bu- finefs as it really is, to find employments for children from three to fix years old. It is perhaps better, that our pupils fhould be en- tirely idle, than that they ffiould be half employed. " My dear, *' have you nothing to do ?" Ihould be fpoke in forrow rather than in anger. When they fee other people employed and happy, children feel mortified and miferable to have nothing to do. Count Rumford's was an excellent fcheme for exciting fym pathe- tic induftry amongft the children of the poor at Munich ; in the large hall, where the elder children were buly in fpinning, there was a range of feats for the younger children, who were not yet permitted to work ; thefe being compelled to fit idle, and to fee the bufy multitude, grew extremely uneafy in their own fitua- tion, and became very anxious to be employed. We need not ufe any compulfion or any artifice ; parents in every family, we fup- pofe, who think of educating their own children, are employed fome hours in the day in reading, writing, bufinefs, or converfa- tion ; during thefe hours, children will naturally feel the want of occupation, and will, from fympathy, from ambition, and from im- patience
TOYS. 15
patience of Infupportable ennui, define with anxious faces, *' to *' have fomething to do." Inftead of loading them with play- things, by way of relieving their mifery, we fhould honeftly tell them, if that be the truth, " I am forry I cannot find any thing *' for you to do at prefent. I hope you will loon be able to em- ♦* ploy yourfelf. What a happy thing it will be for you to be able, *' by and by, to read, and write, and draw ; then you will never *' be forced to fit idle."
The pains of idlenefs Simulate children to induflry, if they are from time to time properly contrafted with the pleafures of occu- pation.. We fliould affociate cheerfulnefs, and praife, and looks of approbation, with induftry ; and, whenever young people invent employments for themfelves, they fhould be affifted as much as poffible, and encouraged. At that age when they are apt to grow tired in half an hour of their playthings, whatever they may be, we had better give them playthings only for a very fhort time, at intervals, in the day; and, inftead of waiting till they are tired, we fhould take the things away before they are weary of them. Nor fliould we difcourage the inquifitive genius from examining into the flrudure of their toys, whatever they may be. The fame in- genious and active difpofitions, which prompt thele inquiries, will fecure children from all thofe numerous temptations to do mif- chief, to which the idle are expofed. Ingenious children are pleafed with contrivances which anfwer the purpofes for which they are intended, and they feel fincere regret whenever thefe are injured or deftroyed : this we mention as a further comfort and fecurity for parents, who, in the company of young mechanics, are apt to tremble for their furniture. Children who obfcrve, and who begin
o
to
i6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
to amufe themfelves with thought, are not fo a£tively hofllle in their attacks upon inanimate objefls.
V We were once prefent at the difleftion of a wooden cuckoo,
which was attended with extreme pleafure by a large family of children ; and it was not one of the children who broke the pre- cious toy, but it was the father who took it to pieces. Nor was it the deftrudion of the plaything which entertained the company, but the fight of the manner in which it was conflrudled. Many gueffes were made by all the fpeftators about the internal ftruc- ture of the cuckoo, and the aftonifhment of the company was univerfal, when the bellows were cut open, and the fimple con- trivance was revealed to view ; probably, more was learnt by this cuckoo, than was ever learnt from any cuckoo before. So far from
being indifferent to the deftrudtion of her plaything, H , the
little girl of four years old to whom it belonged, remembered, fe- veral months afterwards, to remind her father of his promife to repair the mifchief he had done.
" Several toys, which are made at prefent, are calculated to *' give pleafure merely by exciting furprife, and of courfe give *' children's minds fuch a tone, that they are afterwards too fond *' oiftmilar ufelefs baubles* " This fpecies of delight is foon over, and is fucceeded by a defire to triumph in the ignorance, the cre- dulity, or the cowardice, of their companions. Hence that pro- penfity to play tricks, which is often injudicioufly encouraged by the fmiles of parents, who are apt to miftake it for a proof of wit and vivacity. They forget, that " gentle dullnefs ever loved a joke ;"
* Dr. Beddoss.
and
TOYS. 17
and that even wit and vivacity, if they become troublcfome and mifchicvous, will be feared, and fliunned. Many juggling tricks and puzzles are highly ingenious ; and, as far as they can exercife the invention or the patience of young people, they are ufeful. Care, however, (hould be taken, to feparate the ideas of deceit and of ingenuity, and to prevent children from glorying in the mere pofl'eflion of a fecret.
Toys which afFord trials of dexterity and adivity, fuch as tops, kites, hoops, balls, battledores and fliuttlecocks, ninepins, and cup and ball, are excellent ; and we fee that they are confeqiiently great and lafting favourites with children ; their fenfes, their un- derftanding, and their paffions, are all agreeably interefled and ex- ercifed by thefe amufements. They emulate each other ; but, as fome will probably excel at one game, and fome at another, this emulation will not degenerate into envy. There is more danger that this hateful paffion fhould be created in the minds of young competitors at thofe games, where it is fuppofed that fome knack or myflery is to be learned before they can be played with fuccefs.. Whenever children play at fuch games, we fhould point out to them how and why it is that they lucceed or fail : we may (hew them, that, in reality, there is no knack or myjiery in any thing, but that from certain caufes certain effefls will follow ; that, after trying a number of experiments, thecircumftances effential to luc- defs may be difcovered ; and that all the eafe and dexterity, which wc often attribute to the power of natural genius, is limply the confcquence of praftice and induftry. This fober leflbn may be taught to children without putting it into grave words, or without formal precepts. A gentleman once aftonifhed a family of chil- dren by his dexterity in playing at bilboquct : he caught the ball
D nine
i8 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
nine or ten times fucceflively with great rapidity upon the fpike ; this luccefs appeared miraculous, and the father, who obferved that it had made a great impreflion upon the little fpe6tators, took, that opportunity to (hew the ufe of fpinning the ball, to make the hole at the bottom afcend in a proper diredlion. The nature of centrifucral motion, and its effect in preferving the parallelifm of motion^ if we may be allowed the expreflion, was explained, not at once, but at different intervals, to the young audience. Only as much was explained at a time as the children could underftand, without fatiguing their attention, and the abftrufe fubjed was made familiar by the mode of illuftration that was adopted.
It is furprifing how much children may learn from their play- things when they are judicioufly chofen, and when the habit of reflexion and obfervation is affociated with the ideas of amufement and happinefs. A little boy of nine years old, who had bad a hoop to play with, afked " why a hoop, or a plate, if rolled upon its *• edge, keeps up as long as it rolls, but falls as foon as it flops, *' and will not ftand if you try to make it fland flill upon its *' edge." Was not the boy's underftanding as well employed whilfl: he was thinking of this phaenomenon, which he obferved whilft he was beating his hoop, as it could poffibly have been by the moft learned preceptor ?
When a pedantic fchoolmafter fees a boy eagerly watching a paper kite, he obferves, " What a pity it is that children cannot be " made to mind their grammar as well as their kites !" and he adds perhaps fome peevifli ejaculation on the natural idlenefs of boys, and that pernicious love of play againft which he is doomed to wage perpetual war. A man of fenfe will fee the fame fight
witB
TOYS. 19
with a different eye ; in this pernicious love of play he will difcern the fymptoms of a love of fcience, and, inflead of deploring the natural idlenefs of children, he will admire the adivity which they difplay in the purfuit of knowledge. He will feel that it is his bufinefs to dire£l this a£livity, to furnifh his pupil with materials for frefh combinations, to put him, or to let him put himfelf, in lituations where he can make ufeful obfervations, and acquire that experience which cannot be bought, and which no mailers can communicate.
It will not be beneath the dignity of a philofophic tutor to con- fider the different effefts, which the mofl: common plays of children have upon the habits of the underflanding and temper. Whoever has watched children putting together a differed map, muft have been amufed with the trial between Wit and Judgment. The child who quickly perceives refemblances catches inftantly at the firft bit of the wooden map, that has a fingle hook or hollow that feems likely to anfwer his purpofe ; he makes perhaps twenty different trials before he hits upon the right ; whilfl: the wary youth, who has been accuftomed to obferve differences, cautioufly examines with his eye the whole outline before his hand begins to move ; and, having exaftly compared the two indentures, he joins them with fober confidence, more proud of never dlfgracln<T his judgment by a frultlefs attempt, than ambitious of rapid fuc- cefs. He is flow, but fure, and wins the day.
There are fome plays which require prefence of mind, and which demand immediate attention to what is actually going forward, in which children capable of the greateft degree of abllra6l attention are mofl apt to be defedlve. They have many ideas, but none of
D 2 them
20 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
them ready, and their knowledge is ufelefs, becaufe it is recol- leded a moment too late. Could we in fuitably dignified lan- euase defcribe the game of " birds, beafts, and fifhes," we fhould venture to prefcribe it as no very painful remedy for thefe abfent and abftrafted perfonages. When the handkerchief or the ball is thrown, and when his bird's name is called for, the abfent little philofopher is obliged to colledt his fcattered thoughts inftanta- neoufly, or elfe he expofes bimfelf to the ridicule of naming per- haps a fifh or a beaft, or any bird but the right. To thofe children who, on the contrary, are not fufficiently apt to abftraft their at- tention, and who are what Bacon calls *' birdwitted," we fhould recommend a folitary-board. At the folitary-board they mufl: with- draw their thoughts from all external objeds, hear nothing that is faid, and fix their attention folely upon the figure and the pegs before them, elfe they will never fucceed ; and if they make one errour in their calculations, they lofe all their labour. Thofe who are precipitate, and not fufficiently attentive to the confequences of their own adions, may receive many falutary leflbns at the draught or chefs-board, happy if they can learn prudence and forefight by frequently lofing the battle.
We are not quite fo abfurd as to imagine, that any great or per- manent efFedls can be produced by fuch flight caufes as a game at draughts, or at a folitary-board, but the combination of a number of apparent trifles is not to be negleiled in education.
We have never yet mentioned what will probably firfl: occur to thofe who would invent employments for children. We have ne- ver yet mentioned a garden ; we have never mentioned thofe great delights to children, a fpade, a hoe, a rake, a wheelbarrow. We
hold
TOYS. 21
hold all thefe in proper refpeft, but we did not fooner mention them, becaufe, if introduced too early, they are ufelefs. We muft not exped that a boy of fix or (even years old can find for any length of time fufficient daily occupation in a garden : he has not ftrength for hard labour ; he can dig foft earth, he can weed groundfel and other weeds which take no deep root in the earth ; but after he has weeded his little garden, and fowed his feeds, there mufl be a fufpenfion of his labours : frequently children, for want of fomething to do, when they have fowed flower-feeds in their crooked beds, dig up the hopes of the year to make a new walk, or to fink for a well in their garden. We mention thefe things that parents may not be difappointed, or expeft more from the oc- cupation of a garden than it can at a very early age afford. A gar- den is an excellent refource for children, but they (hould have a variety of other occupations: rainy days will come, and froft and fnow, and then children muft be occupied within doors. We immediately think of a little fet of carpenters tools, to fupply them withafliveamufement. Boys will probably be more inclined to at- tempt making models than drawings of the furniture which ap- pears to be the mofl: eafy to imitate ; they will imagine that, if they had but tools, they could make boxes, and delks, and beds, and chefts of drawers, and tables, and chairs innumerable. But, alas ! thefe fond imaginations are too foon difiipated. Suppofe a boy of feven years old to be provided with a fmall fet of carpenter's tools, his father thinks perhaps that he has made him completely happy ; but a week afterwards the fiither finds dreadful marks of the file and faw upon his mahogany tables ; the ufe of thefe tools is immediately interdicted until a bench fiiall be procured. Week after week pafles away, till at length the frequently reiterated fpeech of, " Papa, you bid me put you in mind about my bench,
" Papa !"
22 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
*' Papa!" has its efl'eft, and the bench appears. Now the young carpenter thinks he is quite fet up in the world, and projefts carts and boxes, and reading delks and writing-defks for himfelf and for his fifters, if he have any ; but when he comes to the execution of his plans, what new difficulties, what new wants arife ! the wood is too thick or too thin ; it fplits, or it cannot be cut with a knife ; wire, nails, glue, and, above all, the means of heating the glue, are wanting. At laft fome frail machine, ftuck together with pegs or pins, is produced, and the workman is ufually either too much ridiculed, or too much admired. The flep from pegging to mor- ticing is a very difficult flep, and the want of a morticing chifel is infuperable : one tool is called upon to do the duty of another, and the pricker comes to an untimely end in doing the hard duty of the punch ; the faw wants fetting ; the plane will plane no longer ; and the mallet muft be ufed inftead of the hammer, be- caufe the hammer makes fo much noife, that the ladies of the fa- mily have voted for its being locked up. To all thefe various evils the child fubmits in defpair, and finding, after many fruitlefs exertions, that he cannot make any of the fine things he had pro- jefted, he throws afide his tools, and is deterred by thefe difap- pointments from future induftry and ingenuity. Such are the con- fequenceS of putting excellent tools into the hands of children be- fore they can poffibly ufc them : but the tools which are ufelefs at feven years old will be a moft valuable prefent at eleven or twelve, and for this age it will be prudent to referve them. A ra- tional toy- (hop (hould be provided with all manner of carpenter's tools, with wood properly prepared for the young workman, and with fcrews, nails, glue, emery paper, and a variety of articles which it would be tedious to enumerate ; but which, if parents could readily meet with in a convenient aflemblage, they would wil- 6 lingly
TOYS. 2j
Ungly purchafe for their children. The trouble of hunting through a number of different (hops prevents them at prefent from piirchafing fuch things ; befides, perhaps they may not be fuffici- ently good carpenters to know diftindlly every thing that is necef- fary for a young workman.
Card, pafteboard, fubftantial, but not fharp pointed, fciiTars,. wire, gum, and wax, may in fome degree fupply the want of carpenter's tools at that early age when we have obferved that the faw and plane are ufelefs. Models of common furniture fliould be made as toys, which (hould take to pieces, fo that all their parts, and the manner in which they are put together, might be feeii diflindly ; the names of the different parts fhould be written * or flamped upon them : by thefe means the names will be aflbciated with realities, children will retain them in their memory, and. they will neither learn by rote technical terms, nor will they be retarded in their progrefs in mechanical invention by the want of language. Before young people can ufe tools, thefe models will amule and exercife their attention. From models of furniture we may go on to models of architecture ; pillars of different orders, the roofs of houfes, the manner of flating and tiling, &c. Then we may proceed to models of fimple machines, choofing at firft fuch as can be immediately ufeful to children in their own amufe- ments, fuch as wheelbarrows, carts, cranes, fcales, fleelyards,. jacks, and pumps, which children ever view with eager eyes.
From fimple it will be eafy to proceed gradually to models of more complicated machinery : it would be tirefome to give a lift of
* Wc are indebted to Dr. Bcddocs for this idea.
thefe ;
24 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
thefe ; models of itiftruments ufed by manufadlurers and artifts fhould be feen ; many of thefe are extremely ingenious : fpinning wheels, looms, paper-mills, wind-mills, water-mills, might with great advantage be fhewn in miniature to children.
The diftra£ling noife and buftle, the multitude of obje£ls which all claim the attention at once, prevent young people from under- ftanding much of what they fee, when they are firft taken to look at large manufadlories. If they had previoufly acquired fome ge- neral idea of the whole, and fome particular knowledge of the dif- ferent parts, they would not flare when they get into thefe places ; they would not " ftare round, fee nothing, and come home con- " tent," bewildered by the fight of cogs and wheels ; and the ex- planations of the workmen would not be all jargon to them ; they would underftand fome of the technical terms, which fo much alarm the intelleds of thofe who hear them for the firfl time.
We may exercife the ingenuity and judgment of children by thefe models of machines, by fhewing them firft the thing to be done, and exciting them to invent the beft means of doing it ; afterwards give the models as the reward for their ingenuity, and let them compare their own inventions with the contrivances ac- tually in ufe amongft artificers : by thefe means young people may be led to compare a variety of different contrivances ; they will dlfcern what parts of a machine are fuperfluous, and what inadequate, and they will clafs particular obfervations gradually under general principles. It may be thought, that this will tend to give children only mechanical invention, or we fhould call it perhaps the invention of machines -, and thofe who do not require this particular talent, will defpife it as uuneceffary in what are 7 called
TOYS. 25
called the liberal profeflions. Without attempting to compare the value of different intelle61:ual talents, we may obferve, that they are all in fome meafure dependent upon each other. Upon this fubjeifl we (hall enlarge more fully when we come to confider the me- thod of cultivating the memory and invention.
Chemical toys will be more difficult to manage than mecha- nical, becaufe the materials, requifite to try many chemical experi- ments, are fuch as cannot fiifely be put into the hands of children. But a lift of experiments, and of the things neceflary to try them, might eafily be drawn out by a ^chemift who would condefcend to fuch a tafk ; and if thefe materials, with proper diredlions, were to be found at a rational toy-fhop, parents would not be afraid of burning or poifoning their children in the firft chemical leflbns. In fome families girls are taught the confeflionary art; might not this be advantageoufly connedted with fome knowledge of chemif- try, and might not they be better taught than by Mrs. RafFeld or Mrs. Glafs * ? Every culinary operation may be performed as an art, probably, as well by a cook as by a chemift ; but, if the che- mift did not aftift the cook now and then with a little fcience, epi- cures would have great reafon for lamentation. We do not by any means advife, that oirls fliould be inftrudted in confe6lionarv arts at the hazard of their keeping company with fervants. If they learn any thing of this fort, there will be many precautions neceflary to feparate them from fervants : we do not adviie that thefe hazards (hould be run ; but if girls learn confeftionary, let
* Wc do not mean to do injuftice to Mrs. RafFcld's profefTional (kill.
E them
26 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
them learn the principles of chemiftry, which may aflift in this art *.
Children are very fond of attempting all experiments in dying, and are very curious about vegetable dyes ; but they can feldom proceed for want of the means of boiling, evaporating, diftilling, and fubliming. Small ftills, and fmall tea-kettles and lamps, would be extremely ufeful to them : thefe might be ufed in the room with the children's parents, which would prevent all dan- ger : they fliould continue to be the property of the parents, and fhould be produced only when they are wanted. No great appara- tus is neceflary for (hewing children the firft fimple operations in chemiftry ; fuch as evaporation, cryftallization, calcination, de- tonation, efFervefcence, and faturation. Water and fire, fait and fugar, lime and vinegar, are not very difficult to be procured ; and a wine-glafs is to be found in every houfe. The difference be- tween an acid and alkali (hould be early taught to children; many grown people begin to learn chemiftry, without diftindlly knowing
what is meant by thofe terms.
/
In the fele£lion of chemical experiments for young people, it will be beft to avoid fuch as have the appearance of jugglers tricks, as it is not our purpofe to excite the amazement of children for the moment, but to give them a permanent tafte for fcience. In a well known book, called ^' Hooper's Raiiona/ Recreations," there are
* V. Diderot's ingenious preface to " Chymie de gout etde I'odorat."
many
TOYS. 27
many ingenious experiments ; but through the whole work there is fuch a want of an enlarged mind, and fuch a love of magic and deception appears, as muft render it not only ufelefs, but unfafe, for young people, in its prefent ftate. Perhaps, a feledtion might be made from it in which thefe defedls might be avoided : fuch titles as " The real apparition: the confederate counters: the Jive beati- " tudes: and the book of fate-" may be changed for others more rational. Receipts for " Changing winter intofpring" for making " Self-raifing pyramids, inchanted mirrors, and intelligent flies, ""^ might be omitted, or explained to advantage. Recreation the 5th, " To tell by the dial of a watch at what hour any perfon in- " tends to rife;" Recreation the twelfth, *' To produce the ap- " pearance of a phantom on a pedeflal placed on the middle of a " table;" and Recreation the thirtieth, " To write feveral let- " ters which contain no meaning upon cards, to make them, after " they have been twice fhuffled, give an anlvver to a queflion that *' fhall be propofed;" as, for example, *' What is love :" fcarce- ly come under the denomination of Rational Recreations, nor will they much conduce to the end propofed in the introduftion to Hooper's work ; that is to fay, in his own words, " To enlarge " and fortify the mind of man, that he may advance with tranquil *' fteps through the flowery paths of inveftigation, till arriving at " fome noble eminence, he beholds, with awful aftonifhment, the *' boundlefs regions of fcience, and becomes animated to attain a ** flill more lofty ftation, whilfl; his heart is incefiantly rapt with ♦' joys of which the groveling herd have no conception."
Even in thofe chemical experiments in this book, which are really ingenious and entertaining, we fhould avoid giving the old
E 2 abfurd
28 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
abfurd titles, which can only coiifufe the underftanding, and fpoil the tafte of children. The tree of Diana, and " Philofophic wool," are of this fpecies. It is not neceflaryto make everything marvel- lous and magical, to fix the attention of young people ; if they are properly educated, they will find more amufement in difcovering or in fearching for the caufe of the effeds which they fee, than in a blind admiration of the juggler's tricks.
J In the papers of the Manchefter Society, in Franklin's letters, in Prieftley's and Percival's works, there may be found a variety of fimple experiments which require no great apparatus, and which will at once amufe and inftru6l. All the papers of the Manchefler Society, upon the repulfion and attraftioa of oil and water, are par- ticularly fuitcd to children, becaufe they ftate a variety of fimple fafts, the mind is led toreafon upon them, and induced to judge of the different conclufions which are drawn from them by different people. The names of Dr. Percival, or Dr. Wall, will have no weight with children ; they will compare only the reafons and ex- periments. Oil and water, a cork, a needle, a plate, and a glafs tumbler, are all the things necefl'ary for thefe experiments. Mr. Henry's experiments upon the influence that fixed air has on vege- tation, and feveral of Reaumur's experiments, mentioned in the Me- moirs of the French Academy of Sciences, are calculated to pleafe young people much, and can be repeated without expence or dif- ficulty.
To thofe who acquire habits of. obfervation every thing that is to be (een or heard becomes a fource of amufement. Natural hiftory interefls children at an early age ; but their curiofity and
activity
TOYS. 2?
a£tlvity is too often repreffed and retrained by the ignorance or indolence of their tutors. The moft inquifitive genius grows tired of repeating, " Pray look at this ? What is it ? What can the ufe *' of this be?" when the conftant anfwer is, "Oh! it's nothing *' worth looking at, throw it away, it will dirty the houfe." Thofe who have attended to the ways of children and parents well know, that there are many little inconveniencies attending their amufements, which the fublime eye of the theorift in edu- cation overlooks, which, neverthelefs, are elFential to pra6lical fuc- cefs. " It will dirty the houfe," puts a flop to many of the opera- tions of the young philofopher } nor is it reafonable that his ex- periments fhould interfere with the neceflary regularity of a well ordered family. But moft well ordered families allow their horfes and their dogs to have houfes to themfelves ; cannot one room be allotted to the children of the family ? If they are to learn che- inidry, mineralogy, botany, or mechanics ; if they are to take fuf- ficient bodily exercife without tormenting the whole family with noife, a room (hould be provided for them. We make the bodily exercife and the noife the climax of our argument, becaufe we think they will to many appear of the moft importance.
To dire£l children in their choice of foffils, and to give them fome idea of the general arrangements of mineralogy, toylhops fhould be provided with fpecimens of ores, &c., properly labelled and arranged, in drawers, fo that they may be kept in order; children fhould have empty fhelves in their cabinets, to be filled with their own collections. They will then know how to direct their refearchcs, and how to difpofe of their treafures. If they have proper places to keep things in, they will acquire a tafte for order by the beft means, by feeling the ufe of it : to either fex
this
30 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
this tafte will be highly advantageous. Children who are adive and induftrious, and who have a tafte for natural hiftory, often colleft with much enthufiafm a variety of pebbles and common ftones, which they value as great curiofities, till fome furly mine- raloCTift happens to fee them, and condemns them all with one fu- percilious " Pfhaw !" or elfe a journey is to be taken, and there is no way of making up the heterogeneous cumberfome colle£lion, which mull: of courfe be abandoned. Nay, if no journey is to be taken, a vifitor perhaps comes unexpededly, the little naturalift's apartment muft be vacated on a few minutes notice, and the la- bour of years falls a facrifice in an inftant to the houfemaid's undif^ tinguifliing broom.
It may feem trifling to infifl: fo much upon fuch flight things, but m fadt nothing can be done in education without attention to minute circumftances. Many who have genius to Iketch large plans, have feldom patience to attend to the detail which is necef- fary for their accomplifliment. This is a ufeful, and therefore no humiliating, drudgery.
With the little cabinets which we have mentioned fhould be Ibid cheap microfcopes, which will unfold a world of new delights to children ; and it is very probable that children will not only be en- tertained with looking at objeds through a microfcope, but they will confider the nature of the magnifying glals. They fliould not be rebuffed with the anfwer, " Oh, it's only a common magnify- *' ing glafs," but they (hould be encouraged in their laudable cu- riofity ; they may eafily be led to try flight experiments in optics, which will at leafl: give the habits of obfervation and attention. In Dr. Prieflley's Hiftory of Vifion many experiments may be
found
TOYS. 31
found which are not above the comprehenfion of children often or eleven years old ; we do not imagine that any fcience can be taught by defultory experiments, but we think that a tafte for fcience may- early be given by making it entertaining, and by exciting young people to exercife their reafoning and inventive faculties upon every objedt which furrounds them. We may point out that great difcoveries have often been made by attention to flight cir- cumftances. The blowing of foap bubbles, as it was firfl: per- formed as a fcientific experiment by the celebrated Dr. Hook be- fore the Royal Society, makes a confpicuous figure in Dr. Prieft- ley's chapter on the reflexion of light ; this may be read to chil- dren, and they will be pleafed when they obferve that what at firft appeared only a trifling amufement, has occupied the underftand- ing, and excited the admiration, of fome great philofophers.
Every child obferves the colours which are to be feen in panes of glafs windows; in Prieflley's Hiftory of Vifion there are fome experiments of Hock's and Lord Brereton's upon thefe colours, which may be feleded. Buffon's obfervations upon blue and green fhadows are to be found in the fame work, and they are very en- tertaining. In Dr. Franklin's Letters there are numerous experi- ments which are particularly fuited to young people ; efpecially as in every inftance he fpeaks with that candour and opcnnefs to convidtion, and with that patient defire to difcover truth, which we ftiould wifli our pupils to admire and imitate.
The hiftory of the experiments which have been tried in the
progrefs of any fcience, and of the manner in which obfervations
of minute fafts have led to great difcoveries, will be ufeful to the
underflanding, and will gradually make the mind expert in that
6 mental
32 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
mental algebra, on which both reafoning and invention (which is perhaps only a more rapid fpecies of reafoning) depend. In draw- ing out a lift of experiments for children it will therefore be ad- vantageous, to place them in that order which will beft exhibit their relative connexion ; and, inftead of fhewing young people the fteps of a difcovery, we fliould frequently paufe to try if they can invent. In this our pupils will fucceed often beyond our expefla- tions ; and, whether it be in mechanics, chemiftry, geometry, or u\ the arts, the fame courfe of education will be found to have the lame advantages. When the powers of reafon have been cul- tivated, and the inventive faculty exercifed ; when general habits of voluntary exertion and patient perfeverance have been acquired, it will beeafy either for the pupil himfelf, or for his friends, to divert his abilities to whatever is neceflary for his happinefs. We do not ufe the phr?i(e, Ji{cce/s in the world, becaufe, if it conveys any dif- tinil ideas, it imphes fome which are perhaps inconfiftent with real happinefs.
Whilft our pupils occupy and amufe themfelves with obferva- tion, experiment, and invention, we muft take care that they have a fufficient variety of manual and bodily exercifes. A turning-lathe, and a work-bench, will afford them conftant a£live employment, and when young people can invent, they feel great pleafure in the execution of their own plans. We do not fpeak from vague theory ; we have feen the daily pleafures of the work-bench, and the per- fevering eagernefs with which young people work in wood, and brafs, and iron, when tools are put into their hands at a proper age, and when their underftanding has been previoufly taught the fim- ple principles of mechanics. It is not to be expe6led that any ex- liortations we could ufe could prevail upon a father, who happens
to
TOYS.
33
to have no iRfte for mechanics, or for chemiftry, to fpend any of his time in his children's laboratory, or at their work bench ; but in his choice of a tutor he may perhaps fupply his own defeds, and he will confider that even by interefting himfelf in the daily occupations of his children, he will do more in the advancement of their education than can be done by paying money to a hundred mafters.
We do not mean to confine young people to the laboratory or the work-bench, for exercife ; the more varied exercifes the better. Upon this fubjeft we {hall fpeak more fully hereafter : we have in general recommended all trials of addrels and dexterity, but games of chance, which we think ftiould be avoided, as they tend to give a tafte for gambling; a paffion which has been the ruin of fo many young men of promifing talents, of fo many once happy fa- milies, that every parent will think it well worth his while to at- tend to'the fmallefl: circumftances in education, which can prevent its feizing hold of the minds of his children.
In children, as in men, a tafte for gaming arifes from the want of better occupation, or of proper emotion to relieve them from the pains and penalties of idlcnefs ; both the vain and indolent are prone to this tafle from different caufes. The idea of perlonal me- rit is infenfibly connected with what is called good lucky and be- fore avarice abforbs every other feeling, vanity forms no incon- fidcrable part of the charm which fixes fuch numbers to the gam- ing-table. Indolent perfons are fond of games of chance, becaufe they feel themfelves roufed agreeably from their habitual ftate of apathy, or becaufe they perceive, that at thefe contefts, without any
F mental
34 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
mental exertion, they are equal, perhaps fuperior, to their com- petitors.
Happy they who have early been iiifpired with a tafte for fci- ence and literature ! they will have a conftant fucceffion of agree- able ideas, they will find endlefs variety in the commoneft objefls which furround them, and feeling that every day of their lives they have fufficient amufement, they will require no extraordinary excitations, no holiday pleafures. They who have learnt from their own experience a jufl: confidence in their own powers, they who have tafted the delights of well-earned praife, will not lightly truft to chance for the increafe of felf-approbation ; or will they purfue with too much eagernefs the precarious triumphs of fortune, who know that in their ufual purfuits it is in their own power to command fuccefs proportioned to their exertions. Perhaps it may be thought, that we fhould have deferred our culogium upon literature till we came to fpeak of Talks ; but if there ufually ap- pears but little connexion in a child's mind between books and toys, this mufl: be attributed to his having had bad books and bad toys. In the hands of a judicious inftruclor no means are too fmall to be ufeful ; every thing is made conducive to his purpofes, and inftead of ufelefs baubles, his pupils will be provided with play- things which may inftruft, and with occupations which may at once amufe and improve the underftanding.
It would be fuperfluous to give a greater variety of inftances of the forts of amufemcnts which are advantageous ; we fear that we have already given too many, and that we have hazarded fome ob- fervatioas, which will be thought too pompous for a chapter upoa
Toysv
TOYS. 55
Toys. We intended to have added to this chapter an inventory of the prefent moft fafhionable articles in our toy-fliops, and a lift of the new ajfortment, to fpeak in the true ftyle of an advertife- ment ; but we are obliged to defer this for the prefent : upon a future occafion we fhall fubmit it to the judgment of the public. A revolution even in toy-fliops (hould not be attempted, unlefs there appear a moral certainty, that we both may and can change for the better. The danger of doing; too much in education is greater even than the danger of doing too little. As the merchants in France anfwered to Colbert, when he defired to know " how he *' could beft aflift them," children might perhaps reply to thofe who are moft officious to amufe them, " Leave us to ourfelves."
F 2 CHAP-
( 37 )
CHAPTER 11.
TASKS.
" Why don't you get your tafk, inftead of playing wifti your *' playthings from morning to night ? You are grown too old *' now to do nothing but play. It is high time you fliould learn *' to read and write, for you cannot be a child all your life, child j *' fo go and fetch your book^ and learn your /^."
This angry apoftrophe is probably addrefled to a child, at the moment when he is intent upon fome agreeable occupation, which is now to be ftigmatized with thenameof Play. Why that wordfliould all at once change its meaning ; why that (hould now be a crime, which was formerly a viitue ; why he, who had fo often been de-- fired to^o and play ^ Ihould now be reviled for his obedience ; the young cafuifl: is unable to difcover. He hears that he is no longer a child : this he is willing to believe ; but the confequence is alarm- ing; of the new duties incumbent upon his fituation he has yet but a confufed idea. In his manly charafler he is not yet tho- roughly perfcft ; his pride would make him defpife every thing, that is childifh, but no change has yet been wrought in the in- ward man, and his old taftes and new ambition are in direct op— pofition. Whether to learn to read be a dreadful thing or not, is a\
queflion i
5S PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
queftiou he cannot immediately folve ; but if his reafoning faculty be fufpended, there is yet a power fecretly working within him^^ by which he will involuntarily be governed. This power is the power of afTociation : of its laws he is probably not more ignorant than his tutor ; or is he aware that whatever word or idea comes into his mind with any fpecies of pain, will return, whenever it is recalled to his memory, with the fame feelings. The word TalTt, the firft time he hears it, is an unmeaning word, but it ceafes to be indifferent to him the moment he hears it pronounced in a terrible voice; "Learn your talk," and " Fetch your book," recur to his recolle£lioa with indiftinft feelings of pain ; and hence, without further confideration, he will be difpofed to diflike both books and tafks : but his feelings are the laft things to be confidered upon this occafion ; the immediate bufinefs is to teach him to read.' A new era in his life now commences. The age of learning be- crins, and begins in forrow ; the confequences of a bad beginning are proverbially ominous ; but no omens can avert his fate, no omens can deter his tutor from the undertaking ; the appointed moment is come; the boy is four years old, and he muft learn to read. Some people, ftruck with a panic fear left their children fhould never learn to read and write, think that they cannot be in too great a hurry to teach them. Spelling books, grammars, dic- tionaries, rods, and mafters, are coUeded ; nothing is to be heard of in the houfe but tafks, nothing is to be feen. but tears.
*' No tears ! no taflcs ! no mafters ! nothing upon compulfion !" fay the oppofite party in education, " Children muft be left eri- *' tirely at liberty ; they will learn every thing better than you *' can teach them ; their memory muft not be overloaded with *' tralh ; their reafon muft be left to grow,"
Their
TASK S. 39
Their reafon will never grow, unlcfs it be exerclfed, is the re- ply; their memory mufl: be l1:ored whilft they are young, becaufe In youth the memory is moft tenacious. If you leave them at li- berty for ever, they will never learn to fpell, they will never learn Latin, they will never Latin grammar; yet they mufl: learn La- tin grammar, and a number of other difagreeble things, therefore we mufl: give them talks and tafk-mafl:ers.
In all thefc aflertions perhaps we fliall find a mixture of trutli, and error, therefore we had better be governed by neither party, but liflen to both, and examine arguments unawed by authority. And firft as to the panic fear, which, though no argument, is a mofl: powerful motive. We fee but few examples of children fo ex- tremely flupid as not to have been able to learn to read and write between the years of three and thirteen; but we fee many whofe temper and whofe underftanding have been materially injured by premature, or injudicious inflrudtion ; we fee many who are dif- gufted, perhaps irrecoverably, with literature, whilft they are flu- ently reading books which they cannot comprehend,, or learning, words by rote, to which they affix no ideas. It is fcarcely worth while to fpeak of the vain ambition of thofe, who long only to have it faid, that their children read fooner than thofc of their neigh- bours do ; for fuppofing their utmoft wifh to be gratified, that their fon could read before the age when children commonly arti- culate, fllU the triumph mufl be of fhort duration, the fame con- fined to a fmall circle of *' foes and friends," and probably in a few years the memory of the pha;nomenon would remain only with his doting grandmother. Surely it is the ufe which children make of their acquirements which is of confequence, not the pof- fcfTing them a few years fooner or later. A man, who during his
whole.
40 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
whole life could never write any thing that was worth reading, would find it but poor conlolation for himlelf, his friends, or the public, to refled, that he had been in joining hand before he was five years old.
As it is ufually managed, it is a dreadful tafk indeed to learn, and if pofliblea more dreadful talk to teach to read : with the help of counters, and coaxing, and gingerbread, or by dint of reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four and twenty letters of the alphabet are perhaps In the courfe of fome weeks firmly fixed in the pupil's memory. So much the worfe ; all thefe names will difturb him if he have common fenfe, and at every flep muft flop his proo"refs. To begin with the vowels ; each of thefe have fe- veral different founds, and confequently ought to have feveral names, or different figns, to diflingulfh them in different circumftances. In the firfl leffon of the fpelling book the child begins with a-b makes ab ; b-a makes ba. The inference, if any general in- ference can be drawn from this leflbn, is, that when a comes be- fore b it has one found, and after b it has another found ; but this is contradifted by and by, and it appears that a after b has various founds, as in balU in bat, in hare. The letter i mjirs is /', as we call it in the alphabet, but n\jir it is changed ; in pin it is changed asain : fo that the child being ordered to affix to the fame lign a variety of founds, and names, and not knowing in what circum- ftances to obey, and in what to difregard the contradictory injunc- tions impofed upon him, he pronounces founds at hazard, and adheres pofitively to the laft ruled cafe, or maintains an apparently fullen, or truly philofophic and fceptical lilence. Muft e in fen, and e in where, and e in verfe, and e in fear, all be called e alike ? The child is patted on the head for reading u as it ought to be pro- nounced
TASK S. 4r
nounced m future ; but if, remembering this encouragement, the pupil fliould venture to pronounce u in gun and bun in the fame manner, he will inevitably be difgraced. Pain and fhame imprefs precepts upon the mind, the child therefore is intent upon remem- bering the new found of « in bun ; but when he comes to bujy, and burial, and prudence, his lad: precedent will lead him fatally aftray, and he will again be called dunce. O in the exclamation Oh ! is happily called by its alphabetical name, but in to we can hardly know it again, and in morning and wonder it has a third and a fourth additional found. The amphibious letter _)', which is ei- ther a vowel or a confonant, has one found in one charadter, and two founds in the other ; as a confonant, it is pronounced as \r\yef- terday ; in try, it is founded as ; ; in any, and in the termination of many other words, it is founded like e. Mufl: a child know all this by intuition, or muft it be whipt into him ? But he mufl know a ^reat deal more before he can read the moft common words : what length of time fhould we allow him for learning when c is to be founded like /', and when like j ? and how much longer time (hall we add for learning when s (hall be pronounced yZ), as nxfure, or s, as in has ; the found of which laft letter s he cannot by any conjuration obtain from the name zad, the only name by which he has been taught to call it ? How much time (hall we allow a patient tutor for teaching a docile pupil when g is to be founded foft, and when hard ? There are many carefully worded rules in the fpelling books, fpecifying before what letters, and in what fituations,^ (hall vary in found, but unfortunately thefe rules are difficult to be learned by heart, and flill more difficult to underfland. Thefe laws, however pofitive, are not found to be of univerfal application, or at leafl a child has not always wit or time to apply them upon the fpur of the occafion. In coming to the words ingenious gen-
G tievian.
42 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
tleman^ get a good grammar^ he may be puzzled by the nice dif- tin£lions he is to make in pronunciation in cafes apparently fimilar : but he has not yet become acquainted with all the powers of this privileged letter ; in company with h it affumes the charadler ofy^ as in tough : another time he meets it perhaps in the fame company, in the fame place, and as nearly as pofiible in the fame circum- ftances, as in the word though ; but now g is to become a lilent letter, and is to pafs incognito, and the child would commit aa unpardonable error if he claimed the incognito as his late acquaint- ance y. Still all thefe are flight difficulties ; a moment's refledion raufl: convince us, that by teaching the common names of every confonant in the alphabet, we prepare a child for mifery when he beo-ins to fpell or read. A confonant, as fayeth the fpelling-book, is a letter which cannot be pronounced without a vowel before or after it; for this reafon B is called be^ and L, el\ but why the vowel (hould come firfl in the one cafe, or laft in the fecond, we are not informed ; or are we told why the names of fome let- ters have no refemblance whatever to their founds, either with a vowel before or after them. Suppofe that after having learned the alphabet, a child was to attempt to read the words
Here h fome apple pye^
He would pronounce the letters thus^
Acheare ies efoeme apepeele pew'ie.
With this pronunciation the child would never decypher thefe fim- pie words. It will be anfwered, perhaps, that no child is expedled to read as foon as he has learnt his alphabet : a long initiation of mouoiyllabic, diflyllabic, triflyllabic, and polyfyllabic words is pre-
vioufly
TASKS. 43
vioufly to be fubmitted to, nor after this inauguration are the no- vices capable of performing with propriety the ceremony of read- ing whole words and fentences. By a different method of teach- ing, all this wafte of labour and of time, all this confufion of rules and exceptions, and all the confequent confufion in the underftand- ing of the pupil may be avoided.
In teaching a child to read, every letter fhould have a precifc ^ fingle found annexed to its figure ; this fhould never vary. Where two confonants arc joined together, fo as to have but one found, as ph, fh, &c., the two letters fhould be coupled together by a dif- tind; invariable mark. Letters that are filent fliould be mark- ed in fuch a manner as to point out to the child that they are not to be founded. Upon thefe fimple rules our method of teaching to read has been founded. The figns or marks, by which thefe diftinflions are to be efFe£led, are arbitrary, and may be varied as the teacher choofes j the addition of a fingle point above or below the common letters is employed to diftinguifh the different founds that are given to the fame letter, and a mark underneath fuch letters as are to be omitted is the only apparatus neceduy. Thefe I marks were employed by the author in 1776, before he had feen Sheridan's, or any fimilar diilionary ; he has found that they do not confufe children as much as figures, becaufe when dots arc ufed to diftinguifh founds, there is only a change of place, and no change of form : but any perfon that choofes it may fubfliitiite figures inflcad of dots. It fhould, however, be remembered, that children mufl learn to diflinguifh the figures before they can be ufeful in difcriminating: the words.
o
All thefe founds, and each of the characters which denote them,
G 2 fhould
44 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Ihould be diftinftly known by a child before we begin to teach him to read. And here at the firft ftep we muft entreat the teacher to have patience, to fix firmly in her mindj we fay her mind, be- caufe we addrefs ourfelves to mothers ; that it is immaterial whe- ther a child learns this alphabet in fix weeks or in fix months ; at all events, let it not be inculcated with reftraint, or made tirefome, left it (hould retard the whole future progrefs of the pupil. We do not mean to recommend the cuftom of teaching in play, but furely a cheerful countenance is not incompatible with application.
The three founds of the letter (a) (hould firft be taught ; they may be learned by the dulleft child in a week, if the letters are fhewn to him for a minute or two twice a-day ; proper moments Ihould be chofen when the child is not intent upon any thing elfe, when other children have appeared to be amufed with reading, when the pupil himfelf appears anxious to be inftrudted. As fooa as he is acquainted with the founds of (a), and with their diflia- guiftiing marks, each of thefe founds ftiould be formed into fylla- bles, with each of the confonants ; but we ftiould never name the confonants by their ufual names ; if it be required to point them out by founds, let them referable the real founds or powers of the con- fonants : but in hOi. it will never be necejfary to name the confo- nants feparately, till their powers in combination with the different vowels be diftindly acquired. It will then be time enough to teach the common names of the letters. To a perfon unacquainted with the principles upon which this mode of teachinp; is founded, it muft appear ftrange that a child ftiould be able to read before he knows the names of his letters j but it has been afcertained, that the names of the letters are an incumbrance in teaching a child to read.
ALPHABET.
A 1 p li abet
r. ,6.
i^ou"''''"' as i^ c,o«n<l'"''as
Ar/r
/;/
e e e e
'n ///t '//■
ffir/ //'//r/r
//r
O //tif>/ir
6 r>//
O /^'y'/-
0 /f/Otf
i„A!OM>f d a« i
SO'
///'J /.
'/
/;//
V
-9
ea f'rff/// i ia /i/fff/
I 1© fj*/ /l/f>/l
ie £/a/uW
01 ivirf I lift u/in/ft-af
/"
../
TH
lit/i^ft/f/
ba ca da fa o"a lia ja ka la ina
11a pa qua ra sa ta va w^a ya za
1
c,,rtH>d«Ja»/„
MS'
Ic r/M i sh
y/'/ I U12," ///f/iy I S
soon"'"! as ^ ^undrd a« ^
A ft, J .j/ir
BtHl /t,i///'//
/o/if/ ' IV
I /
jfe. /lAy.tfr/- I tfe //' e«t:4l A> //<///
( /Af/'A (>A ( /'///r/r/A/'/f
ei^llt /// //'At/rA/ 1 fi" ll ffir //fi/ .>f'/f//<Af/ .
'^J •A/if.) //t/riA- ///tfA/ ft .yf//f't .)/iffi'./ /Aft/ // f.t t/tA A> Af //'/f'/ifitt/trff'^
FeliiTriai'y is cold l)ut ttif" davs ai*e 16ii«*; A^ir is a vellow" oroeiis oonii'iig,' iip . «- b.^^. ,.^^.
UnJ^n . {•tiHtffttd Jan-fi;^.ly.U,-hnj,-nS'r.H4/^ ihiurh 7anl.
TASKS. 47
In the quotation from Mrs. Barbauld, at the bottom of the aU phabetical tables, there is a ilroke between the letters b and r in February, and between t and h in there, to fhew that thefe letters are to be founded together, fo as to make one found. The fame is to be obferved as to (ng) m the word long, and alfo as to the fy lia- ble 7«^, which in the table No. 4, column 4, is dircdled to be taught as one found. The mark (.) of obliteration is put under (y) in the word days, under e final in there, and alfo under one of the /'s, and the (w) m yellow, to fhew that thefe letters are not to be pronounced. The exceptions to this fcheme of art'culation are very few ; fuch as occur are marked with the number em- ployed in Walker's diflionary, to denote the exception, to which excellent work the teacher will of courfe refer.
Parents, at the firft fight of this new alphabet, will perhaps tremble left they fhould be obliged to learn the whole of it before they begin to teach their children : but they may calm their ap- prehenfions, for they need only point out the letters in fucceflion to the child, and found them as they are founded in the words an- nexed to the letters in the table, and the child will foon by repeti- tion render the marks of the refpe£live letters familiar to the teach- er. We have never found any body complain of difficulty, who has gone on from letter to letter along with the child who was taught.
As foon as our pupil knows the different founds of (a) com- bined in fucceflion with all the confonants, we may teach him the refl of the vowels joined with all the confonants, which will be a fhort and eafy work. Our readers need not be alai mcd at the apparent flownefs of this method : fix months, at the rate of four or five minutes each day, will render all thefe combinations perfectly fa- miliar. One of Mrs. Barbauld's lelTons for young children, care- 8 fully
48 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
fiiUy marked in the fame manner as the alphabet, fhould, when they are well acquainted with the founds of each of the vowels with each of the confonants, be put into our pupil's hands*.
The found of three or four letters together will immediately be- come familiar to him, and when any of the lefs common founds of the vowels, fuch as are contained in the fecond table, and the terminating founds, tion, ly, &c., occur, they fhould be read to the child, and (hould be added to what he has got by rote from time to time. When all thcfe marks and their correfponding founds are learnt, the primer fhould be abandoned, and from that time the child will be able to read flowly the moft difficult words in the language. We muft obferve, that the mark of obliteration is of the greateft fervice ; it is a clue to the whole labyrinth of intri- cate and uncouth orthography. The word though, by the oblite- ration of three letters, may be as eafily read as the or that.
It (hould be obferved that all people, before they can read flu- ently, have acquired a knowledge of the general appearance of moft of the words in the language, independently of the fyllables of which they are compofed. Seven children in the author's fa- mily were taught to read in this manner, and three in the com- mon method; the difference of time, labour, and forrow, between the two modes of learning, appeared fo clearly, that we can fpeak with confidence upon the fubjedl. We think that nine tenths of the labour and difguft of learning to read may be faved by this method, and that inftead of frowns and tears, the ufual harbingers
* Some of tliefe lefTons, and others by the authors, will Shortly be printed, and marked according to this method,
7 of
TASKS. 49
of learning, cheerfulnefs and fmiles may initiate willing pupils in the moft difficult of all human attainments.
A and H, at four and five years old, after they had learned the alphabet, without having ever combined the letters in fyllables, were fet to read one of Mrs. Barbauld's little books : after being employed two or three minutes every day for a fortnight in making out the words of this book, a paper with a few raifins well con- cealed in its folds was given to each of them, with thefe words printed on the outfide of it, marked according to our alphabet :
" Open this, and eat what you find in it."
In twenty minutes they read it diftindly without any affiftance.
The ftep from reading with thefe marks, to reading without them, will be found very eafy. Nothing more is neceflary, than to give children the fame books without marks, which they can read fluently with them.
Spelling comes next to reading. New trials for the temper ; new perils for the underftanding ; pofitive rules and aribitrary ex- ceptions; cndlcfs examples and contradi£lions ; till at length, out of all patience with the ftupid docility of his pupil, the tutor per- ceives the abfolute necefTity of making him get by heart with all convenient fpeed every word in the language. The formidable columns in dread fucceffion arife a hoft of foes : two columns a day at lead may be conquered. Months and years are devoted to the undertaking ; but after going through a whole fpelling-book, per- haps a whole didtionary, till we come triumphantly to fpell Zeugma^
H we
yo PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
we have forgotten how to fpell Abbot, and we muft begin again with Abafement. Merely the learning to fpell fo many unconneded words without any affiftance from reafon or analogy, is nothing compared with the difficulty of learning the explanation of them by rote, and the ftill greater difficulty of underftanding the meaning of the explanation. When a child has got by rote
'♦ Midnight, the depth of night ;"
*' Metaphyfics, the fcience which treats of immaterial beings, ** and of forms in general abftraded from matter ;"
has he acquired any very difl:in6t ideas either of midnight or of me- taphyfics ? If a boy had eaten rice pudding till he fancied himfelf tolerably well acquainted with rice, would he find his knowledge much improved by learning from his fpelling-book the words
" Rice, a foreign efculent grain ?"
yet we are furprifed to difcover, that men have fo few accurate ideas, and that fo many learned difputes originate in a confufed or im- proper ufe of words.
** All this is very true," fays a candid fchoolmafter ; " we fee ** the evil, but we cannot new model the language, or write a *' perfed philofophical didlionary ; and, in the mean time, we are *' bound to teach children to fpell, which we do with the lefs re- *' ludlance, becaufe, though we allow that it is an arduous tafk, we *' have found from experience that it can be accompliflied, and *' that the underftandings of many of our pupils furvive all the
•' perils
TASKS. 51
*' perils to which you thiak them expofed during the ope- *' ration."
The underftandings may, and do furvive the operation ; but why (hould they be put in unnecefliiry danger ? and why (hould we early difguft children with literature by the pain and difficulty of their firft leflbns ? We are convinced, that the bufinefs of learn- ing to fpell is made much more laborious to children than it need to be : it may be ufeful to give them five or fix words every day to learn by heart, but more only loads their memory ; and we (hould at firfl felcifl words of which they know the meaning, and which occur mofl frequently in reading or converfation. The alphabet- ical lift of words in a fpelling book contains many which are not in common ufe, and the pupil forgets thefe as faft as he learns them. We have found it entertaining to children, to alk them to fpcll any fhort fentence as it has been accidentally fpoken. " Put *' this book on that table." Afkachild how he would fpell thofe words if he were obliged to write them down, and you introduce into his mind the idea that he muft learn to fpell, before he can make his words and thoughts underftood in writing. It is a good way to make children write down a few words of their own felec- tion every day, and correal the fpelling ; and alfo after they have been reading, whilft the words are yet frefti in their memory, we may afk them to fpell fome of the words which they have juft feen ; by thefe means, and by repeating at different times in the day thofe words which are moft frequently wanted, his vocabulary will be pretty well flocked without its having coft him many tears. We fhould obferve, that children learn to fpell more by the eye than by the ear, and that the more they read and write, the more likely they will be to remember the combination of letters in
H 2 words
52 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
words which they have continually before their eyes, or which they feel it neceflary to reprefent to others. When young people beo^in to write, they firfl feel the ufe of fpelling, and it is then that they will learn it with moft eafe and precifion. Then the oreateft care fhould be taken to look over their writing, and to make them corredl eveiry word in which they have made a miftake ; becaufe bad habits of fpelling, once contraded, can fcarcely be cured : the underflanding has nothing to do with the bufinefs, and when the memory is puzzled between the rules of fpelling right, and the habits of fpelling wrong, it becomes a misfortune to the pupil to write even a common letter. The fhame which is an- nexed to bad fpelling excites young people's attention, as foon as they are able to underftand, that it is confidered as a mark of ig- norance and ill breeding. We have often obferved, that children liften with anxiety to the remarks that are made upon this fubjed in their prefence, efpecially when the letters or notes oi grown up people are criticifed.
Some time ago, a lady, who was reading a ncwfpaper, met with a ftory of an ignorant magiftrate, who gave for his toafl at a public dinner the two Ks, for the King and Conftitution. " How very *' much afliamed the man muft have felt when all the people *' laughed at him for his miftake ! they, muft all have feen that *' he did not know how to fpcU ; and what a difgrace for a magif- " trate too !" faid a boy who heard the anecdote. It made a fe- rious impreflion upon him ; a few months afterwards, he was em- ployed by his father in an occupation which was extremely agree- able to him, but in which he continually felt the neceffity of fpel- ling corre6lly. He was employed to fend meflages by a tele- graph ; thefe meflliges he was obliged to write down haftily in lit- tle
TASKS. 53
tie journals kept for the purpofe ; and as thefe were feen by feveral people when the bufinefs of the day came to be reviewed, the boy had a confiderablc motive for orthographical exaftnefs. He became extremely defirous to teach himfelf, and confequently his fuccefs was from that moment certain. As to the reft, we refer to Lady CarUfle's comprehenfive maxim, " Spell well if you can."
It is undoubtedly of confequence to teach the rudiments of lite- rary education early, to get over the firfl difficulties of reading, writing, and Ipelling ; but much of the anxiety, and buftle, and labour of teaching thefe things may be advantageoufly fpared. If more attention were turned to the general cultivation of the un- derftanding, and if more pains were taken to make literature agreea- ble to children, there would be found lefs difficulty to excite them to mental exertion, or to induce the habits of perfcvering appli- cation.
When we fpeak of rendering literature agreeable to children, and of the danger of afTociating pain with the fight of a book, or with the found of the word taji^ we fliould at the fame time avoid the error of thofe who in their firft leflbns accuftom their pupils to fo much amufement, that they cannot help afterwards feeling difgufted with the fobriety of inftrudion. It has been the fafliion of late to attempt teaching every thing to children in play, and in- genious people have contrived to infinuate much ufcfiil knowledge without betraying the defign to inftrudl ; but this fyftem cannot be purfued beyond certain bounds without many inconvcniencies. The habit of beins; amufed not onlv increafcs the defire for amufe- ment, but it lefiens even the relifh for pleafure ; fo that the mind becomes pafhve and indolent, and a courfe of perpetually increafing
ftimulus
54-
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
ftimulus is neceflliry to awaken attention. When diffipated habits are acquired, the pupil lofes power over his own mind, and, inftead of vigorous voluntary exertion, which he fhould be able to com- mand, he fhews that wayward imbecility, which can think fuc- cefsfully only by fits and ftarts : this paralytic ftate of mind has been found to be one of the greateft calamities attendant on what is called genius ; and injudicious education creates or increafes this difeafe. Let us not therefore humour children in this capri- cious temper, efpecially if they have quick abilities : let us give re- wards proportioned to their exertions with uniform juftice, but let us not grant bounties in education, which, however they may ap- pear to fucceed in efFefting partial and temporary purpofes, are not calculated to enfure any confequences permanently beneficial. The truth is, that ufeful knowledge cannot be obtained without Icbour, that attention long continued is laborious, but that without this labour nothing excellent can be accomplifhcd. Excite a child to attend in earneft for a fhort time, his mind will be lefs fatigued, and his underftanding will be more improved, than if he had exerted but half the energy twice as long : the degree of psin which he ma\ have felt will be amply and properly compenfated by his fuc- cefs ; this will not be an arbitrary variable reward, but one withia his own power, and that can be afcertained by his own feelings. Here is no deceit praftifed, no illufion ; the fame courfe of conduft may be regularly purfued through the whole of his education, and his confidence in his tutor will progreffively incrcafe. On the con- trary, if, to entice him to enter the paths of knowledge, we flrew them with flowers, how will he feel when he muft force his way- through thorns and briars ?
There is a material difference between teaching children in
play.
-TASKS. 55
play, and making learning a talk ; in the one cafe we afTociate faiflitious pleafure, in the other faditious pain, with the objeft : both produce pernicious effe6ls upon the temper, and retard the na- tural progrefs of the underftanding. The advocates in favour of *' fcholaftic badinage" have urged, that it excites an interefi: in the minds of children fimilar to that which makes them endure a con- fiderable degree of labour in the purfuit of their amufements. Children, it is fnd, work hard at play, therefore we fliould let them play at work. Would not this produce effects the very re- verfe of what we defire ? The whole queftion muft at laft depend upon the meaning of the word play : if by play be meant every thing that is not ufually called a tafk, then undoubtedly much may be learned at play ; if, on the contrary, we mean by the expreflion todefcribe that {late of fidgetting idlenefs, or of boiftcrous aftivity, in which the intelle(5l:ual powers are torpid, or ftunned with un- meaning noife, the affertion contradids itfelf. At play fo defined children can learn nothing but bodily adlivity ; it is certainly true, that when children are interefted about any thing, whether it be about what we call a trifle, or a matter of confequence, they will exert themfelves in order to fucceed ; but from the moment the at- tention is fixed, no matter on what, children are no longer at idle play, they are at a£live work.
S , a little boy of nine years old, was {landing without any \/
book in his hand, and feemingly idle ; he was amufing himfelf with looking at what he called a rainbow upon the floor : he beg- ged his fifter M to look at it ; then he faid he wondered what
could make it ; how it came there. The fun {hone bright through the window ; the boy moved feveral things in the room, fo as to place them fometimes between the light and the colours which he
faw
56 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
faw upon the floor, and fometimes in a corner of the room where the fun did not (bine. As he moved the things he faid, " This is *' not it ;" " Nor this ;" " This hasn't any thing to do with it." At laft he found, that when he moved a tumbler of water out of the place where it flood, his rainbow vanifhed. Some violets were in the tumbler; S — thought they might be the caufe of the co- lours which he faw upon the floor, or, as he exprefled it, *' Per- *' haps thefe may be the thing." He took the violets out of the water ; the colours remained upon the floor. He then thought that ** it might be the water." He emptied the glafs ; the colours re- mained, but they were fainter. S immediately obferved, that
it was the water and glafs together that made the rainbow. " But," faid he, " there is no glafs in the fky, yet there is a rainbow, *' fo that I think the water alone would do, if we could but hold *' it together without the olafs. Oh I know how I can manage."
DO O
He poured the water flowly out of the tumbler into a bafon, which he placed where the fun fhone, and he faw the colours on the floor twinkling behind the water as it fell : this delighted him much ; but he afked why it would not do when the fun did not fhine. The fun went behind a cloud whilft he was trying his ex- periments: "There was light," faid he, "though there wasnofun- '* fhine." He then faid he thought that the different thicknefs of the glafs was the caufe of the variety of colours : afterwards he f^iid he thought that the clearnefs or muddinefs of the different drops of water was the caufe of the different colours,
A rigid preceptor, who thinks that every boy mufl be idle who has not a Latin book confl:antly in his hand, v^^ould perhaps have
reprimanded S for wafling his time at p/ay, and would have
fummoned him from his rainbow to his ta/k ; but it is very ob- vious
TASKS. 5/
vious to any perfon free from prejudices, that this child was not idle whihl: he was meditating upon the rainbow on the floor ; his attention was fixed ; he was realoning, he was trying experiments. We may call this play if we pleafe, and we may fay that Defcartes was at play, when he firfl: verified Antonio De Dominis bifliop ^ of Spalatro's treatife of the rainbow, by an experiment with a glafs globe * : and we ma v fay that Buffoii was idle, when his pleafed atten- tion was firft caught with a landfcape of green fliadows, when one evening at funfet he firft obferved that the fhadovvs of trees which fell upon a white wall were green, when he was firft delighted with the exaft reprefentation of a green arbour, which feemed as if it had been newly painted on the wall. Certainly the boy with his rainbow on the floor was as much amufed as the philofopher with his coloured fhadows ; and, however high founding the name of Antonio De Dominis, bifhop of Spalatro, it does not alter the bufinefs in the leaft j he could have exerted only his utmoji atten- tion upon the theory of the rainbow, and the child did the fame. We do not mean to compare the powers of reafoning, or the abili- ties of the child and the philofopher, we would only (hew that the fame fpecies of attention was exerted by both.
To fix the attention of children, or, in other words, to intereft them about thofe fubjedls to which we wifh them to apply, muft be our firft objeft in the early cultivation of the underftanding. This we ftiall not find a difficult undertaking if we have no falfe af- fociations, no painful recoUedions to contend with. We can con- neft any fpecies of knowledge with thofe occupations which are
* See PrielUcy's Hiilory of Vifion, vol, i. p. 51.
I immediately
•58 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
immediately agreeable to young people : for inftance, if a child is building a houfe, we may take that opportunity to teach him how bricks are made, how the arches over doors and windows are made, the nature of the keyftone and hutments of an arch, the manner in which all the different parts of the roof of a houfe are put toge- ther, &c. ; whilll he is learning all this he is eagerly and ferioufly attentive, and we educate his underftanding in the bed poffible method ; but if, miftaking the application of the principle, that li- terature fhould be made agreeable to children, we Ihould entice a child to learn his letters by a promife of a gilt coach, or by telling him that he would be the cleverefi: boy in the world if he could but learn the letter ^, we ufe falfe and foolifli motives ; we may pof- fibly by fuch means effect the immediate purpofe, but we fhall af- furedly have reafon to repent of fuch imprudent deceit. If the child reafons at all, he will be content after his firft leflbn with beingr " the clevereft boy in the world," and he will not on a future oc- cafion hazard his fame, having much to lofe, and nothing to gain ; befides, he is now mafter of a gilt coach, and fome new and larger reward muft be proffered to excite his induffry. Befides the difad- vantage of early exhaufting our ftock of incitements, it is dangerous in teaching to humour pupils with a variety of objedls by way of relieving their attention : the pleafureof //6;k/(7«^, and much of the profit, muft frequently depend upon our preferving the greateft poffible connexion between our ideas; thofe who allow themfelves to lliart from one objeft to another, acquire fuch diffipated habits of mind, that they cannot, without extreme difficulty and relu6tance, follow any connefted train of thought. You cannot teach thofe who will not follow the chain of your reafons ; upon the connexion of our ideas ufeful memory and reafoning muft depend. We will give you an inftance : arithmetic is one of the firft things that we
attempt 4
TASKS. 59
attempt to teach children. In the following dialogue, which paflcd between a boy of five years old and his father, we may ob- ferve that till the child followed his father's train of ideas he could not be taught.
o
Father, S , how many can you take from one ?
S . None.
Father. None ! Think ; can you take nothing from one r
S . None, except that one.
Father. Except ! Then you can take one from one ?
S . Yes, that otie.
Father. How many then can you take from one ?
»S . One.
Father, Very true ; but now, can you take two from one ? S . Yes, if they were figures I could, with a rubber-out.
(This child had frequently lums written for him with a black lead pencil, and he ufed to rub out his figures when they were wrong with Indian rubber, which he bad heard called rubber- out,)
Father. Yes, you could ; but now we will not talk of figures,
I 2 we
6o PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
\ve will talk of things. There may be one horfe or two horfes, or one man or two men.
S . Yes, or one coat or two coats.
Father. Yes, or one thing or two things, no matter what they are. Now, could you take two things from one thing ?
S . Yes, if there were three things I could take away two
things, and leave one.
Father took up a cake from the tea-table.
Father. Could I take two cakes from this one cake ?
S . You could take two pieces.
Father divided the cake into halves, and held up each half fo that the child might diftindly fee them.
Father. What would you call thefe two pieces ?
S . Two cakes.
Father. No, not two cakes.
S . Two bifcuits.
Father holding up a whole bifcult. What is this?
S
TASKS. 61
A thing; to eat.
'O
Father. Yes, but what would you call it ?
S . A bifcuit.
Father broke it into halves, and ftiewed one half.
Father. What would vou call this ?
S was filent, and his fifter was applied to, who anfwered.
"Haifa bifcuit."
Father. Very well ; that's all at prefent.
The father prudently flopped here, that he might not confufc his pupil's underftanding. Thofe only who have attempted to teach children can conceive how extremely difficult it is to fix their attention, or to make them feize the connexion of ideas, which it appears to us almoft impoffible to mifs. Children are well occupied in examining external obje£ls, but they muft alfo attend to words as well as things. One of the great difficulties in early inftrudion arifes from the want of words : the pupil very often has acquired the neceflary ideas, but they are not affociated in his mind with the words which his tutor ufes ; thefe words are then to him mere founds, which fuggeft no correfpondent thoughts. Words, as M. Condillac well obferves*, are elTential to our acquifition of knowledge ; they are the medium through which one fet of beings
* " Art de Penfer."
can
62 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
can convey the refult of their experiments and obfervations to ano- ther ; they are in all mental procefles the algebraic ligns which afiift us in folving the moft difficult problems. What agony does a foreioner, knowing himfelf to be a man of fenfe, appear to fuf- fer, when, for want of language, he cannot in converfation commu- nicate his knowledge, explain his reafoiis, enforce his arguments, or make his wit intelligible ? In vain he has recourfe to the lan- <Tuao-e of aftion. The langua2;e of a£lion, or, as Bacon calls it, of " tranfitory hieroglyphic," is expreflive, but inadequate. As new ideas are collected in the mind, new figns are wanted, and the progrefs of the underftanding would be early and fatally imped- ed by the want of language. M. de la Condamine tells us that there is a nation who have no fign to exprefs the number three but this word, poellartarrorincourac. Thefe people having begun, as Condillac obferves, in fuch an incommodious manner, it is not furprifmg that they have not advanced farther in their knowledge of arithmetic : they have got no farther than the number three; their knowledge of arithmetic (lops for ever at poellartarrorincourac . But even this cumberfome lign is better than none. Thofe who have the misfortune to be born deaf and dumb continue for ever in intelleftual imbecility. There is an account in the Memoires del'Academie Royale, p. xxii — xviii. 1703,. of a young man born deaf and dumb*, who recovered his hearing at the age of four and twenty, and who, after employing himfelf in repeating low to him- felf the words which he heard others pronounce, at length broke filence in company, and declared that he could talk. His converfa- tion was but imperfed ; he was examined by feveral able theolo-
* See Condillac's Art de Penfer. In the chapter " on the ufe of figns" tliis young man is mentioned.
gians.
TASKS. 63
gians, who chiefly queftloiied him on his ideas of God, the foul, and the morality or immorality of ad^ions. It appeared that he had not thought upon any of thefe fubjedts; he did not diftindlly know what was meant by death, and he never thought of it. He feemed to pafs a merely animal life, occupied with fenfible, prefent objefts, and with the few ideas which he received by his fenfe of fight ; nor did he feem to have 2;ained as much knowledgre as he mio-ht have done by the comparifou of thefe ideas, yet it is faid that he did not appear naturally deficient in underftanding.
Peter the wild boy, who is mentioned in Lord Monboddo's Origin of Language*, had all his fenfes in remarkable perfedtion. He lived at a farm houfe within half a mile of us in Hertfordlhire for fome years, and we had frequent opportunities of trying ex- periments upon him. He could articulate imperfe£lly a few words, in particular, /C/«g- George^ which words he always accompanied with an imitation of the bells, which rang at the coronation of George the Second ; he could in a rude manner imitate two or three com- mon tunes, but without words. Though his head, as Mr. Wedge- wood and many others had remarked, refembled that of Socrates, he was an idiot : he had acquired a few automatic habits of rationality and induftry, but he could never be made to work at any continued occupation ; he would fhut the door of the farm-yard five hundred times a day, but he would not reap or make hay. Drawing wa- ter from a neighbouring river was the only domeftic bufinefs which he regularly purfued. In 1779 we vifited him, and tried the fol- lowing experiment. He was attended to the river by a perfon who emptied his buckets repeatedly after Peter had repeatedly filled
* Vol. II.
them.
64 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
them. A fliilling was put before his.face into one of the buckets when it was empty; he took no notice of it, but filled it with, water and carried it homeward : his buckets were taken from him before he reached the houfe and emptied on the ground ; the fhil- ling, which had fallen out, was again ftiewn to him, and put into the bucket. Peter returned to the river again, filled his bucket and went home ; and when the bucket was emptied by the maid at the houfe where he lived, he took the fliilling and laid it in a place where he was accufliomed to depofit the prelents that were made to him by curious ftrangers, and whence the farmer's wife col- led:ed the price of his daily exhibition.
Roufleau declaims with eloquence, and often with juflice,
againft what he calls a knowledge of words. Words without cor- es o
refpondent ideas are worfe than ufelefs, they are counterfeit coin, which impofes upon the ignorant and unwary ; but words, which really reprefent ideas, are not only of current ufe, but of flerling value ; they not only flievv our prefent flore, but they increafe our wealth by keeping it in continual circulation ; both the prin- cipal and the interefl increafe together. The importance of figns and words in our reafonings has been eloquently explained, fuice the time of Condillac, by Stewart. We murt ufe the ideas of thefe excellent writers, becaufe they are juft and applicable to the art of education ; but whilft we ufe, it is with proper acknowledgments that we borrow, what we fhall never be able to return.
It is a nice and difficult thing in education to proportion a child's vocabulary exactly to his knowledge, difpofitions, or conformation; our management muft vary ; fome will acquire words too quickly, others too flowly. A child who has great facility in pronouncing
founds,
TASKS. 65
founds, will for that reafon» quickly acquire a number of words, whilft thofe vvhofe organs of fpeech are not fo happily formed, will from that caufe alone be lefs ready in forming a copious vo- cabulary. Children who have many companions, or who live with people who converfe a great deal, have more motive, both from fympathy and emulation, to acquire a variety of words, than thofe can have who live with filent people, and who have few companions of their own age. All thefe circumftances fhould be confidered by parents, before they form their judgment of a child's capacity from his volubility or his taciturnity. Volubility can eafily be checked by fimply ceafing to attend to it, and taciturnity may be vanquifhed by the encouragements of piaife and affedlion ; we (hould neither be alarmed at one difpofition or at the other, but ftcadily purfue the fyftem of conduct which will be moft ad- vantageous to both. When a prattling vivacious child pours forth a multiplicity of words without underftanding their meaning, we may fometimes beg to have an explanation of a few of them, and the child will then be obliged to think, which will prevent him from talking nonfenfe another time. When a thoughtful boy, who is in the habit of obferving every objeft he fees, is at a lofs for words to exprefs his ideas, his countenance ufually flievvs to thofe who can read the countenance of children, that he is not ftupid ; there- fore we need not urge him to talk, but aflift him judicioufly with words " in his utmoft need :" at the fame time we fhould ob- ferve carefully, whether he grows lazy when wc afTifi: him ; if his flock of words does not incrcafe in proportion to the affiftancc we give, we fliould then ftimulate him to exertion, or elfe he will be- come habitually indolent in exprefiuig his ideas ; though he may i/jini in a language of his own, he will not be able to underfland
K our
66 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
our lano-uage when we attempt to ieach him ; this would be a fource of daily mifery to both parties.
When children begin to read, they feem fuddenly to acquire a <yreat variety of words; we fhould carefully examine whether they annex the proper meaning to thefe which are Co rapidly collected. Inftead of giving them leffons and tafks to get by rote, we (hould cautiouily watch over every new phrafe and every new word which they learn from books. There are but few books fo writ- ten that young children can comprehend a fingle fentence in therr\ without much explanation. It is tirefome to thofe who hear them' read to explain every word ; it is not only tirefome but difficult ; befides, the progrefs of the pupil feems to be retarded ; the grand bufinefs of reading, of getting through the book is impeded ; and the tutor, more impatient than his pupil, fays," Read on, I cannot " flop to explain t/jat to you now. You will underfland the mean- *' ing of the fentence if you will read to the end of the page. You- *' have not read three lines this half hour ; we ftiall never get oa •' at this rate."
A certain dame at a country fchool, who had never been able to J compafs the word Nebuchadnezzar, ufed to defire her pupils to *' call it Nazareth, and let it pafs."
If they be obliged to pafs over words without comprehending them in books, they will probably do the fame in converfation ; and the difficulty of teaching fuch pupils, and of underftanding what they fay, will be equally increafed. At the hazard of being tedious we muft dwell a little longer upon this fubjcfl, becaufe
much
TASKS. 67
much of the future capacity of children feems to depend upon the manner in which they firft acquire language. If their language be confufed, fo will be their thoughts; and they will not be able to reafon, to invent, or to write, with more precifion and ac- curacy than they fpeak. The firft words that children learn are the names of things ; thefe are eafily aflbciated with the objedis themfelves, and there is little danger of miftake or confufion. We will not enter into the grammatical dlfpute concerning the right of precedency amongft pronoun fubftantives and verbs ; we do not know which came firft into the mind of man ; perhaps, in dif- ferent minds, and in different circumftances, the precedency muft have varied ; but this feems to be of little confequence : children fee adions performed, and they a£l themfelves ; when they want to exprefs their remembrance of thefe adtions, they make ufe of the fort of words which we call verbs. Let thefe words be ftridly aflbciated with the ideas which they mean to exprefs, and no mat- ter whether children know any thing about the difputes of gram- marians, they will underftand rational grammar in due time, fimply by refle(5ling upon their own minds. This we fhall explain more fully when we fpeak hereafter of grammar; we juft mention the fubje£l here, to warn preceptors againft puzzling their pupils too early with grammatical fubtleties.
If any perfon unufed to mechanics was to read Dr. Defagulier's defcription of the manner in which a man walks, the number of a-b-cs, and the travels of the center of gravity, would fo amaze and confound him, that he would fcarccly believe he could ever again perform luch a tremendous operation as that of walking. Children, if they were early to hear grammarians talk of the parts of fpeech, and of fyntax, would conclude, that to fpeak muft be
K 2 one
68 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
one of the moft difficult arts in the world : but children, who are not ufually fo unfortunate as to have grannmarians for their pre- ceptors when they hrft begin to fpeak, acquire language without beino- aware of the difficulties which would appear lb formidable in theory. A child points to, or touches, the table, and when the word table is repeated, at the fame inftant he learns the name of the thing. The facility with which a number of names are thus learned in infancy is furprifing, but we muft not imagine that the child in learning thefe names has acquired much knowledge ; he has prepared himfelf to be taught, but he has not yet learnt any thing accurately. When a child fees a guinea and a fliilling, and fmiling fays, " That's a guinea, mamma I and that's a (hilling !'* the mother is plcafed and furprifed by her fon's intelligence, and file gives him credit for more than he really poflelTes. We have afTociated with the words guinea and fliilling a number of ideas, and when we hear the fame words pronounced by a young child, we perhaps have forae confufed belief that he has acquired the fame ideas that we have; hence we are pleafed with the mere found of words of high import from infantine lips.
Children who are delighted in their turn by the expreffion of pleafure in the countenance of others, repeat the things which they perceive have pleafed ; and thus their education is begun by thofe who firft fmile upon them, and liften to them when they attempt to fpeak. They who applaud children for knowing the names of things, induce them quickly to learn a number of names by rote : as long as they learn the names of external objefts only, which they can fee, and fmell, and touch, all is well ; the names will con- vey diftin£l ideas of certain perceptions. A child who learns the name of a talte, or of a colour, who learns that the tafte of fugar
is
TASKS. 69
is called fweet, and that the colour of a red rofe is called red, has learned diftiudt words to exprefs certain perceptions ; and we can at any future time recall to his mind the memory of thofe per- ceptions by means of their names, and he underftands us as well as the moll learned philofopher. But, fuppofe that a boy had learned only the name of gold ; that when different metals were (hewn to him, he could put his finger upon gold, and fay, " That is *' gold ;" yet this boy does not know all the properties of gold, he does not know in what it differs from other metals, to whatufes it is applied in arts, manufactures, and commerce ; the name of gold in his mind reprefents nothing more than a fubftance of a bright yellow colour, upon which people, he does not precifely know why, fet a great value. Now, it is very pofTible that a child might, on the contrary, learn all the properties, and the various ufes of gold, without having learned its name ; his ideas of this metal would be perfectly diftinCl, but whenever he wirtied to fpeak of gold, he would be oblijjed to ufe a vaft deal of circumlocution to make himfelf underftood ; and if he were to enumerate all the pro- perties of the metal every time he wanted to recall the general idea, his converfation would be intolerably tedious to others, and to himfelf this ufelefs repetition muft be extremely laborious. He would certainly be glad to learn that fingle word gold, which would fave him fo much trouble ; his underftanding would appear fud- denly to have improved, limply from his having acquired a proper fign to reprefent his ideas. The boy who had learnt the name, without knowing any of the properties of gold, would alfo appear comparatively ignorant, as foon as it is difcovered that he has few ideas annexed to the word. It is, perhaps, for this reafon, that fome children feem fuddenly to fliine out with knowledge, which no one fufpeCted they poircfled; whilfl others who had appeared to be
very
70 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
very quick and clever come to a dead ftop in their education, and appear to be blighted by fome unknown caufe. The chile' reii who fuddenly fliine out, are thofe who had acquired a number of ideas, arid who the moment they acquire proper words can communicate their thoughts to others. Thofe children who fuddenly feem to lofe their fuperiority, are thofe who had acquired a variety of words, but who had not annexed ideas to them ; when their ig- norance is detefted, we not only defpair of them, but they are apt to defpair of themfelves ; they fee their companions get before them, and they do not exadtly perceive the caufe of their fudden incapacity. Where we fpeak of fenfible, vifible, tangible objeds, we can eafily detedt and remedy a child's ignorance. It is eafy to difcover whether he has or has not a complete notion of fuch a fubftance as gold ; we can enumerate its properties, and readily point out in what his definition is defedtive. The lubfliance can be eafily produced for examination ; mofl: of its properties are ob- vious to the fenfes ; we have nothing to do but to (hew them to the child, and to aflbciate with each property its ufual name : here there can be no danger of puzzling his underllianding ; but when we come to the explanation of words which do not reprefent ex- ternal objects, we (hall find the affair more difficult. We can make children underfland the meaninsr of thofe words which are the names of fimple feelings of the mind, fuch as furprize, joy, grief, pity ; becaufe we can either put our pupils in fituations where they adually feel thefe fenfations, and then we may affociate the name with the feeling ; or we may, by the example of other people who actually fuffer pain or enjoy pleafure, point out what we mean by the words joy and grief. But how (hall we explain to our young pupils a number of words which reprefent neither cxifting fubftances nor fimple feelings, when we can neither recur to
experiment
TASKS.
71
experiment nor to fympathy for affiftance ? How fhall we explain, for inftance, the words virtue, juftice, benevolence, beauty, tafte, &c. ? To analyfe our own ideas of thefe is no eafy talk; to explain the proccfs to a young child is fcarcely poffible. Call upon any man who has read and refledled, for a definition of virtue, the whole " theory of moral fentiments" rifes perhaps to his view at once in all its elegance ; the paradoxical acumen of Mandeville, the perfpicuous reafoning of Hume, the accurate metaphyfics of Condillac, the perfuafive eloquence of Stewart ; all the various dodlrines that have been fupported concerning the foundation of morals, fuch as the fitnefs of things, the moral fenfe, the beauty of truth, utility, fympathy, common fenfe ; all that has been faid by ancient and modern philofophers, is recalled in tranfient per- plexing fucceffion to his memory. If fuch be the ftate of mind of the man who is to define, what muft be the condition of the child whoisto underftand the definition ? All that a prudent perfon will attempt, is to give inflances of different virtues; but even thefe it will be difficult properly to felecft for a child. General terms, whether in morals or in natural philofophy, fhould, we apprehend, be as much as poflible avoided in early education. Some people may imagine that chil- dren have improved in virtue and wlfdom when they can talk fluently of juftice, and charity, and humanity ; when they can read with a good emphafis any didadlic compofitions in verfe ot profe : but let any perfon of fober common fenfe be allowed to crofs-examine thefe proficients, and the pretended extent of their knowledge will (hrink into a narrow compafs j nor will their vir- tues, which have never fcen fervice, be ready for action.
General terms are, as it were, but the indorfements upon the
bundles of our ideas ; they are ufeful to thofe who have colleded
7 a number
72 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
a number of ideas, but utterly ufelefs to thofe who have no col- leftions ready for claflificatiou : nor fliould we be in a hurry to tie up the bundles, till we are fure that the coUedion is tolerably complete ; the trouble, the difficulty, the Ihame of untying them late in life is felt even by fuperior minds. " Sir," faid Dr. John- fon, " I don't like to have any of my opinions attacked. 1 have " made up my faggot, and if you draw out one you weaken the *' whole bundle."
Preceptors fometimes explain general terms and abflrad notions vaguely to their pupils, (imply, becaufe they are afhamed to make that anfvver which every fenfible perfon muft frequently make to a child's inquiries. " I don't know *." Surely it is much better to fay at once, " I cannot explain this to you," than to attempt ?n imperfect or fophiftical reply. Fortunately for us, children, if they are not forced to attend to fludies for which they have no tafte, will not trouble us much with moral and metaphyfical quef- tions; their attention will be fully employed upon external objedls; intent upon experiments, they will not be very inquifitive about theories. Let us then take care that their fimple ideas be accu- rate, and when thefe are compounded, their complex notions, their principles, opinions, and taftes, will hecefTarily be juft ; their lan- guage will then be as accurate as their ideas are diftindl; and hence they will be enabled to reafon with precifion, and to invent with facility. We may obferve, that the great difficulty in reafoning is to fix fleadily upon our terms ; ideas can be readily compared, when the words by which we exprefs them are defined ; as in arithmetic and algebra, we can eafily folve any problem, when we
Rouffcau.
have
TASKS. -j^
have precife figns for all the numbers and quantities which are to be confidered.
It is not from idlenefs, it is not from ftupidity, it is not from obftinacy, that children frequently fhew an indifpofition to liflen to thofe who attempt to explain things to them. The exer- tion of attention, which is frequently required from them, is too great for the patience of childhood : the words that are ufed are fo inaccurate in their fignification, that they convey to the mind fometimes one idea and fometimes another ; wc might as well re- quire of them to caft up a fum right whilft we rubbed out and changed the figures every inftant, as expedl that they fliould feize a combination of ideas prefented to them in variable words. Whoever experts to command the attention of an intelligent child, muft be extremely careful in the ufe of words. If the pupil be paid for the labour of liftening by the pleafure of underftanding what is faid, he will attend, whether it be to his playfellow, or to his tutor, to converfation, or to books. But if he has by fatal ex- perience difcovered, that, let him liften ever fo intently, he cannot underftand, he will fpare himfelf the trouble of fruitlefs exertion ; and, though he may put on a face of atteation, his thoughts will wander far from his tutor and his talks.
*' It is impoflible to fix the attention of children," exclaims the tutor ; " when this boy attends he can do any thing, but he will *' not attend for a finde inftant."
Alas ! it is in vain to fay he ivill not attend, he cannot.
CHAPTER
( 75 )
CHAPTER III.
ON ATTENTION.
Pere Bourgeois, one of the miffionaries to China, attempted y" to preach a Chinefe fermon to the Chinefe. His own account of the bufinefs is the beft we can give.
o
*' They told me Chou fignifies a book, fo that I thought when- *' ever the word Chou was pronounced a book was the fubjeft of " difcourfe ; not at all. Chou, the next time I heard it, I found " fignified a tree. Now I was to recolledl Chou was a book, and *' a tree ; but this amounted to nothing. Chou I found alfo ex- " prefled great heats. Chou is to relate. Chou is the Aurora. Chou " means to be accujlomed. Chou exprefles the lofs of a wager., &c. " I fliould never have done were I to enumerate all its mean-
*' I recited my fermon at leaft fifty times to my fervant before " I fpoke it ia pubhc, and yet I am told, though he continually •" corredled me, that of the ten parts of the fermon (as the Chi- *' nefe exprefs themfelves) they hardly undcrftood three. Fortu- ^' nately the Chinefe are wonderfully patient."
L 2 Children
76 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Children are fometlmes in the condition in which the Chinefe found themfelves at this learned miffionary's fermon, and their pa- tience deferves to be equally commended. The difficulty of un- derftanding the Chinefe Chou ftrikes us immediately, and we fympathife with Pere Bourgeois's perplexity ; yet many words, which are in common ufe amongft us, may perhaps be as puzzling to children. Block, (fee Johnfon's Dictionary) fignifies a heavy piece of timber, a mafs of matter. Block means the wood on which hats are formed. Block mean^ the wood on which criminals are be- headed. Block is a fea-term for a pulley. Block is an objiru^ion, ajlop', and, finally, Block means a blockhead.
There are in our language ten meanings (or fveet, ten for open, twenty-two for upon, and fixty-three for to fall. Such are the de- fers of language ! But, whatever they may be, we cannot hope immediately to fee them reformed, becaufe common confent, and univerfal cuftom, mufl: combine to eftablifh a new vocabulary. None but philofophers could invent, and none but philofophers would adopt, a philofophical language. The new philofophical language of chemiftry was received at firft with fome relu£tance, even by chemifts, notwithftanding its obvious utility and elegance. Butter of antimony, and liver of fulphur, flowers of zinc, oil of vitriol, and fpirit of fulphur by the bell, powder of algaroth, and fait of alembroth, may yet long retain their ancient titles amongft apo- thecaries. There does not exift in the mineral kingdom either but- ter or oil, or yet flowers ; thefe treacherous names * are given to the moft violent poifons, fo that there is no analogy to guide the underflanding or the memory : but Cuftom has a prefcriptive right
* V. Preface to BerthoUet's Chemical Nomenclature.
to
ATTENTION. 77
to talk nonfenfe. The barbarous enigmatical jargon of the ancient adepts continued for above a century to be the only chemical lan- guage of men of fcience, notwithftanding the prodigious labour to the memory, and confufion to the underftanding, which it occa- fioned : they have but juft now left off calling one of their veffels for diftilling a death's head, and another a helmet. Capricious ana- logy with difficulty yields to rational arrangement. If fuch has been the flow progrefs of a philofophical language amongft the learned, how can we exped to make a general, or even a partial reformation amongfl the ignorant ? And it may be afked, how can we in edu- cation attempt to teach in any but cuftomary terms ? There is no occafion to make any fudden or violent alteration in language, but a man who attempts to teach will find it neceffary to feledl his terms with care, to define them with accuracy, and to abide by them with fteadinefs ; thus he will make a philofophical vocabulary for himfelf. Perfons who want to puzzle and to deceive, always purfue a contrary pradlice ; they ufe as great a variety of unmean- ing, or of ambiguous words, as they poflibly can *. That ftate jug- gler, Oliver Cromwell, excelled in this fpecies of eloquence ; his fpeeches are models in their kind. Count Caglioftro, and the Coun- tefs de la Motte, were not his fuperiors in the power of bafHing the underftanding. The ancient oracles, and the old books of ju- dicial aftrologers, and of alchemifts, were contrived upon the fame principles ; in all thefe we are confounded by a multiplicity of words which convey a doubtful fcnfe.
Children, who have not the habit of liftcning to words without underflanding them, yawn and writhe with manife/l fymptoms of
* V. Condillac's «' Artde Pcnfer."
dlfguft.
7$ PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
diff^un-, whenever they are compelled to hear founds which con- vey no ideas to their minds. All fupernumerary words (hould be avoided in cultivating the power of attention.
The common obfervation, that we can attend to but one thing at a time, fhould never be forgotten by thofe who expe£t to fucceed in the art of teaching. In teaching new terms, or new ideas, we muft not produce a number at once. It is prudent to confider, that the aclual progrefs made in our bufinefs at one fitting is not of fo much confequence, as thedefire left in the pupil's mind to fit again. Now a child will be better pleafed with himfelf, and with his tu- tor, if he acquire one diftinfl idea from a leflbn, than if he retain a confufed notion of twenty diferent things. Some people imagine, that as children appear averfe to repetition, variety will amufe them. Variety to a certain degree certainly relieves the mind, but then the objeds which are varied muft not all be entirely new. Novelty and variety joined fatigue the mind. Either we remain paffive at the fliow, or elfe we fatigue ourfelves with InefFeftual adllvlty.
A few years ago a gentleman * brought two Elkimauxes to Lon- don : he wiihed to amufe, and at the fame time to aftonifli them, with the magnificence of the metropolis. For this purpofe, after having equipped them like Englilli gentlemen, he took them out one morning to walk through the ftreets of London. They walked for feveral hours in filence ; they exprefled neither pleafure nor ad- miration at any thing which they faw. When their walk was ended, they appeared uncommonly melancholy and flupified. As
* Major Cartwright, See his Journal, &c.
foo:;
ATTENTION. 79
foon as they got home they fat down with their elbows upon their knees, and hid their faces between their hands. The only words they could be brought to utter were, " Too much fmoke — too much " noife — too much houfes — too much men — too much every « thing !"
Some people who attend public le£lures upon natural philofophy, with the expeftation of being much amufed and inft:ru£led, go home with fenfations fimilar to thofe of the poor Elkimauxes ; they feel that they have had too much of every thing. The lec- turer has not time to explain his terms, or to repeat them till they are diftindl in the memory of his audience*. To children every mode of inftrudion muft be hurtful which fatigues attention, therefore a ikilful preceptor will as much as pofTible avoid the man- ner of teaching, to which the public ledurer is in fome degree com- pelled by his fituation. A private preceptor, who undertakes the inflru£tion of feveral pupils in the fame family, will examine with care the different habits and tempers of his pupils ; and he will have full leifure to adapt his inftrudions peculiarly to each.
There are fome general obfcrvations which apply to all under- ftandings ; thefe we fliall 6rft enumerate, and we may afterwards examine what diftindions ftiould be made for pupils of different tempers or difpofitions.
Befides diflindnefs and accuracy in the language which we ufe, befides care to produce but few ideas or terms that are new in our firft leflbns, we muft exercife attention but during very fliort pe-
* V, Cliaptcr on Mechanics.
riods.
8o PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
riods. In the beginning of every fcience pupils have much labo- rious work, we fliould therefore allow them time; we fhould re- prefs our own impatience when they appear to be flow in compre- hending reafons, or in feizing analogies. We often expedt, that thofe whom we are teaching fliould know fome things intuitively, becaufe thefe may have been fo long known to us that we forget how we learned them. We may from habit learn to pafs with ex- traordinary velocity from one idea to another. " Some often re- *' peated procefles of reafoning or invention," fays Mr. Stewart, *' may be carried on fo quickly in the mind that we may not be *' confcious of them ourlelves." Yet we eafily convince ourfelves that this rapid facility of thought is purely the refult of praftice, by obferving the comparatively flow progrefs of our underflandings in fubje£ts to which we have not been accuftomed : the progrefs of the mind is there fo flow, that we can count every ftep.
We are difpofed to think that thofe mufl: be naturally flow and ftupid, who do not perceive the refemblances between objedls which ftrike us, we fay, at the firft glance. But what we call the firft glance is frequently the fiftieth ; we have got the things com- pletely by heart ; all the parts are known to us, and we are at lei- fure to compare and judge. A reafonable preceptor will not expedl from his pupil two efforts of attention at the fame inflant ; he will not require them at once to learn terms by heart, and to compare the obje£ts which thofe terms reprefent ; he will repeat his terms till they are thoroughly fixed in the memory ; he will repeat his reafoning till the chain of ideas is completely formed.
Repetition makes all operations eafy ; even the fatigue of think- ing diminiflies by habit. That we may not increafe the labour 4 of
ATTENTION. 8i
of the mind unfeafonably, we ihould watch for the moment when habit has made one lefTon eafy, and then we may go forward a new flep. In teaching the children at the Houfe of Induftry at Munich to fpin, Count Rumford wifely ordered that they fliould be made perfe6l in one motion before any other was fhown to them: at firft they were allowed only to move the wheel by the treadle with their feet ; when, after fufficient pradice, the foot became perfedt in its leflbn, the hands were fet to work, and the children were allowed to begin to fpin with coarfe materials. It is faid that thefe children made remarkably good fpinners. Madame de Genlis ap- plied the fame principle in teaching Adela to play upon the harp *.
In the firfl attempts to learn any new bodily exercife, as fencing or dancing, perfons are not certain what mufcles they mufl: ufe, and what may be left at reft ; they generally employ thofe of which they have the moft ready command, but thefe may not always be thofe which are really wanted in the new operation. The limpleH; thing appears difficult till by pradlice we have aflbciated the vari- ous flight motions which ought to be combined ; we feel that from want of ufe our motions are not obedient to our will, and to fup- ply this defeft we exert more ftrength and a£tivity than is requifite. *' It does not require ftrength ; you need not ufe {o much force ; *' you need not take fo much pains ;" we frequently fay to thofe \rho are making the firft painful awkward attempts at forae fimple operation. Can any thing appear more eafy than knitting, when we look at the dextrous rapid motions of an experienced practi- tioner ? but let a gentleman take up a lady's knitting needles, and knitting appears to him, and to all the fpedators, one of the moft
* y. Adela and Theodore.
M difficult
82 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
difficult and laborious operations Imaginable. A lady who is learn- ing to work with a tambour needle puts her head down clofe to the tambour frame, the colour comes into her face, flie flrains her eyes, all her faculties are exerted, and perhaps (he works at the rate of three links a minute. A week afterwards, probably, pradlice has made the work perfedly eafy ; the fame lady goes rapidly on with her work ; flie can talk, and laugh, and perhaps even think, whilft flie works ; (he has now difcovered that a number of the motions, and a threat portion of that attention which (he thought neceflary to this mighty operation, may be advantageoufly fpared.
In a fimilar manner in the exercife of our minds upon fubjefls that are new to us we generally exert more attention than is ne- ce(rary or ferviceable, and we confequently foon fatigue ourfelves without any advantage. Children, to whom many fubjcdls ar;s new, are often fatigued by thefe overftrained and mifplaced efforts ; in thefe circumftances a tutor (hould relieve the attention by intro- ducing indifferent fubjefts of converfation ; he can, by (hewing no anxiety himfelf either in his manner or countenance, relieve his pu- pil from any appi-eheufion of his difpleafure, or of his contempt ; he can jeprefent that the objed before them is not a matter of life and death ; that if the child docs not iucceed in the firft trials he will not be difgraced in the opinion of any his friends ; that by perfe- verance he will certainly conquer the difficulty; that it is of little confequence whether he underftands the thing in queftion to-day or to-morrow : thefe confiderations will calm the overanxious pu- pil's agitation, and, whether he fucceed or not, he will not fuffer fuch a degree of pain as to difguft him in his firft attempts.
Befides the command -which we by this prudent management 3 obtain
ATTENTION. 83
obtain over the pupil's mind, we (hall alfo prevent him from ac- quiring any of thofe awkward geftures and involuntary motions which are fomctimes praftifed to relieve the pain of attention.
Dr. Darwin obferves, that when we experience any difagreeable fenfations, we endeavour to procure ourfelves temporary relief by motions of thofe mufclesand limbs which are mofl: habitually obedi- ent to our will. This obfervation extends to mental as well as to bodily pain ; thus perfons in violent grief wring their hands and coa- vulfe their countenances ; thofe who are fubjecl to the petty, but acute miferies of falfe fhame, endeavour to relieve themfelves by awkward gcftures and continual motions. A ploughboy, when he is brought into the prefence of thofe whom he thinks his fupe- riors, endeavours to relieve himfelf from the uneafy fenfations of falfe fliame, by twirling his hat upon his fingers, and by various uncouth geftures. Men who think a great deal fometimes ac- quire habitual awkward geflures, to relieve the pain of intenfe thought.
When attention firfl becomes irkfome to children, they mitigate the mental pain by wrinkling their brows, or they fidget and put themfelves into flrange attitudes. Thefe odd motions, which at firfl are voluntary, after they have been frequently afTociated with certain flates of mind, conflantly recur involuntarily with thofe feelings or ideas with which they have been connedled. For inftance, a boy, who has been ufed to buckle and unbuckle his fhoe when he repeats his IcfTon by rote, cannot repeat his lefTon without per- forming this operation ; it becomes a fort of artificial memory which is necefi'ary to prompt his recolledlive faculty. When children have a variety of tricks of this fort they are of little confequence,
M 2 but
§4 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
but when they have acquired a few conftant and habitual motion?, whilft they think, or repeat, or liften, thefe fhould be attended to^^ and the habits fhould be broken, otherwife thefe young people will appear when they grow up awkward and ridiculous in their manners; and, what is worfe, perhaps their thoughts and abilities will be too much in the power of external circumftances. Addifou reprefents with much humour the ca(e of a poor man who had the habit of twirling a bit of thread round his finger ; the thread was accidentally broken, and the orator flood mute.
We once faw a gentleman get up to fpeak in a public afTembly, provided with a paper of notes written in pencil ; during the exor- dium of his fpeech he thumbed his notes with incefTant agitation ; when he looked at the paper he found that the words were totally obliterated ; he was obliged to apologife to his audience, and after much hefitation fat down abafhed. A father would be forry to fee his fou in fuch a predicament.^
To prevent children from acquiring fuch awkward tricks whilft they are thinking, we fhould in the firft place take care not to make them attend for too long a time together, then the pain of atten- tion will not be fo violent as to compel them to ufe thefe flrange modes of relief. Bodily cxercife fliould immediately follow that entire flate of reft, in which our pupils ought to keep thernfelves whilrt they attend. The firfl fymptoms of any awkward trick fl^ould be watched : they are eafily prevented by early care from becoming habitual. If any fuch tricks have been acquired, and if the pupil cannot exert his attention in common without certain contorfions are permitted, we fhould attempt the cure either by fudden flight bodily pain, or by a total fufpenfion of all the employ- ments
ATTENTION. 85
ments with which thefe bad habits are aflbciated. If a boy could not read without fvvinging his head Hke a pendulum, we fhould rather prohibit him from reading for fome time, than fufFer him to grow up with this ridiculous habit. But in converfation, when- ever opportunities occur of telling him any thing in which he is particularly interefted, we fhould refufe to gratify his curiofity vinlefs he keeps himfelf perfedly ftill. The excitement here would be fufficient to conquer the habit.
Whatever is conne£l:ed with pain or pleafure commands our at- tention; but to make this general obfervation ufeful in education, Ave muft examine what degrees of ftimulus are neceflary for dif- ferent pupils, and in different circumftances. We have formerly obferved*, that it is not prudent early to ufe violent or continual ftimulus, either of a painful or a pleafurable nature, to excite chil- dren to application, becaufe we fhould by an intemperate ufe of thefe weaken the mind, and becaufe we may with a little patience obtain all we wifli without tliefe expedients. Befides thefe reafons, there is another potent argument againft ufing violent motives to excite attention ; fuch motives frequently difturb and difiipate the very attention which they attempt to fix. If a child be threatened with fevere punifliment, or flattered with the promife of fome de- licious reward, in order to induce his performance of any particular talk, he defires inftantly to perform the talk : but this defire will not enfure his fuccefs ; unlefs he has previoufly acquired the habit of voluntary exertion, he will not be able to turn his mind from his ardent wiflies, even to the means of accompHHiing them. He will be in the fituatiOa cf Alnafchar in the Arabian tales, who, vvhilfl
*■ Chapter on Talks,
he
85 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
he dreamt of his future grandeur, forgot his immediate bufinefs. The crreater his hope or fear, the greater the difficulty of his em- ploying himfelf.
To teach any new habit or art, we mufl: not employ any alarm- Mno- excitements : fmall, certain, regularly recurring motives, which intereft, but which do not dillract the mind, are evidently the beft. The ancient inhabitants of Minorca were faid to be the beft (ling- ers in the world ; when they were children, every morning what they were to eat was (lightly fufpended to high poles, and they were obliged to throw down their breakfafts with their (lings from the places where they were fufpended, before they could fatisfy their hunger. The motive leems to have been here well proportioned to the effect that was required ; it could not be any great misfortune to a boy to go without his breakfaftj but as this m.otive returned every morning, it became lu(Kciently ferious to the hungry (lingers. »
It is impo(rible to explain this fubjefl fo as to be of ufe, without defcending to minute particulars. When a mother fays to her lit- tle daughter, as (he places on the table before her a bunch of ripe cherries, " Tell me, my dear, how many cherries are there, and I *' will give them to you ?" — the child's attention is fixed inftant- ly ; there is a fu(Ticient motive, not a motive which excites any violent paflions, but which raifes juft fuch a degree of hope as is neceifary to produce attention. The little girl, if (he knows from experience that her mother's promife will be kept, and that her own patience is likely to fucceed, counts the cherries carefully, has her reward, and upon the next limllar trial (he will from this fuccefs be ftill more difpofed to exert her attention. The pleafure
of
ATTENTION. 87
of eating cherries, aflbciated with the pleafure of fuccefs, will ba- lance the pain of a few moments prolonged application, and by degrees the cherries may be withdrawn, the aflbciatioa of pleafure will remain. Objeds or thoughts, that have been aflbciated with pleafure, retain the power of pleafing ; as the needle touched by the loadftone acquires polarity, and retains it long after the load- ftone is withdrawn.
Whenever attention is habitually raifed by the power of aflbcla- tion, we Ihould be careful to withdraw all the excitements that were originally ufed, becaufe thefe are now unneceflary j and, as we have formerly obferved, the fieady rule with refpedl to ftimulus fliould be to give the leafl: poflible quantity that will pro- duce the effedl we want. Succefs is a great pleafure ; as foon as children become fenfible to this pleafure, that is to fay, when they have tafied it two or three times, they will exert their attention merely with the hope of fucceeding. We have feen a little boy of three years old, frowning with attention for feveral minutes to- gether, whilfl: he was trying to clafp and unclafp a lady's bracelet ; his whole foul was intent upon the bufinefs, he neither favv nor heard any thing elfe that pafled in the room, though feveral people were talking, and fome happened to be looking at him. The plea- fure of fuccefs, when he had clafped the bracelet, was quite fuf- ficient ; he looked for no praife, though he was perhaps pleafed with the fympathy that v/as (hewn in his fuccefs. Sympathy is a better reward for young children in fuch circumftanccs than praife, becaufe it does not excite vanity, and it is conne£led with be- nevolent feelings; befidcs, it is not fo violent a ftimulus as ap- plaufe.
Inflcad
,88 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Inflead of increafing excitements to produce attention, we may- vary them, which will have juft the fame effeft. When fympathy fails, try curiofity; when curiofity fails, try praife; whenpraife be- o-ins to lofe its effect, try blame ; and when you go back again to fympathy, you will find that, after this interval, it will have re- covered all its original power. Doctor Darwin, who has the hap- py art of illuflrating, from the moft familiar circumflances in real life the abftra£l theories of philofophy, gives us the following plfturefque inftance of the ufe of varying motives to prolong exer- tion.
" A little boy, who was tired of walking, begged of his papa to " carry him. ' Here,' fays the reverend do6tor, ' ride upon *' my <yold headed cane;' and the pleafed child, putting it between " his leo-s, gallopped away with delight. Here the aid of another *' fenforial power, that of pleafurable fenfation, fuperadded *' power to exhaufled volition, which could otherwife only have ^' been exerted by additional pain, as by the lafh of flavery *."
Alexander the Great one day faw a poor man carrying upon his fhoulders a heavy load of filver for the royal camp : the man tottered under his burthen, and was ready to give up the point from fatigue. " Hold on, friend, the reft of the way, and carry " it to your own tent, for it is yours," faid Alexander.
There are fome people, who have the power of exciting others to great mental exertions, not by the promife of fpecific rewards, or by the threats of any punifhment, but by the ardent ambition
* Zoonomia, vol. i. page 435.
which
ATTENTION. 89
which they infpire, by the high value which is fet upon their love and efteem. When we have formed a high opinion of a friend, his approbation becomes neceffary to our own felf-complacency, and we think no labour too great to fatisfy our attachment. Our exer- tions are not fatiguing, becaufe they are aflbciated with all the plea- furable fenfations of afFedion, felf-complacency, benevolence, and liberty. Thefe feelings in youth produce all the virtuous enthu- fiafm charadleriftic of great minds ; even childhood is capable of it in fome degree, as thofe parents well know, who have ever en- joyed the attachment of a grateful afFedlionate child. Thofe, who negle(5l to cultivate the afFe£lions of their pupils, will never be able to excite them to " noble ends," by " noble means." Theirs will be the dominion of fear, from which reafon will emancipate herfelf, and from which yet more certainly revolt.
If Henry the Fourth of France had been reduced, like Dionyfius the tyrant of Syracufe, to earn his bread as a fchoolmafter, what a different preceptor he would probably have made ! Dionyfius muft have been hated by his fcholars as much as by his fubjedls, for it is faid, that " he* pradifed upon children that tyranny which he could no longer exercife over men."
The ambaflador, who found Henry the Fourth playing upon the carpet with his children, would probably have trufted his owa children, if he had any, to the care of fuch an affeclionate tutor.
Henry the Fourth would have attached his pupils whilfl: he in- truded them ; they would have exerted themfelves becaufe they
* Cicero.
N could
90
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
could not have been happy without his efteem. Henry's courtiers, or rather his friends, for though he was a king, he had friends, fonaetimes exprefled furprife at their own difintereflednefs : *' This *' king pays us with words," faid they, " and yet we are fatif- *' fied !" Sully, when he was only Baron de Rofny, and before he had any hopes of being a duke, was once in a paffion with the king his mafter, and half refolved to leave him, " But I don't ** know how it was,*' fays the honed minifter, " with all his *' faults, there is fomething about Henry which I found I could *' not leave ; and when I met him again, a few words made me *• forget all my caufes of difcontent."
Children are more tafily attached than courtiers, and full as eafily rewarded. When once this generous dcfire of afFedtlon and efteem is raifed in the mind, their exertions feem to be univerfal, and fpontaneous : children are then no longer like machines, which re- quire to be wound up regularly to perform certain revolutions;" they are animated with a living principle, which direds all that it infplres.
We have endeavoured to point out the general excitements, and the general precautions, to be ufed in cultivating the power of at- tention ; it may be expe£led, that we Ihould more particularly ap- ply thefe to the charafters of different pupils. We fhall not here examine whether there be any original difference of charafler or in- telle£V,becaufe this would lead intoa wide theoretical difcuflion; a dif- ference in the temper and talents of children early appears, and fome pradlical remarks may be of fervice to corredl defects, or to improve abilities, whether we fuppofe them to be natural or acquired. The firft differences which a preceptor obferves between his pupils, when 3 te
ATTENTION. 91
he begins to teach them, are perhaps fcarcely marked fo llrrongly as to ftrike the carelefs fpeflator ; but ia a few years thefe varieties are apparent to every eye. This feems to prove, that during the in- terval the power of education has operated ftrongly to increafe the original propenfities. The quick and flow, the timid and pre- fumptuous, fhould be early inftrudled fo as to corredl as much as poflible their feveral defeds.
The manner in which children are firfl: inftruded mufl tend either to increafe or diminifh their timidity, or their confidence in themfelves, to encourage them to undertake great things, or to reft content with limited acquirements. Young people, who have found from experience that they cannot remember or underftand one half of what is forced upon their attention, become extremely diffident of their own capacity, and they will not undertake as much even as they are able to perform. With timid tempers, we (hould therefore begin by expelling but little from each effort, but whatever is attempted fliould be certainly within their attainment ; fuccefs will encourage the moft timid humility. It fliould be care- fully pointed out to diffident children, that attentive patience can do as much as quicknefs of intellefl : if they perceive that time makes all the difference between the quick and the flow, they will be in- duced to pcrfevere. The tranfition of attention from one fubje£l to another is difficult to feme children, to others it is cafy: if all be expected to do the fame things in an equal period of time, the flow will abfolutely give up the competition; but, on the contrary, if they arc allowed time, they will accomplifli their purpofes. We have been confirmed in our belief of this dodtrine by experiments ; the fame problems have been frequently given to children of dif- ferent degrees of quicknefs, and though fomc fucceeded much more
N 2 quickly
92 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
quickly than others, all the individuals in the family have per- fevered till they have folved the queftions : and the timid feem to have been more encouraged by this praftical demonftration of the infallibility of perfevering attention, than by any other methods which have been tried. When, after a number of imall fuccefsful trials, they have acquired fome (hare of confidence in themfelves, when they are certain of the poffibility of their performing any given operations, we may then prefs them a little as to velocity : when they are well acquainted with any fet of ideas, we may urge them to quick tranfition of attention from one to another ; but if we in- fift upon this rapidity of tranfition before they are thoroughly ac- quainted with each idea in the aflemblage, we fhall only increafe their timidity and hefitation ; we fhall confound their underftand- ings, and deprefs their ambition.
It is of confequence to diftinguifli between flow and fluggifli at- tention : fometimes children appear flupid and heavy, when they are abfolutely exhaufted by too great efforts of attention ; at other times they have fomething like the fame dulnefs of afpedl, before they have had any thing to fatigue them, merely from their not having yet awakened themfelves to bufinefs» We muft be certain of our pupil's flate of mind before we proceed. If h-e be incapacitated from fatigue, let him refl ; if he be torpid, roufe him with a rat- tling peal of thunder ; but be fure that you have not, as it has been laid of Jupiter *, recourfe to your thunder only when you are in the wrong. Some preceptors fcold when they cannot explain, and grow angry in proportion to the fatigue they fee exprefled in the countenance of their unhappy pupils. If a timid child forefees
* Lucian.
that
ATTENTION.
93
that an explanation will probably end in a philllpic, he cannot fix his attention, he is anticipating the evil of your anger, inftead of lilteningto your demoaftrations ; and he fays, " Yes, yes, I fee, *' I know, I underftand," with trembling eagernefs, whilfl: through the mifl and confufion of his fears he can fcarcely fee or hear, much lefs underftand, any thing. If you miftake the confufion and fatigue of terror for inattention or indolence, and prefs your pupil to further exertions, you will confirm, inftead of curing his ftupi- dity. You muft diminifti his fear before you can increafe his at- tention. With children who are thus, from timid anxiety to pleafe, difpofed to exert their faculties too much, it is obvious that no ex- citation fhould be ufed, but every playful, every afFedtionate means Ihould be employed to diflipate their apprehenfions.
It is more difficult to manage with thofe who have fluggifh, than with thofe who have timid attention. Indolent children have not ufually fo lively a tafte for pleafure as others have ; they do not feem to hear or to fee quickly; they are content with a little enjoyment ; they have fcarcely any ambition ; they feem to prefer eafe to all forts of glory ; they have little voluntary exertion ; and the pain of attention is to them fo great, that they would pre- ferably endure the pain of fhame, and of all the accumulated pu- niftimcnts which are commonly devifed for them by the vengeance of their exafperated tutors. Locke notices this liftlefs lazy humour in children ; he claffes it under the head " Sauntering ;" and he divides faunterers into twofpccies ; thofe who faunter only at their books and talks ; and thofe who faunter at play and every thing. The book-faunterers have only an acute, the others have a chronic difeafe ; the one is cafily cured, the other difeafe will coft more time and pains.
If
94. PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
If by fome unlucky management a vivacious child acquires a diflike to literary application, he may appear at his books with all the flupid apathy of a dunce. In this ftate of literary dereliftion, we fhould not force books and talks of any fort upon him ; we {hould rather watch him when he is eager at amufemeuts of his own feledion, obferve to what his attention turns, and cultivate his attention upon that fubjeft, whatever it may be. He may be led to think, and to acquire knowledge upon a variety of fubjedls, without fitting <3ovvn to read ; and thus he may form habits of at- tention and of application, which will be aflbciated with pleafure. When he returns to books, he will find that he underftands a va- riety of things in them which before appeared incomprehenfible ; they will " give him back, the image of his mind," and he will like them as he likes pidures.
As long as a child fliows energy upon any occafion, there is
hope: if he " lend his little foul*" to whipping a top, there is
no danser of being a dunce. When Alcibiades was a child, he
was one d^y playing at dice with other boys in the flreet; a loaded
waggon came up juft as it was* his turn to throw. At firft he
called to the driver to flop, but the waggoner would not flop his
horfes ; all the boys except Alcibiades ran away, but Alcibiades
threw himfelf upon his face diredtly before the horfes, and flretch-
ing himfelf out, bid the waggoner drive on if he pleafed. Perhaps
at the time when he (hewed this energy about a game at dice,
Alcibiades might have been a fauuterer at his book, and a foolifli
fchoolmafler might have made him a dunce.
"* " And lends his little foul at every flroke," Virgh.
Locke
ATTENTION. 95
Locke advlfes that children, who are too much addi£led to what is called play, (hould be furfeited with it, that they may return to bufinefs with a better appetite. But this advice fuppofes that play has been previoufly interdi6led, orthat it is fomething pernicious : we have endeavoured to {hew that play is nothing but a change of em- ployment, and that the attention may be exercifed advantageoufly upon a variety of fubjefts which are not called Talks *.
With thofe who (hew chronic liftleflhefs, Locke advifes that we fhould ufe every fort of flimulus; praife, amufement, fine clothes, eating; any thing that will make them beflir themfelves. He ar^ucs^ that as there appears a deficiency of vigour, we have no reafon to fear excefs of appetite for any of thefe things : nay, farther ftill, where none of thefe will adl, he advifes compulfory bodily exer- cife. If we cannot, he fays, make fure of the invifible attention of the mind, we may at leaft get fomething done, prevent the habit of total idlenefs, and perhaps make the children defire to exchange 'labour of body for labour of mind. Thefe expedients will, we fear, be found rather palliative than effedlual ; if by forcing children to bodily exercife, that becomes dilagrceable, they may prefer la- bour of the mind ; but in making this exchange, or bargain, thev are fenfible that they choofe the leaft of two evils. The evil of application is diminifhed only by comparifon in their eftimation; they will avoid it whenever they are at liberty. The love of eat- ing, of fine clothes, &c. if they Simulate a flothful child, mud be the ultimate objed of his exertions ; he will confider the perform- ance of his tafk merely as a painful condition on his part. Still the affociatioa of pain with literature continues ; it is then impofiible
* V. Cliapter IL on Talks.
thr-t
96 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
that he fliould love it. There is no a£live principle within him, no defire for knowledge excited ; his attention is forced, it ceafes the moment the external force is withdrawn. He drudges to eara his cream bowl duly fet, but he will ilretch his lubbar length the moment his taflc is done.
There is another clafs of children oppofed to faunterers, whom we may denominate volatile geniufes. They fhew a vaft deal of quicknefs and vivacity ; they underftand almoft before a tutor can put his ideas into words ; they obferve a variety of objedls, but they do not connedl their obfervatioiis, and the very rapidity with which they feize an explanation prevents them from thoroughly comprehending it ; they are eafily difturbed by external obje£ts when they are thinking. As they have great fenfibility, their aflb- ciations are ftrong and various ; their thoughts branch off into a thoufand beautiful, but ufelefs ramifications. Whilft you are at- tempting to inftrud them upon one fubjeft, they are inventing perhaps upon another, or they are following a train of ideas fuggefted by fomething you have faid, but foreign to your bufinefs. They are more pleafed with the difcovery of refemblances than with dif- crimination of differences ; theonecofts them more time and atten- tion than the other : they are apt to fay witty things, and to ftrike out fparks of invention ; but they have not commonly the patience to form exadl judgments, or to bring their firft inventions to per- fection. When they begin the race every body expels that they fhouldoutftrip all competitors, but it is often feen that flower rivals reach the goal before them. The predidions formed of pupils of this temperament vary much according to the characters of their tutors. A flow man is provoked by their diflipated vivacity, and, uuable to catch or fix their attention, prognofticates that they will
never
ATTENTION.
91
never have fufficient application to learn any thing. This prophecy, under certain tuition, would probably be accomplifhed. The wani of fympathy between a flow tutor and a quick child is a great dif- advantage to both j each infifts upon going his own pace, and his own way, and thefe ways are perhaps diametrically oppofite. Even in forming a judgment of the child's attention, the tutor, who is not acquainted with the manner in which his pupil goes to work, is liable to frequent miftakes. Children are fometimes fufpedted of not having liftened to what has been faid to them, when they can- not eKa£tIy repeat the words that they have heard ; they often alk queftions, and make obfervations, which feem quite foreign to the prefent bufinefs, but this is not always a proof that their minds are abfent, or that their attention is diilipated. Their anfvvers often appear to be far from the point, becaufe they fupprefs their inter- mediate ideas, and give only the refult of their thoughts. This may be inconvenient to thofe who teach them, but this habit fuf- ficiently proves that thefe children are not deficient in attention ; to cure them of the fiult which they have we (hould not accufe them falfely of another. But it may be queftioned whether this be a fault ; it is abfolutely neceflary in many procefies of the mind to fupprefs a number of intermediate ideas. Life, if this were not ■praftifed, would be too fliort for thofe who think, and much too fhort for thofe who fpeak. When fomebody alked Pyrrhus which of two muficians he liked the befl, he anfwered, " Polyfperchon *' is the befl: general." This would appear to be the abfurd an- fwer of an abfent perfon, or of a fool, if we did not confider the ideas that are implied, as well as thofe which are exprefled.
March 5th, 1796. To-day, at dinner, a lady obferved that Ni- choUon, Williamfon, Jackfbu, &c. were names which originally
O meant
98 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
meant the fons of Nicholas, Wilham, Jack, &c. A boy who was
y prefent, H , added with a very grave face, as foon as (he had
finifhed fpeaking, " Yes, ma'am, Tydides." His mother afked • him what he could mean by this abfent fpeech ? H calmly re- peated, " Ma'am, yes ; becaufe I think it is like Tydides." His
brother S eagerly interpoled to fupply the intermediate ideas ;
*' Yes indeed, mother," cried he, " H is not abfent, becaufe
*' des in Greek means the Jon of (the race of). Tydides is th& " fon of Tydeus, as Jackfon is the fon of Jack." In this inftance
H was not abfent, though he did not make ufe of a fufficient
number of words to explain his ideas.
Auguft, 1796. L , when he returned home after fome
y months abfence, entertained his brothers and fillers with a new play, which he had learned at Edinburgh. He told them that when he ftruck the table with his hand every perfon prefent was inftantaneoufly to remain fixed in the attitudes in which they Ihould be when the blow was given. The attitudes in which fome of the little company were fixed occafioned much diverfion; but in fpeaking of this new play afterwards they had no name for it :
whilft they were thinking of a name for it, H exclaimed*
" The Gorgon !" It was immediately agreed that this was a' good
name for the play, and H upon this occafion was perfectly
intelligible, without exprefling all the intermediate ideas.
Good judges form an accurate eftlmate of the abilities of thofe who converfe with them, by what they omit, as well as by what thev fay. If any one can fhew that he alfo has been in Arcadia, he is fure of being well received without producing minutes of his journey^ III the fame manner we fhould judge of children ; if they arrive at
certain
ATTENTION. 9P
certain conclufions hi reafoning, we may be fatlsfied that they have taken all the neceflary previous fteps. We need not queftion their attention upon fubjeds where they give proofs of invention; they muft have remembered well, or they could not invent ; they muft have attended well, or they could not have remembered. Nothino- wearies a quick child more than to be forced flowly to retrace his own thoughts, and to repeat the words of a difcourfe to prove that he has liltened to it. A tutor, who is flow in underftanding the ideas of his vivacious pupil, gives him fo much trouble and pain, that he grows filent from finding it not worth while to fpeak. It is for this reafon that children appear ftupid and filent with fome people, and fprightly and talkative with others. Thofe who hope to talk to children with any eftedl mufl, as Roufleau obferves, be able to hear as well as to fpeak. M. de Segrais, who was deaf, was much in the right to decline being preceptor to the Duke de Maine. A deaf preceptor would certainly make a child dumb.
To win the attention of vivacious children we mufl: fometimes follow them in their zigzag courfe, and even prefs them to the end of their own train of thought. They will be content when they have obtained a full hearing ; then they will have leifure to difcovcr that what they were in fuch hafte to utter was not fo well worth faying as they imagined; that their bright ideas often, whea fteadily examined by themfclves, fade into abfurdities.
" Where does this path lead to ? Can't we get over this ftile ? " May I only go into this wood ?" exclaims an adive child, when he is taken out to walk. Every path appears more delightful than the ftraight road ; but let him try the paths, they will perhaps end in difappointment, and then his imagination will be correded.
O 2 Let
lOO PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Let him try his own experiments, then he will be ready to try yours; and if yours fucceed better than his own, you will fecure his confidence. After a child has talked on for feme time till he comes to the end of his ideas, then he will perhaps liften to what you have to fay, and if he finds it better than what he has been fay- ino" himfelf, he will voluntarily give you his attention the next time you begin to fpeak.
Vivacious children are peculiarly fufceptible of blame and pralfe; we have, therefore, great power over their attachment, if we ma- nage thefe excitements properly. Thefe children fliould not be praifed for their happy hits, ' their firil * glances fhould not be ex- tolled ; but, on the contrary, they fhould be rewarded with univerfal approbation when they give proofs of patient induftry, when they bring any thing to perfection. No one can bring any thing to perfection without long continued attention ; and induftry and per- leverance prefuppofe attention. Proofs of any of thefe qualities may therefore fatisfy us as to the pupil's capacity and habits of attention ; we need not ftand by to fee the attention exercifed, the things pro- duced are fufficient evidence. Bufixjn tells us that he wrote his Epoques de la Nature over eighteen times before he could perfeft it to his tafte. The high finifh of his compofition is fufficient evi- dence to intelligent readers, that he exerted long continued atten- tion upon the work \ they do not require to have the eighteen co- pies produced.
Bacon fuppofes, that for every difeafe of the mind fpecific reme- dies might be found in appropriate fhudies and exercifes. Thus
* Aper^ues,
for
ATTENTION. loi
for " bird-witted" children he prefcrlbes the ftudy of mathema- tics, becaufe in mathematical ftudies the attention mud be fixed; the lead iiitermiffion of thought breaks the whole chain of reafon- ing, their labour is loft, and they muft begin their demonftration again. This principle is excellent; but to apply it advantageoufly, we fhould choofe moments when- a mathematical demonftration is interefting to children, elfe we have not fufficient motive to excite them to commence the demonftration j they will perceive, that they lofe all their labour if their attention is interrupted ; but how (hall we make them begin to attend ? There are a variety of fub- jeds which are interefting to children, to which we may apply Bacon's principle ; for inftance, a child is eager to hear a ftory which you are going to tell him ; you may exercife his attention by your manner of telling this ftory ; you may employ with ad- vantage the beautiful figure of fpeech c-iWt^ fufpenjion : but you muft take care, that the hope which is long deferred is at laft grati- fied. The young critics will look back when your ftory is finifhed, and will examine whether their attention has been wafted, or whether all the particulars to which it was diredled were efTential. Though in amufino; ftories we recommend the figure called fuf- penfion *, we do not recommend its ufe in explanations. Our ex- planations fhould be put into as few words as poflible : the clofer the connexion of ideas the better. When we fay, allow time to underftand your explanations, we mean, allow time between each idea, do not fill up t.hc interval with words. Never by way of gaining time pay in fixpences, this is the laft refource of a bank- rupt.
* Deinology.
. We
!oz PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
We formerly obferved, that a preceptor, in his firfl: leflbns on any new fubjedl, muft fubmit to the drudgery of repeating his terms and his reafoning, until thefe are fufficiently familiar to his pupils. He muft, however, proportion the number of his repeti- tions to the temper and habits of his pupils, elfe he will weary in- flead of ftrengthening the attention. When a thing is clear, let him never try to make it clearer ; when a thing is underftood, not a word more of exemplification (hould be added. To mark precifely the moment when the pupil underflands what is faid, the moment when he is mafter of the neceflary ideas, and, con- fequently, the moment when repetition fhould ceafe, is, perhaps, the mofi: difficult thing in the art of teaching. The countenance, the eye, the voice, and manner of the pupil, mark, this inftant to an obferving preceptor ; but a preceptor, who is abforbed in his own ideas, will never think of looking in his pupil's face, he will go on with his routine of explanation, whilfthis once lively, atten- tive pupil exhibits oppofite to him the picture of ftupified fatigue. Quick, intelligent children, who have frequently found that leflbns are reiterated by a patient but injudicious tutor, will learn a care- lefs mode of liftening at intervals ; they will fay to themfelves, " Oh I fhall hear this again !" And if any ftray thought comes acrofs their minds, they will not fcruple to amufe themfelves, and will afterwards afk for a repetition of the words or ideas which they miffed during this excurfion of fancy. When they hear the warning advertifement of " certainly for the laft time this feafon," they will deem it time enough to attend to the performance. To cure them of this prefumption in favour of our patience, and of their own fuperlative quicknefs, we (hould prefs that quicknefs to its ut- moft fpeed. Whenever we call for their attention, let it be on
fubjedls
ATTENTION. 103
fubjecfts highly interefting or amufing, and let us give them but juft fufficient time with their fuUeft exertion to catch our words and ideas. As thefe quick gentlemen are proud of their rapidity of apprehenfion, this method will probably fecure their attention, they will dread the difgrace of not underftanding what is faid, and they will feel that they cannot underhand unlefs they exert prompt, vigorous, unremitted attention.
The duchefs of Kingfton ufed to complain that (he could never acquire any knowledge, becaufe flie never could meet with any body who could teach her any thing " in two words." Her grace felt the fame fort of impatience which was exprefled by the tyrant who expedled to find a royal road to geometry.
Thofe who believe themfelves endowed with genius, expeft to find a royal road in every fcience fliorter, and lefs laborious, than the beaten paths of induftry. Their expectations are ufually in proportion to their ignorance ; they fee to the fummit only of one hill, and th^y do not fufpe£l the Alps that will arife as they ad- vance: but as children become lefs prefumptuous, as they acquire more knowledge, we may bear with their juvenile impatience, whilfi: we take meafures to enlarge continually their fphere of in- formation. We fhould not, however, humour the attention of young people, by teaching them always in the mode whi(;h ,we know fuits their temper beft. Vivacious pupils fliould from time to time be accuftomed to an exadl enumeration of particulars ; and we (hould take opportunities to convince them, that an orderly con- nexion of proofs, and a minute obfervation of apparent trifles, are requlfite to produce the lively defcriptions, great difcoveries, and happy inventions, which pupils of diis difpofition are ever pr6ne to
admire
I04 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
admire with enthufiafm. They will learn not to pafs over old things, when they perceive that thefe may lead to fomething newi and they will even fubmit to fober attention, when they feel that this is neceflary even to the rapidity of genius. In the " Curiofities " of Literature" there has been judicioufly preferved a curious in- flance of literary patience ; the rough draught of that beautiful paf- fage in Pope's tranflation of the Iliad which defcribes the parting of Hedor and Andromache. The lines are in Pope's hand-writing, and his numerous correflions appear ; the lines which feem to the reader to have been ftruck off at a fingle happy ftroke, are proved to have been touched and retouched with the indefatigable atten- tion of a great writer. The fragment, with all its climax of cor- reiftions, was fhewn to a young vivacious poet of nine years old, as a pratlical lefTon, to prove the neceffity of patience to arrive at perfeftion. Similar examples from real life fhould be produced to youno- people at proper times; the teftimony of men of acknow- ledged abilities, of men whom they have admired for genius, will come with peculiar force in favour of application. Parents well acquainted with literature, cannot be at a lofs to find appofite illuf- trations. The life of Franklin is an excellent example of per- feverino- induftry ; the variations indifferent editions of Voltaire's dramatic poetry, and in Pope's works, are worth examining. All Sir Jofhua Reynolds's eloquent academical difcourfes enforce the doftrineof patience ; when he wants to prove to painters the value of continual energetic attention, he quotes fromLivy the character of Philopoemen, one of .the ablefl generals of antiquity. So certain it is, that the fame principle pervades all fuperior minds: whatever maybe their purfuits, attention is the avowed primary caufeof their fuccefs. Thefe examples from the dead fhould be well fupported by examples from amongfi: the living ; in common life occur- 3 rcnces
ATTENTION. loj
rences can frequently be pointed out, in which attention and ap- plication are amply rewarded with fuccefs.
It will encourage thofe who are interefted in education, to ob- ferve, that two of the mofl: difficult exercifes of the mind can by praftice be rendered flimiliar, even by perfons whom we do not confideras poffefledof fiiperior talents. Abftradtion and tranfition — abftracllon, the power of withdrawing the attention from all ex- ternal objects, and concentrating it upon lome particular fet of ideas, we admire as one of the moft difficult exercifes of the phi- lofopher. Abftraction was formerly confidered as fuch a difficult and painful operation, that it required perfe,<Sl: filence and folitude ; many ancient philofophers quarrelled with their fenfes, and fhut themfelves up in caves, to lecure their attention from the diftrac- tion caufed by external objeds. But modern* philofophers have difcovered, that neither caves nor lamps are eflential to the full and fuccefsful exercife of their mental powers. Perfons of ordinary abilities, tradefmen and fliopkeepers, in the midfl of the tumult of a public city, in the noife of rumbling carts and rattling carriages, amidft the voices of a multitude of people talking upon various fubjeds, amidft the provoking interruptions of continual queftions and anfvvers, and in the broad glare of a hot fun, can command, and abftradl their attention fo far as to calculate yards, ells, and nails, to caft up long fums in addition right to a farthing, and to make out multifarious bills with quick and unerring precifion. In almoft all the dining houfes at Vienna, as a late traveller-|- informs MS, " a bill of fare containing a vaft colle£lion of difhes is written " out, and the prices are affixed to each article. As the people of
* V. ConJi'ilac art dc penler. I Mr. Owti).
P " Vienna
(
io6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
" Vienna are fond of variety, the calculation at the conclufion of ' a repaft would appear fooiewhat cnabarraffing; this, however, " is done by mechanical habit with great fpeed ; the cuftom is for *' the party who has dined to name the difhes, and the quantity " of bread and wine. The keller who attends on this occafion, " follows every article you name with the fum, which this adds *' to the calculation, and the whole is performed, to whatever *' amount, without ink. or paper. It is curious to hear this cere- " mony, which is muttered with great gravity, yet performed *« with accuracy and difpatch."
We coolly obferve, when we read thefe things, " Yes, this is " all habit ; any body who had ufed himfelf to it might do «' the fame things." Yet the very fame power of abftra6ling the attention, when employed upon fcientific and literary fubjedls, would excite our aftonifhment ; and we fhould, perhaps, imme- diately attribute it to fuperior original genius. We may furely educate children to this habit of abftrading the attention, which we allow depends entirely upon practice. When we are very much interefted upon any fubjedt, we attend to it exclufively, and with- out any effort we furmount all petty interpofing interruptions. When we are reading an interefting book, twenty people may con- verfe round about us, without our hearing one word that they fay; when we are in a crowded playhoufe, the moment we become in- terefted in the play, the audience vanifh from our iight, and in the midft of various noifes we hear only the voices of the acSors.
In the fame manner children, by their eager looks and their un-
affefted abfence to all external circumftances, fhew when they are
thoroughly interefted by any ftory that is told with eloquence
fuited 8
ATTENTION. ic;
{'uited to their age. When we would teach them to attend in the midll of noife and interruptions, we (hould therefore begin by talk- ing to them about things which we are fare will pleafe them j by degrees we may fpeak on lefs captivating fubjeds, when we per- ceive that their habit of beginning to liften with an expectation of pleafure is formed. Whenever a child happens to be intent upon any favourite amufement, or when he is reading any very enter- taining book, we may increafe the bufy hum round him, we may make what buftle we pleafe, he will probably continue attentive; it is ufeful therefore to give him fuch amufements and fuch books when there is a noife or buftle in the room, becaufe then he will learn to difregard all interruptions ; and when this habit is formed, he may even read lefs amufing books in the fame company without being interrupted by the ufual noifes.
The power of abflrading our attention is univerfally allowed to be neceflary to the fuccefsful labour of the underftanding ; but we may farther obferve, that this abftradtion is charaderiftic in fome cafes of heroifm as well as of genius. Charles the Twelfth and Archimedes were very different men, yet both in fimilar circum- ftances gave fimilar proofs of their uncommon power of abftratflino- their attention. " What has the bomb to do with what you are " writing to Sweden," faid the hero to his pale fecretary when a bomb burfl through the roof of his apartment, and he continued to di£late his letter. Archimedes went on with his demonftration in the midft: of a fiege, and when a brutal foldier entered with a drawn fword, the philofopher only begged he might folve his pro- blem before he was put to death.
Prefence of mind in danger, which is ufually fuppofcd to depend
P 2 upon
io3 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
upon our quick perception of all the prefent circumftances, fre- quently demands a total abftradion of our thoughts. In danger, fear is the motive which excites our exertions, but from all the ideas that fear naturally fuggefts, we muil: abftracl our attention, or we fhall not a£l with courage or prudence. In proportion to the vio- lence of our terror our voluntary exertion mufl: be great to with- draw our thoughts from the prefent danger, and to recolleft the means of efcape. In fome cafes, where the danger has been afTo- ciated with the ufe of certain methods of efcape, weufethefe with- out deliberation, and confequently without any effort of attention; as when we fee any thing catch fire we inftantly throw water upon the flames to extinguifh them. But in new fituations, where we have no mechanical courage, we mufl: exert much voluntary, quick, abftracl attention, to efcape from danger.
When Lee the poet was confined in Bedlam, a friend went to vifit him, and finding that he could converfe reafonably, or at Icaft reafonably for a poet, imagined that Lee was cured of his madnefs. The poet offered to fhew him Bedlam. They went over this me- lancholy, medical prifon, Lee moralifing philofophically enough all the time to keep his companion perfedly at eafe. At length they afcended together to the top of the building, and as they were both looking down from the perilous height, Lee feized his friend by the arm, " Let us immortalife oprfelves !" he exclaimed ; " let us " take this leap. We'll jump down together this inflant." "Any " man could jump down," faid his friend, coolly ; " we fhould " not immortalife ourfelves by that leap ; but let us go down, and *' try if we can jump up again." The madman, flruck with the idea of a more afl:onilhing leap than that which he had himfelfpro-
pofedj
ATTENTipN. 109
pofed, vielded to this new impuire, dnd his friend rejoiced to fee him run down flairs full of a new projedt for fccuring immortality.
Lee's friend upon this occafion fhewed rather abfence than pre- fence of mind : before he could have mvented the happy anfwer that faved his life, he muft have abftradted his mind from the paf- fion of fear; he muft have rapidly turned his attention upon a va- riety of ideas unconncifled by any former aflbciations with the ex- citing: motive — fallins: from a height — fractured fkulls — certain death — impoflibility of reafoning or wreftling with a madman. Thefe were the train of thoughts which we might naturally expeft to arife in fuch a fituatioii, but from all thefe the man oi prefence of mind tamed away his attention; he muft have dire£led his thoughts in a contrary line : firft he muft have thought of the means of fav- ing himfelf, of fome argument likely to perfuade a madman, of fome argument peculiarly fuited to Lee's imagination, and applica- ble to his fituation ; he muft at this moment have confidercd that alarming fituation without thinking of his fears ; for the interval in which all thefe ideas pafled in his mind muft have been fo fhort that he could not have had leifure to combat fear ; if any of the ideas affociated with that paffion had interrupted his reafonings, he would not have invented his anfwer in time to have faved his life.
We cannot forefee on what occafions prefence of mind may be wanted, but we may by education give that general command of abftradt attention, which is eflential to its exercife in all circum- ftances.
Tranfition of thought, the power of turning attention quickly
from
no PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
from one fiibje£l, or one employment, to another, is another of thofc mental habits, which in fome cafes we call genius, and which in others we perceive depends entirely upon pradice. A number of trials in one newfpaper upon a variety of unconnected fubjedts once ftruck our eye, and we faw the name of a celebrated lawyer * as counfel in each caufe. We could not help feeling involuntary admiration at that verfatility of genius, which could pafs from a fraflional cal- culation about a London chaldron of coals to the Jamaica laws of infurance ; from the bargains of a citizen to the divorce of a fine lady ; from pathos to argument ; from arithmetic to wit j from crofs examination to eloquence. For a moment we forgot our fober principles, and afcribed all this verfatility of mind to natural ge- nius ; but upon reflexion we recurred to the belief, that this dex- terity of intelleft was not beftowed by nature. We oblerve in men who have no pretenfions to genius fimilar verfatility of mind as to their ufual employments. The daily occupations of Mr. Elwes's huntfman were as various and incongruous, and required as quick tranfitions of attention, as any that can well be imagmed.
*' At t four o'clock he milked the cows ; then got breakfafl for Mr. Elwes and friends ; then flipping on a green coat, he hur- ried into the ftable, faddled the horfes, got the hounds out of the kennel, and away they went into the field. After the fatigues of hunting he refrefhed himfelf by rubbing down two or three horfes as quickly as he could ; then running into the houle to lay the cloth, and wait at dinner ; then hurrying again into the flable to feed the horfes, diverfified with an interlude of the
* Mr. Eifklne — The Star. t V, Life of John Elwes, Efq. by T. Topham.
*' cows
((
1
ATTENTION. in
" cows again to milk, the dogs to feed, and eight hunters to litter *' down for the ni^ht." Mr. Ehves ufed to call this huntl'man an idle dog, who wanted to be paid for doing nothing !
We do not mean to require any fuch rapid daily tranfitions in the exercife of attention fron:i our pupils ; but we think that much may be done to improve verfatility of mind by a judicious arrangement of their occupations. When we are tired of fmelling a rofe, we can fmell a carnation with pleafure ; and when the ienfe of fmell is fatigued, yet we can look at the beautiful colours with delioht. When we are tired of thinkingupon one fubjedl, we can attend to anotherj when our memory is fatigued, the exercife of the imagination entertains us; and when we are weary of reafoning, we can amufe ourfelves with wit and humour. Men, who have at- tended much to the cultivation of their mind, feem to have felt all this, and they have kept fome fubordinate tafte as a refrefhment after their labours. Defcartes went from the fyftem of the world to his flower-garden ; Galileo ufed to read Ariofto ; and the me- taphyfical Dr. Clarke recovered himfelf from abll:ra6lion by jump- ing over chairs and tables. The learned and indefatigable chan- cellor d'Agueffeau declared, that change of employment was the only recreation he ever knew. Even Montaigne, who found his recreation in playing with his cat, educated himfelf better than thofe are educated who go from intenfe fludy to complete idlenefs. It has been very wifely recommended by Mr. Locke, that young people (hould early be taught fome mechanical employment, or fomc agreeable art, to which they may recur for relief when they are tired by mental application *.
* V. Chapter on Toys.
Doaor
I lil
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
DoOor Darwin fuppofes that <' animal motions, or configura- *' tions of the organs of fenfe, conftitute our ideas*. The fatigue, " he obferves, that follows a continued attention of the mind to " one objeft, is relieved by changing the fubjedt of our thoughts, *' as the continued movement of one limb is relieved by moving •' another in its ftead." Dr. Darwin has farther fuggefted a tempt- ing lubjeft of experiment in his theory of ocular fpedra, to which we refer ingenious preceptors. Many ufeful experiments) in educa- tion mio^ht be tried upon the principles which are there fuggeftcd. We dare not here truft ourfelves to fpeculate upon this fubjeft, be- caufe we are not at prefent provided with a fufficient number of fads to apply our theory to praftice. If we could exadlly difcover how to arrange mental employments fo as to niduce adlions in the antagonift faculties of the mind, we might reUeve it from fatigue in the fame manner as the eye is relieved by change of colour. By purfuing this idea might we not hope to cultivate the general power of attention to a degree of perfedion hitherto unknown ?
We have endeavoured to fliew how, by different arrangements and proper excitations, a preceptor may acquire that command over the attention of his pupils, which is abfolutely effential to fuccefsful inftrudlion ; but we muft recoiled, that when the years commonly devoted to education are over, when young people are no longer under the care of a preceptor, they will continue to feel the ad- vantages of a command of attention, whenever they mix in the ac- tive bufinefs of life, or whenever they apply to any profefiion, to literature, or fcience. Their attention muft now be entirely voluntary, they will have no tutor to excite them to exertion, no
* Zoonomia, vol. i. p. 21, 24.
nice
ATTENTION. 113
nice habitual arrangements to afiifl: them in their daily occupations. It is of conrequence, therefore, that we fliould iubftitute the power of voluntary, for the habit of afTociatcd attention. With young children wc depend upon particular aflbciations of place, time, and manner, upon different lorts of excitation, to produce habits of application : but as our pupils advance in their education, all thefe temporary excitements fhould be withdrawn. Some large, but diftant objedl, fome purfuit which is not to be rewarded with imme- diate praife, but rather with permanent advantage and efteem, fliould be held out to the ambition of youth. All the arrangements fliould be left to the pupil himfelf, ail the difficulties fhould be fur- mounted by his own induftry, and the interell he takes in his own fuccefs and improvement-will now probably be a fufficient flimulus ; his preceptor will now rather be his partner than his mafler, he fliould rather fliare the labour than attempt to dired it : this fpecies of fympathy in ftudy diminifties the pain of attention, and gives an agreeable intereft even in the moft tirefome refearches. When a young man perceives that his preceptor becomes in this maimer the companion of his exertions, he lofes all fufpicion that he is com- pelled to mental labour; it is improper to fay /o/es, for in a good education this fufpicion need not ever be created ; he difcovers, we fliould rather fay, that all the habits of attention which he has ac- quired, are thofe which are ufeful to men as well as to children, and he feels the advantage of his cultivated powers on every frefli occafion. He will perceive, that young men who have been ill edu- cated cannot by any motive command their vigorous attention, and he will feel the caufe of his own fuperiority, wlicn he comes to any- trial of fkill with inattentive men of genius.
One of the arguments which Bayle ufes, to prove that fortune
ii^ has
114 PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
has a greater influence than prudence in the affairs of men, is founded upon the comnion oblervation, that men of the bell: abili- ties cannot frequently recolleft in urgent circumftances what they have faid or done ; the things occur to them perhaps a moment after they are paft. The fa£l feems to be, that they could not in the proper moment command their attention ; but this we (hould attribute to the v/ant of prudence in their early education. Thus, Bayle's argument does not in this point of view prove any thing in favour of fortune. Thofe who can beft command their atten- tion, in the greateft variety of circumftances, have the moft ufeful abilities J without this command of mind, men of genius, as they are called, are helplefs beings ; with it perfons of inferior capacity become valuable. Addifon trembled and doubted, and doubted and trembled, when he was to write a common official paper ; and it is faid, that he was abfoiutely obliged to refign his place, becaufc he could not decide in time whether he (hould write a i/jat or a which. No bufinefs could have been tranfacled by fuch an imbecile minifler.
To fubftitute voluntary for afTociated attention, we may with- draw fome of the ufually aflbciated circumftances, and increafe the excitement ; and we may afterwards accuftom the pupil to adl from the hopeof diftant pleafures. Unlefs children can be adluated by the view of future dilT:ant advantage, they cannot be capable of long continued application. We ftiall endeavour to explain how the value of diftant pleafures can be increafed, and made to aft with fufficient force upou the mind, when we hereafter fpeak of judgment and of imagination.
It has been cbferved, that perfons of wit and judgment have
perhaps
ATTENTION. 115
perhaps originally the fame powers, and that the difference in their chara£lers arifes from their different habits of attention, and the different clafs of objefts to which they have turned their thoughts. The manner in which we are firft taught to obferve, and to reafon, mufl: in the firft years of life decide thefe habits. There are two methods of teaching ; one which afcends from particular fads to general principles, the other which defcends from the general prin- ciples to particular fads; one which builds up, another which takes to pieces ; the fynthetic and the analytic method. The words analyfis and fynthefis are frequently mifapplied, and it is difficult to