^ # LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i tf'W |w¥>' I" t ^UNITED STATES OP AMERICA J [ THE CULTURE OF THE OBSERVING FACULTIES. -;^' p3 THE CULTURE OF THE OBSERVING FACULTIES IN THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL: OR, THINGS ABOUT HOME, AND Inm tn makB tjim Sttstrtittto tn tlir "^nuHg. / 'J^•>^ BY WARREN BURTON, -''VT'^l/ AUTHOR OF "THE DISTRICT 6CHOOL AS IT WAS," AND S '^ " HELPS TO EDUCATION," ETC. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1865. 5«^' ^^y.2y./j^^^ Ij K/60; Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, by Harper & Brothers, In tlie Clerk's OflSce of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. ^7^ r A FEW WOEDS TO PARENTS, TO OLDER BROTHERS AND SIS- TERS, AND TO SCHOOL-TEACHERS. Friends, — If you would go hand in hand with genial Nature^ and have children learn easily and Tnuch from thhigs all around them as instructive as books ; if you would enjoy sensible^ animated^ and charming talks with quick-witted and blithe companions / if you would have the dear learn- ers gratZful long afterward for a cidture pecidiar- ly qualifying them for life's practical affairs ; if withal^ you would learn much yourselves lohile teaching others^ please put in practice the sugges- tions of this little book^ which is noio hopefully offered to your service by the AUTHOK. SUGGESTIONS ON THE CULTURE OF THE OBSERVING FACULTIES. THE BEGINNING. The beginning. The intellectual development of the human being begins as soon as he can open his eyes and put forth his hands — as soon as his senses come in contact with the material world. From this time onward he is continually gain- ing knowledge, and preparing for his future of usefulness and enjoyment. It is said that all the simple elements of knowledge and the best part of man's education are obtained before he is seven years of age. These foundations are mainly laid at home. The work is, or should be, under the supervision of the parents. This education, however, goes on, whether they at- 10 THE CULTURE OF THE The beginning. tend to it or not. Indeed, the child will be continually educating himself. It may be tru- ly said that the first and the most important part of man's intellectual culture, as things have been, is self-culture. Now this fostering from kindly nature, this forth - putting and forth- grasping of the infant faculties, may be greatly assisted by the parents and other older mem- bers of the family, if they did but think of it, and would but give themselves to it. Help in this primary home institution is as valuable as in the public seminaries to which the mind is afterward introduced. In the majority of homes, however, this assistance is casually and poorly rendered. It is because parents have the notion that they have nothing to do with intellectual development. This, they suppose, belongs only to the school. If a child asks a question about any thing new to his curiosity, he may be kindly answered. If he persistent- ly puts many questions, he is patiently borne with, or perhaps hastily hushed or snapped off. The parents have not the least suspicion that, in replying to such questions, they are really exercising tutorships and professorships as im- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 11 Knowledge without books, portant, to say the least, as any in college. In- deed, it may be affirmed with absolute truth, that, as schools have generally been conduct- ed, especially for little children, the education mostly stops at the school threshold ; at least it begins to be exceedingly hindered, as will plainly appear. KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT BOOKS. J ust watch a babe, and see what Nature, or rather his own divinely devised constitution, prompts him to do, and let us gather useful hints from the observation. As soon as there is any visual discernment, there is a separation of one thing from another, and the reception of distinct ideas. The little one leaves the mater- nal lap — for what ? to work, and to get knowl- edge to prepare him for more and more work. He creeps about the room, not only for the pleasure of muscular action, but to seek for new objects to his curiosity ; hunting for prey, if we may so speak, as food to his awakened and craving perceptions. Every thing he gets hold of is a subject of interest — a fund of entertain- ment; and, though his mother perhaps thinks 12 THE CULTURE OF THE Knowledge without books. not of it, it is a source of most valuable instruc- tion. We can not just yet say of him that "he who runs may read," but we may say that he who creeps can — can read the great book of perceptible and practical knowledge, which is open boundlessly before him, just as fast and far as he can get at it. Toeing and kneeing it along, he lays hold of every thing within the touch and the crook of his fingers. "Why ? he wants knowledge, and he will have it. First, the thing — the individual — it is separate from some other thing he perceives, and he wants to know about it as another and distinct object. The several perceptive powers then come into action : finding out the various qualities — fig- ure, color, size, weight — as they are peculiar to each individual thing. Thus the child ranges through the room ; and when, in due time he mounts to the top of his feet, he runs about the house, and soon out of doors, and then round about the premises, all the time after knowl- edge — knowledge of objects, qualities, opera- tions, uses. Before the little looker and hunter is four years old, he is acquainted with hund- reds of things — perhaps we might say thou- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 13 Industrial efforts. sands. He knows nothing about the book, it may be, but is he deficient in language ? By no means; objects are distinguished by names ; qualities by appropriate terms. What riches of language are his, even now, though he may never have been at school, and can not read a word! All this time he has been in training for the duties and enjoyments of maturer life. He has been studying the Creator's perfect works, and unconsciously finding the steps which lead up to the Most Wise and Most Lov- ing. He has been acquainting himself with the things also made by human hands, and ex- amining the materials of which they are com- posed. This is in preparation for the time when he himself will make similar things, and will need accurate knowledge of fabrics and materials as to qualities and fitness for specific purposes. INDUSTRIAL EFFORTS. Nay, farther, our little beginner at life is something more than a learner — he is a maker. He is at his mechanics, too. See him putting this thing with that in rude efforts at construe- 14 THE CULTURE OF THE Industrial efforts. tion ! Grive him a dozen blocks, and he is in absolute bliss at work; building up and pull- ing down, and altering his wall or house, or whatever else he may be striviog to imitate. How wonderfully industrious, imitative, and constructive ! He wants to do every thing he sees others do. Give him little tools fitted to his little fingers, and how delighted ! How he skips off, mightily earnest, to his miniature bus- iness ! Now these applications of his strength and trials of his skill are instincts and impulses to prepare him for the labors, duties, and pleas- ures of life. And the parents, therefore, ought all the time to sympathize with him, lending a hand now and then to help just enough and no more; catching hints from instructive Na- ture, and carrying out her plans far beyond what the child's unassisted mind could think of in his own behalf But they generally do no such thing. On the contrary, they cut off the little learner from the very education he was getting, as well as he could, almost all alone. They practically declare, "Nature, you do not know as much as old usage does — usage begun in ignorance and continued in stu- pidity." OBSERVING FACULTIES. 15 An abiise of nature. AN ABUSE OF NATURE. But let US more particularly consider what is done. Oh the sad change which comes over this childhood's dream, or rather over this con- tented, sweet reality ! This is what we do — we, grown-up and pretendedly grown-wiser people — we catch up the active, looking, learning, working, and manufacturing happy little crea- ture, and clap him, together with twenties, thir- ties, forties, or fifties besides, into a wooden box, hardly, in some instances, large enough to hold them without jamming and hurting one against the other, and fasten him upon a seat, out of the reach of the many objects he has been in the midst of, and which he has been doing with as Nature intended. Yes, there we fasten him, or permit our agent, the school committee or the school-teacher, to do it ; and we make him bend his neck, and fix his eyes on a plain, dry surface of paper. This he must not cut, fold, crumble, or variously shape, in the way of cul- tivating his manufacturing abilities. No, he must look straight down upon this metamor- phosis of cotton. Were it but the rags out of 16 THE CULTURE OF THE An abuf?e of nature. which it came, many-shaped, many-hued, there would be something to hold the eye ; but what does he see now ? Words, words, words ; lit- tle black, immovable images, which he can not get his fingers under. What cares he for them? Nature made him to care for things, and for words too, just so far as they stand for the things he has to do with, or can have any clear idea of He, indeed, has an appetite, if we may so speak, for words, so far as they con- vey any ideas ; but we do not consult this ap- petite, but give him the words all tasteless of meaning. When I say this, I do not mean to af&rm that no explanations at all are given, but that none scarcely are given, in a large majority of schools, in immediate connection with the things to which they belong. Before the child enters school, it is always first things with him, then words. At school, it is first words, and then things — that is, if the pupil shall happen to come across them ; otherwise he must go without such substantial acquaint- ance. Now it ought not so to be. The period lent by Nature to prepare for future industry and livelihood ought not to be so unprofitably OBSERVING FACULTIES. 17 Profitable schooling. and wretchedly spent. In all common sense and true philosophy, this paper-deadening, ink- blinding delusion should be put away. But what shall take its place ? Kealities, life, thought, action, intelligence ; just what the chil^ has been forced to leave at his own home. These might be at once brought in, and how easily and cheaply besides! Keally it would not cost, on the whole, so much as school-wea- riness or school-hate costs, when it breaks over bounds and runs wild into mischief. PROFITABLE SCHOOLING. Let our primary school-rooms, and, indeed, the higher school-rooms, be well provided with shelves and boxes. Let these be filled with all sorts of productions of nature and art ; speci- mens of all sorts of wood and metal ; all kinds of cloth and leather, or any other fabric — in- deed, with every thing which can well be brought into a school, and put in some proper receptacle. Let each one of these objects be a subject for examination by classes in conven- ient order, under the direction of the teacher. In this way the plan begun by IS'ature at home B 18 THE CULTURE OF THE Profitable schooling. would be carried out, and carried out much far- ther than could possibly be done at home under ordinary circumstances, as many objects would be supplied by the scholars from different fam- ilies which could not be had excepting as each was found in a different home. All the percep- tive faculties would here find delightful occu- pation, and be continually gaining in strength. Children would hardly be tired of such obser- vation, due regard being given to their comfort and constitutional power of attention. Indeed, if rightly managed, they would enter heartily into minute examinations and comparisons of one thing with another, for there might be a healthful and spirited emulation in the exercise. It may be farther remarked, that the words designating the object in hand and its qualities and uses must come into the occasion. These the children learn just as readily as they learn at home the name of the lamp, and that it is bright and hot, or the terms belonging to any thing- else. Language is not lost, but rather richly gained, by such use of the time. Fur- thermore, just consider the practical utility of this mode of education. What a wide and mi- OBSEEVING FACULTIES. 19 Profitable schooling. nute acquaintance is formed with things, as necessaries, comforts, and luxuries in living, or as appertaining to the various affairs of busi- ness! How the quality of the material and of the manufacture of a commodity will be com- pared with the quality of another of the same kind ; so that, by the time the child shall be old enough to leave school, he shall have run through the whole range of objects ever used in ordinary life, and be able to detect the mi- nutest differences between one and another of the same sort ! With such a training, it would be utterly impossible for manufacturer or trader to impose an inferior production on the pur- chaser. He must proportion his price to the quality, or keep his goods on his hands. With the ignorance of commodities in which people have been kept until grown up and obliged to purchase for themselves, how continually have they been subjected to impositions on their credulity, and to consequent annoyance of spir- it! It has really taken a lifetime to obtain that practical knowledge of qualities and fit- nesses which might be acquired by boys and girls before they are half through their teens. 20 THE CULTURE OF THE Profitable schooling. were the common-sense and time-saving meth- od above explained adopted. How also are the poor now imposed upon ! They must take a second or third rate article at a very lit- tle reduction from the price of the best, to make a small saving. Yet, in the long run, theirs are the dearest purchases of all. But with such an education there could scarcely be any imposition on any body. The children of the poor in our common schools are equally learners with those of the rich. If those who are pinched for money must seek the cheapest thing, they will know exactly its comparative value, and will either have fair terms, or go to some competitor more favorable to their circum- stances. Then the struggle would be among the manufacturers to see who should excel — who should go ahead in improvement — as knowing that the purchasers have been train- ed from very infancy to detect imperfections. Then the trader could not deceive the buyer, if the manufacturer should succeed in deceiv- ing him. Indeed, retailer, jobber, wholesale dealer, and manufacturer must all be honest men, selling at prices exactly just; that is, ac- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 21 Loss and gain. cording to quality, all other circumstances be- ing equitably considered. If every article in a dry -goods store, or a grocery, or any other furnishing establishment were thus put to the test of minute examination and comparison, the reign of that old hollow-hearted despot whose power is in his own pretense and in the ignorance of his subjects — the reign of King- Sham — would be ended. LOSS AND GAIN. Thus much might easily be done in our schools ; yes, and money enough might be saved by the "operation," as trading people have the term, to pay the whole school-tax. Just think of it, friends! how much the major- ity of people actually lose out of pocket by overpaying for poor commodities ! or, if price and quality do go honestly together, how much discomfort is often occasioned to the body and trouble to the spirit by these cheap imperfec- tions ! How often, too, the purse suffers in the long run by all the rips, breakages, and good- for-nothingness for which the few dollars or few cents saved are far from making up ! Who 22 THE CULTURE OF THE Loss and gain. has not had occasion to feel the truth of the saying, "the cheapest things are the dearest?" Just look round your premises, and take a dis- tinct observation of all the various necessaries, comforts, luxuries, and elegances there gather- ed. Consider the ceaseless rush of wearables, eatables, drinkables, and burnables into your household receptacles. Then reflect that all this mixed and continuous avalanche of earth- ly matter is sweeping through your doors from the beginning to the end of married life, half a century perhaps and more, costing to moderate fortunes, for fifty years, fifty thousand dollars at least, and to others twice or four times that amount ; and then reflect how often through this long period the twain and their depend- ents have been mistaken, have been cheated, or somehow have lost in their bargainings, in consequence of not having their senses about them — at least one sense wide open and sharp — that is, the sight. Yes, friends, take all these absolute realities into a clear comprehension, and then tell me whether the shelves and boxes of specimen goods at the school-room, and the careful inspection and comparison of them by OBSERVING FACULTIES. 23 Loss and gain. the pupils in the course of all the long years passed there, are nothing but a theorist's ivhim. But, alas! even if you should think this com- modity project not a whim, but rather an all- important requisite, it would be quite in vain as schools are now arranged. Even if par- ents, committees, and teachers should all be convinced of the value of the proposition, it might take no short time to get it into action. Who does not know that public improvements, however well acknowledged, are often post- poned for years? Inconvenient and unhealthy school-rooms in cities, and miserable old school- houses in the country, prove this fact. The bet- ter time, however, is coming, as a few schools here and there in our country bear witness. In the mean time, good parents, what shall pre- vent you from going into this commodity- training at once in your own families ? In- deed, your children are at it now, all by them- selves — even the youngest creeper on the car- pet. They only want a little assistance. Their senses are all alive and awake ; their observ- ing faculties are at their appointed work. The difficulty is, there are so many new things all 24 THE CULTURE OF THE Loss and gain. about in this freshly entered world, that they do not work long enough on one piece of mat- ter ; they are not thorough. Now what these little candidates for purchases and house-keep- ing want is your help and companionship in inspection. How much can be learned of real substantial knowledge even before the child shall arrive at the school-going age! Without any help at all, except his own keen senses or the eager perceptives behind them, he becomes marvelously knowing at four or five years of age. Now, amid all your gettings of new things, what a constant opportunity is there for him to get an understanding of them, if you will but stop to show him ! What ample time is there during the three meals a day, at the table, for the inspection of things in use upon it, and for talk about those which have been seen elsewhere ! Indeed, friends, you may take your children along through your whole house-world, and over and over again, search- ing every thing as thoroughly as air, light, and heat search them, by the time they shall come to the edge of their youthful years. Even a seven-year-old errand-doer would have some- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 25 Loss and gain. thing like a mature judgment as to the bad, the better, and the best, at the store where he carries your cents, dimes, and quarters, to bring you back, as you hope, the best article to be had for the money. You would find, I can affirm without fear of contradiction, the im- mortal adage to be true even of a child, that "knowledge is power" — power over a store- keeper or any other money-maker. Just try the plan at once, my friends, and be convinced. You will then have something to talk about with your children, not so much to grumble about, and not so much time for grumbling. Finally, when you shall have thoroughly proved the value and the pleasure of this thing — learn- ing in the home seminary — then try all your influence for a change in the school. Both in- stitutions earnestly working together, be as- sured that all sorts of producers would have to go ahead toward perfection, and trade would be compelled to be honest. Adulteration, that vile deceiver, that sometimes awful poisoner, would be cornered, starved out, and have to give up. Old and mighty Sham, as was inti- mated before, would have to abdicate, and his line would perish. 26 THE CULTURE OF THE Infantile activity. Much more is yet to be said about the inves- tigation of material things. I shall now take up the subject somewhat methodically, and in various relations. All, however, will have a bearing more or less on practical utility. INFANTILE ACTIVITY. The exercise of the observing faculties — ob- ject-study — begins in early infancy, prompted by the inborn instincts. Some hints apper- taining to this tenderest age may be of bene- fit, so they are here given intermediately as we pass along. Set it down, friends, as a fact that your chil- dren want things substantial and palpable to the senses from the time they are put on the floor from the mother's lap. They must have them at first or nothing. Let them, therefore, have what they want, but it must be judicious- ly and properly. The infant is pleased with that which he can grasp, and shake about, and put to his mouth. But do not, like some ig- norant parents, give him what would be hurt- ful — a painted toy, for instance — so that he shall be in danger of sucking the paint and of OBSERVING FACULTIES. 27 Infantile activity. being poisoned ; for the taste is one of the first avenues to infantile knowledge and enjoyment, and there is a sucking instinct. Put into his hands little hard things of different shapes, and made of ivory, or some other clean, firm sub- stance, which may be found, perhaps, at the toy -shop ; or things of solid wood, which you can carve out for yourself. When he shall fairly get upon the floor, there to be seated like a monarch on his throne, or to move about like a mechanic in his shop, provide him with little blocks, and other manageable things, to pile up and toss about. When he shall be old enough to try any thing like building with them, some one should show him how, and help his beginning. Few probably need this hint ; yet some are too busy with work or amusements, or too indolent to stoop a few moments to the incipient constructor, if he is not in the way of their feet, or makes no dis- turbing cries. Any thing which will not harm him, and which he himself can not injure, might be within his domain or his workshop. Pray use the good sense not to let him have, even to gain a moment's quiet, what he may 28 THE CULTURE OF THE Sympathy wanted. tear or deface, such as the yet-unread newspa- per or a valuable book. He must understand that he can never have such things, at least unless there are those of the kind devoted to his special use alone. You will save a great deal of time and trouble by firmness in this matter. In process of the months he becomes a traveler on all-fours about the room ; he is in search of curiosities and adventures. It is now far better to keep entirely out of his reach things he must not touch, than to be ever anx- iously on the watch, and perpetually stopping, thwarting, and irritating the headlong discov- erer. As for things which can not be put aside, such as the stove or the fireplace, and the implements belonging to them, just let him understand that it is your will, which can not he changed^ that he must never touch them. If necessary, just let him get, under your careful watch, an uncomfortably hot, but not a burnt finger a few times, and he will perceive why he must not go too far in that direction. SYMPATHY WANTED. Enough has been said, perhaps, to indicate OBSERVING FACULTIES. 29 Sympathy wanted. how a child may be entertained and instructed for the first year. As the second comes on, he begins to run about, and to go every where, and get at every thing, and you are put to your wits to keep him within safe bounds. He is perpetually finding new things. His brain is too weak to be kept very long at one single object, so it is a happy provision that curiosity should carry him quickly from one thing to another. Nevertheless, let him hold on to what he has as long as he will ; the lon- ger the better ; for thus he will form the hab- it of concentrated attention, preparing him to stick to a lesson till he thoroughly learns it, or to any other pursuit in the future till he shall have accomplished it. By -and -by, when he shall discover some new and curious thing, he will run with it to you if he can, or bring you to it, to show you what a wonderful discovery he has made. He is a social being, such as he is to be, or ought to be in all his after life. It is worthy of remark, and of gratitude also to the good Creator, how children want the pres- ence, the attention, and especially the sympa- thy of others. Above all things, in gratifying 30 THE CULTURE OF THE Individualizing. curiosity, and getting knowledge, and doing their little play -work, they crave sympathy. How this infantile innocence instructs far-off manhood and womanhood, and rebukes solita- ry and cold self-seeking! Your child wants sympathy; give it to him on the spot. He will be satisfied with a very little. Do not turn him abruptly off, unless the house should be on fire, or somebody is in agonizing pain, and must have help at once. Look as he holds up his new-found treasure: look! per- haps you will learn something yourself; for children often find out interesting items of knowledge which their parents had been utter- ly ignorant of before. Then dismiss the nov- elty-finder with a tender word and a kind look, and he will run away as happy as ever Agas- siz was after having discovered and lectured about some new species of fish ; for genial science delights to impart as well as to find. INDIVIDUALIZING. But your child has begun to talk : he calls things by name ; that is, if, with all patience, you will tell him what the names are. Now OBSERVING FACULTIES. 31 Individualizing. or soon you may help him to cultivate into strength and acuteness the most important per- ceptive faculty of his mind ; it is the individu- alizing faculty. The phrenologists name it "in- dividuality." All qualities of material things which fit them for special uses inhere in sepa- rate individual objects. Certain qualities are combined together, and thus form a certain spe- cies of things. Now, unless the sense distinct- ly detects and gets hold of the thing, the quali- ties and uses can not be apprehended. So, one of the very first observing powers put in ac- tion is that of individuality. It is not some new quality, but some new and distinct object which the child drives at and lays hold of, and then he looks for its properties. Some have this faculty constitutionally much stron- ger than others. Many a boy and girl, many a man and woman, go along the roads in a country place, or the streets of a city, with their eyes half shut, or gazing about with a vacant stare, or fastened straightforward upon nothing. Others observe every thing, and gain knowledge at every step and at every turn of the eye. Such being the constitutional differ- 32 THE CULTURE OF THE The object game. ence in cliildren, it will be well for parents to attend early to this matter. Perhaps they themselves are deficient in this individualizing ability, and it is time that they should make up the deficiency. THE OBJECT GAME. As a mutual benefit and pleasure indeed, let parent and child have a sort of game at finding objects. It may be called "the thing game," or, if you please, " the object game." The wall, ceiling, window, floor, carpet, table, chairs, and so on, will probably first strike attention, and be named. Soon all the prominent objects of the room will be exhausted. Then there will be a scramble for something more. Objects will be discovered which otherwise would not have met the eye, or been thought of The head of a nail, a shred of cloth, the minutest thread, or any particle of matter; a spot or mark on the furniture or wall, or any thing else — any thing which may bear a name, will be detected one after another; and he is the victor who shall find the minutest or most out- of-the-way thing to which may be put a name. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 33 The object game. or the last thing to be found. At another time the same game may be played with ob- jects in the yard, or any where around the house, or as far away as the sight can reach from door or window. Different apartments in the house may be made the scene of the game. If the time be the dark evening or a winter's cold day, let the trial be who shall call to recollection the most objects in some other room in the house, or in the more distant shed or barn. What an inventory will thus be made of the implements and various goods of the household! You might go farther and call to recollection what may have been no- ticed in a neighbor's domicile, or any where else. Thus, in mere exciting pastime, you will develop in your child and in yourselves tbe central and most important faculty of the intel- lect. You will all be trained to keep your eyes open, to look, to see, and to separate one thing from another, and thus to obtain knowledge of new and distinct things wherever you go. How keen at catching objects at a glance will you become, if you only try ! You know how the sailor will discover a ship at the distant C 34 THE CULTURE OF THE Qualities : form. horizon wlien it seems but a speck, but wliicli the undisciplined passenger could not possibly perceive. It is because he has been for years searching the ocean's surface for any object which may break the blank uniformity, and especially for his eye's love — a sail. His suc- cess at such perception is a matter of discipline and use. Just so the sight of children might be trained to acuteness of observation among the objects on the land, if parents would set themselves and their children about it. Of course, as was intimated before, there will be differences in accomplishment according to dif- ferences in organic constitution. qualities: form. Next after individualizing the world of mat- ter around comes the learning of the forms of things. These forms can be seen by the eye in the light — can be felt by the hand in the dark : they are the objects of two senses. Soon will the child learn the ideas and the names, long and short, square and round. In- deed, you may cheaply provide blocks exhib- iting all the various geometrical figures, and OBSERVING FACULTIES. 35 Size and measurement. the child in due time (for I would force noth- ing) might learn the various geometrical names. At his impressible age, it will be as easy for him to fasten on his memory a scientific term as any other word, if there is only a real visi- ble object under it. How easily, then, will he learn whether any object his sense falls on is most like a square, triangle, cube, parallelo- gram, sphere, cone, pyramid, or any thing else ! I need not here run through the several geo- metrical figures and names. You may easily get a book and look at them, and the advan- tage to yourselves and children will amply re- pay the trouble. SIZE AND MEASUREMENT. To proceed with qualities: next comes the size of things. The child soon perceives this, without your telling him that one object is larger or smaller than another. All he wants from you are words to designate differences in dimension. Yes, he does want, or rather need something else. He needs training to accura- cy in discriminating the size and bulk of differ- ent things. Let him then have, when he shall 36 THE CULTURE OF THE Size and measurement. be old enough, a two-foot rule such as carpen- ters use, or the household yard-stick, marked off into feet and inches, and set him to measur- ing objects, whatever or wherever he pleases, bating all harm. He can find the length and breadth of the floor ; the length, width, and height of furniture. Indeed, have him meas- ure the dimensions of any thing he may put his rule against within or around the house. When he shall be old enough, furnish him with a ten-foot pole, or a rope, or an iron chain of longer stretch, and with this set him to find- ing the length and breadth of a field, or the distance between your own house and the next neighbor's, or the school-house, or the church. Thus your boy is becoming a surveyor before he knows it. This procedure will not be a dry task to him, unless you make it so ; it will seem to make a man of him, and he can not but like it. I see no impropriety, moreover, in a sister's taking a part in such outdoor, healthy, and instructive action. Certainly all indoor exercises in such measurements will fall within the proprieties of female life, and much in the uses of it. Why not make a sort of OBSERVING FACULTIES. 37 Size and measurement. competition and game of this quality of size ? Let a guess be made as to the length, breadth, or height of any thing, and then see who comes nearest to the fact by the measure. Your boys and girls will like it, and so will you, if you have any of your young sportiveness still left in your soul. But some will inquire of what practical ad- vantage can this possibly be in the future? It is replied that the active business of almost every one depends more or less on off-hand and immediate decisions based on a knowledge of things. The farmer does not often scientif- ically survey the portion of a field he intends to plow up for a crop. He decides on the quantity through his previous knowledge of comparative dimensions. The more accurate- ly he can judge of lengths and breadths, the nearer will be his work to his wishes. Often- times this kind of judgment will come into play in respect to spaces and distances. Again, in buying and selling loads of commodities, men often guess at the dimensions, or judge by the eye without definite numerical measurement. He, therefore, who shall have the truest per- 88 THE CULTUEE OF THE Weight. ception of size will have the advantage. In the affairs of a household, moreover, such as the cutting and repairing of garments and the proportioning of quantities in cookery, the fac- ulty of size comes into most useful requisition. Why, therefore, shall it not be assiduously de- veloped from early life onward, to the saving of work, time, money, and comfort quite worth the while ? WEIGHT. Now comes the quality of weight. In a most incidental, unlesson-like, and playful way you can teach your child, boy or girl, the dif- ference between one thing and another as to weight. Let him lift first one object, then another, so that he may perceive the difference in the pressure upon his hands. You can tell him that this pressure is weight, and that one thing weighs more than another. He will learn, too, that the difference in different kinds of things does not depend on size. In due time you can show him what it does depend on. Provide some scales. These will not cost more than a few cigars, or any other luxury OBSERVING FACULTIES. 39 Color. which you exhaust in the using, or some little piece of finery quickly worn out, but the scales will last for years, and outweigh their own price a thousand times over in this educational usefulness. With these let him weigh all the various commodities proper to be put into them. Do not make a task of the matter, but rather a pastime which you may join in your- selves. In the first place, let each one present take the commodity in hand, and lift it up and down, and guess how much it weighs, or rather try to form an accurate judgment about it. Then put it into the scale and see who comes nearest to the fact. Thus the little company, parents and children, not only receive enter- tainment, but gain knowledge, and a special faculty is disciplined for future and valuable use in the affairs of life. It would be easy to show the special application of this training to practical purposes, as in the case of the other faculties and qualities. Thinking readers can readily illustrate for themselves. COLOR. There is a special faculty likewise to observe 40 THE CULTURE OF THE Color. color. Such different properties of objects as form and weight must certainly require the use of a specific power ; so also must color, for this differs from every other property in na- ture. This faculty of color may be disciplined to marvelous acuteness and enjoyment if pains are only taken with it. Of all the appearances of matter, the child earliest observes and de- lights in color. It is the color of the fire and the lamp which so early attracts the infant eye; so of other objects one after another. Bright and dazzling colors are his joy. As his age shall warrant, teach him the names of the va- rious distinct colors. By the help of a book, if you need one, you may be somewhat me- thodical in your instructions. You can give him the names of the three primary colors, then of the secondary, and at length of all the va- rious colors made up from these, together with the many hues, tints, and tinges which have names. Provide patterns of cloth as copies, and from these let the child get the idea and name of the distinctive colors. This will be a pleasant matter, if you choose to make it so. You may get up a color game, as you do with OBSERVING FACULTIES. 41 Color. the other qualities. Take any object of an in- determinate color, and see who will quickest find the standard color which it most nearly resembles. See who shall name the colors, hues, or tinges to the greatest number of ob- jects according to some text-book. Here are the things both of art and of nature innumera- ble all around, with colors of all sorts ; what a source of entertainment and discipline for the special faculty, if parents will but think of it, and go at the work, or rather the sport ! The training of this faculty is of singular import- ance to those who have much to do with dry goods, and especially to ladies, who are the principal purchasers. I once knew a farmer's wife, the mother of an infant boy and of a lit- tle gi?rl perhaps three years old at the time I have in mind. She had no help but that of her own hands and of this little bud of a maid. Among other things, she must make, mend, and alter garments. She could not well run up stairs to a closet or drawer for a piece of cloth whenever she might want it, so she had all the various fabrics of wool, cotton, or silk done up respectively in separate parcels by 42 THE CULTURE OF THE Nature. themselves. Not only so, but, if I recollect aright, she had a subdivision of fabrics accord- ing to color. So, when in her work the mother needed a particular cloth of a particular color, she sent the little active and willing girl away up stairs for it. If she made a mistake in the selection, she had to go back and forth till she got the right little roll. The result was that the child became exceedingly discriminating in whatever belonged to cloths and their colors. She at length manifested remarkable taste as to the fitness and proprieties of dress. Her natural organization might have been favora- ble to such ability. Nevertheless, such an early use of the special faculty must have en- hanced this prominent characteristic. NATURE. In this training to the observance and en- joyment of color you will, of course, not omit the infinite variety in the aspects of nature. With sunshine and cloud, mountains, lowlands, woods, waters, and other features of nature, what a range for the eye! How it may be 'taught to fasten and feast on distinctive colors, and their many lights and shades ! OBSERVING FACULTIES. 43 Flowers. FLOWERS. Flowers can not possibly be omitted, for they are among the first things which attract a child's admiring gaze. These will afford al- most numberless lessons in discriminating col- ors. They may not be so practically useful as the lessons on cloths, but the living and won- derful beauty will make the instruction far more delightful. What a taste might be nur- tured, what pleasure secured and continually enhanced by a little pains ! How easily might the delighted mind be carried, in due time, from the charm of the flowers into the rich botanic- al science which lies in their various charac- teristics, and in the leafy structure which they adorn ! Another special subject of notice is the va- rious colors and hues of the different vegetable productions. What a difference between one kind of grain or grass and another! What changes of hue in the same kind as the growth proceeds ! Habituate your child to watch, day after day, as the invisible Painter varies the tints, and tinges, and shades. Direct his eye to 44 THE CULTUEE OF THE Grains. all the appearances presented by the vegeta- ble realm, as there may be cloud or sunshine, breeze or calm. Thus training him to observe Nature in all her many shows, you may fit him for landscape painting ; at any rate, you will prepare him better to enjoy the painter's work. But, above all, you will educate him to delight in the matchless wonders of the all -perfect Hand. GRAINS. Furthermore, do not let the little learner go without knowing one grain from another as to both stalk and kernel. It would be well to put each kind of grain into a little box or transparent vial for convenient future obser- vations. It is perfectly wonderful how much music or mathematics, and many other things, are learned, or rather are pretended to be learn- ed, while the commonest and most useful things are left out of the catalogue of requirements. I once traveled in a stage-coach with a little girl eleven years old, who was going from her home to a high-priced fashionable boarding- school fifty miles away to be educated. The OBSERVING FACULTIES. 45 Trees. schools close by her father's door — and they were quite good schools too — would not an- swer. I made some inquiries of the child as to the particulars of her course of instruction. Her studies seemed to me very remarkable, but she knew so little of them that she could make no remark about them herself. We passed a large wheat-field, goldenly rich and beautiful, for it was just before the harvest. I inquired if she knew what grain that was, and she had no more idea of it than she would have had of the vegetation of the tropics if she had been dropped suddenly down into the midst of it. She was equally ignorant of a great many oth- er striking objects and useful things along the road. Just so thousands of our young ladies go to school, spend money, tug at lessons, and learn words, and yet hardly know what their bread is made of. At least they know not much about industrious Nature's primal and indispensable factory out in the fields. TREES. A word more about another kind of produc- tion. Your child learns, doubtless, very early 46 THE CULTURE OF THE Trees. which is the apple, or pear, or peach, or plum tree, and how each looks, if such be near by ; and can also tell the elms from the maples .standing, it may be, at the door or along the street. But it is possible, unless you take some little pains, and certainly if you put him into the school-prison early and there keep him, that he will not advance much farther in his knowledge of trees. Many a boy grows up without being able to name the trees in a neigh- boring wood, and of qualities he is much more ignorant still. As to girls, the majority know next to nothing about these magnificent mon- archs of the vegetable kingdom. They lift themselves all alive out of the ground, stretch out their leafy sceptres, wear their foliaged crowns, and there tower, waiting to be looked at, admired, and studied ; and yet, with all their beauty and stateliness, how little noticed they are ! Now, friends, parents, let it not be so with your children, whether sons or daughters, if you would have them truly educated. Turn their attention to the difference in form and general appearance between one spe6ies of tree and another. They will most readily learn OBSERVING FACULTIES. 47 Leaves. the names. Show them clearly the different parts of the tree, and teach them the words designating each part. According as the age permits, you can have much conversation with them on the philosophy of its growth and na- ture. I was once walking on a farm with the owner's little boy five years of age, and he pointed out to my unnoticing sight, with a keen eye and the zest of a naturalist, a pecul- iar characteristic of a great oak near which we passed. That father, I found, made it a pas- time to show his child the things of nature, and to make explanations about them ; and I am sure it was a pastime to my bright com- panion and instructor. But to proceed : take the little learner into the woods, and see what new trees you can find there, and help him to a knowledge of these. If you are ignorant yourself, become his fellow-learner. LEAVES. ^ One thing in particular might be done to improve the observing powers as to minute- ness, and to prepare entertainment for the fu- 48 THE CULTURE OF THE Leaves. ture. The leaf of one species of tree differs from that of another. Now, let the exact dif- ference be noticed, and at length fixed in the memory. Let a number of leaves be culled from each tree, and thoroughly dried by press- ure in a book ; then, when all the foliage has fallen under the cold, and the inclement winter has come, what fun and instruction too can you and your children have with the leaves! You can make it a pleasant game to see who shall best tell the name of the tree to which each kind of leaf belonged. It may take several games to associate some twenty or thirty of these little things, so variously shaped and notched, each with the name of its parent of the pasture or forest. Then, when the next vegetative season shall arrive, how sharp the young eyes will be after the different kinds of trees, each with its peculiarly -shaped foliage ! The leaves of shrubs, plants, grains, and grass- es might also be prepared in the same way for the winter's amusement and instruction. It would be a good plan, moreover, to provide little pieces of all sorts of wood, letting a por- tion of the bark remain as one of the distinct- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 49 Minerals. ive marks. Thus the child and yourselves, companions as docile as he, will learn the dif- ference between the color, fibre, and strength of one species of wood and those qualities in another species. He will come to know the kind of wood from its internal look as well as from its external, with which he began. By this inspection he will be gradually acquaint- ing himself with all the various sorts of timber which, in after life, he may have to do with ei- ther as a manufacturer or a purchaser. As things have been, this valuable knowledge has been left to a life-long experience of mistakes and losses, mingled in with whatever successes may have come. MINERALS. Still farther, you may lead your young look- er into the mineral kingdom, and find many treasures there before saying any thing about mineralogy. You may, however, give the term if you please, and he will remember and like it at his age as well as any other word. You may incidentally teach him many mineralogic- al terms, only be sure to have them stand for D 50 THE CULTURE OF THE Minerals. visible and real objects. What makes chil- dren dislike these matters is the taking the life out of them, if they have any, by a hard lesson -task, without any intelligible explana- tion. In the first place, you can easily have at hand for illustration specimens of the several metals in common use, such as iron, lead, copper, silver, gold, and other metals, and also their va- rious combinations. Let the differences, uses, and comparative values of these substances be shown, together with their original locations and conditions in the earth. How very much you might communicate, from time to time, about these minerals, storing treasures in the mind richer and more lasting than the precious metals themselves ! Again : have your child hunt for rocks which are peculiar for size, shape, color, streaks, spots, or mossy pictures. Show him the different layers of earth, dis- closed by a cut through a hill where a road passes, or in a river's bank. He has eyes as well as a farmer to notice how the productive soils differ from each other, and also from the barren strata beneath. Thus, from this early date onward, he will obtain that knowledge of OBSERVING FACULTIES. 51 Minerals. land which is all-important to the agricultur- ist, and indeed is useful to any one who culti- vates but a little patch of a garden. You may have a game together to see who shall find the greatest number of curious stones ; or, if you are at the water-side, try who shall be most successful in spying out beautiful pebbles. This slight beginning in mineralogical science may possibly lead to a zealous and thorough continuance. Many years ago, some crystals imbedded in a lump of iron ore were pointed out to a youth.* He was so surprised at their regularity and beauty, and with the fact that they had been hidden for ages in that entirely different and shapeless mass of matter, that his eyes were afterward put on the watch for sim- ilar things. This trivial circumstance first gave the start to one of the most distinguished min- eralogists of our country and the author of val- uable treatises on the science. Now, if your boy shall not become eminent, he may, by your aid, become a minute observer of mineral sub- stances. Ever afterward his eye will be sharp- er to detect them, and his traveling be made * The late Francis Alger, of Boston. 52 THE CULTURE OF THE Animals. interesting by boulders in the pasture, stones bj the wayside, or even gravel rattling be- neath his carriage-wheels in the road. It will be well to help your little fellow-ram- bler to begin a mineralogical cabinet, although this may seem too grand a phrase for the occa- sion. The rudest boards, and the lad's collec- tion of curious pebbles or coarser stones to put upon them, will suffice to commence with, if there be nothing better. The very fact that a particular depository has been prepared for such things will induce effort to fill it up. Great pleasure, perhaps great usefulness, may grow in the future from such humble begin- ning. Should it be so, your son will thank you a thousand times for this first setting out in the science which he got from a loving par- ent. ANIMALS. If the very ground beneath the feet can be made to yield so much to the early mind, how much more the living creatures which move above it ! How delighted even infants are with the pictures of animals ! What a marvel, then. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 53 Animals. are the substantial animate creatures them- selves! These move about, and have a pur- pose in moving, as has the child himself. They do something, and there is a sort of wonder what they will do next. The household dog and cat are favorites, and the animals about the yard and barn are objects of interest — all this before much instruction can be given. Nature is getting the pupil ready. In due season, and soon will this come to most, how much may be taught concerning the distinctive natures and habits of these tenants of the homestead ! But the wider animal kingdom — curiosity can not reach the end of this ; but it can delightedly travel on and on, if instruction will only lead it forward a little. The birds, which make the spring so gladsome and the summer fields and groves so all alive, have specific forms, colors, notes, habits, histories. Now the boys and girls might become knowing and acute in these vari- ous matters, just as well as so sharp-eyed aft- er birds' nests, as most of them are. Indeed, young people in the country, if parents and teachers would only look to it, might make no small progress in ornithology before the cus- 54 THE CULTURE OF THE Insect curiosities. tomary school-years should be over. As for the larger four-footed creatures, there is not much chance at them, ezcept by happening on a menagerie or a wilderness. Some of the smaller quadrupeds, however, are within easy reach. The nimble, chirruping squirrel has sev- eral habits of his own. The opening curiosity would be just as ready to learn about these as to watch his freakish motions. Even rat and mouse might be made something of scientific- ally. Perhaps, if more truth were known of these skulks, they would seem very much less offensive. Even snakes and worms might also have a better repute through pleasant associa- tions. Let us save our children from a life- long disgust, if we can. INSECT CURIOSITIES. Another division of the animal kingdom spreads all around the home in every direction — that of insects. How countless their species and varieties! There is no reason why the young should not be introduced into consid- erable acquaintance with the science of ento- mology, and this without hard and dry study. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 55 Insect curiosities. Even so long and strange a scientific term would be no burden to the fresh memory, be- cause it would mean something. What a trifle would a microscope cost for family use! so that, when any singular little creature should be found, there might be a minute and wonder- ing inspection. There is a country town, one of the roughest in New England, which was favored with a clergyman who well understood the true meth- ods of education. Among other investigations, he devoted some of his leisure to entomology. Somehow, he inspired the people of the whole town, more or less, with his spirit, and espe- cially the young. All eyes were opened and sharpened to discover some new bug, or worm, or butterfly ; and happy was the little boy or girl who could run with some prize of the kind to the minister, receive his thanks, and get a peep through his microscope at the wonders. Now, if one man could exercise such an influ- ence over a whole town six miles square, what might not be expected of young learners, were school-teachers in their separate districts, and parents at the homestead, all to get their per- 56 THE CULTURE OF THE Fishes and shells. ceptions awakened to these variously constitu- ted tribes, amid whose creepings, flyings, buzz- ings, and hummings they have their own being and habitation ! FISHES AND SHELLS. Again : there are the inhabitants of the wa- ters. It is well known how interesting the dis- tinguished ichthyologist, Agassiz, can make a lecture or an incidental talk about fishes. Whether older or younger hearers hang de- lighted on his descriptions of the finny crea- tures, hardly thought of before, except as now and then seen glancing within their own glassy element, or as presented by quite another sort of professor — the cook, it is anticipated that the time will come when parents will be so well informed as to show their children, in ta- ble conversation, that trout, haddock, and shad may afford mental as well as bodily nutriment. All that is needed for this purpose is a little reading, observation, and a desire to be instruct- ive. Some families have on hand a great variety of shells. It would be a pretty exercise for the OBSERVING FACULTIES. 57 rhenomena of nature. children, on a winter's day, to sort out these flowers of the sea according to species, size, or some other rule. Thus several of the observ- ing faculties would be cultivated, together with pleasant occupation. PHENOMENA OF NATURE. We will glance again at the inanimate world. Various phenomena and processes in it may be made interesting and instructive subjects for sight and speech. Nature is passing through changes and performing operations continually all around. The child observes many of them. When they first strike his sense his curiosity is likely to be aroused, and he may ask, " Why is this or that? what makes it do so?" The loftier reflective faculties are now beginning to operate : they want to know the how, the why, and the wherefore of every thing, especially of the changes and the actions of things. The re- flective faculty — the causality more than any other — prompts to questions. In answer to this, the considerate parent will reply and in- struct ; but many a thoughtless or busy one will turn the child off, and thus stop him from stud- 58 THE CULTURE OF THE Phenomena of nature. ying lessons and receiving knowledge from the greatest and truest book in the universe — the universe itself. Before long, in ordinary expe- rience, the child becomes so entirely accustom- ed to these natural phenomena that he loses all curiosity about them, and asks no more ques- tions. Thus millions live and die in the civil- ized world, and even in this book-blessed and school-favored land, utterly ignorant of wonder- ful processes going on around them all the time ; whereas, had the earliest curiosity been kept up and nurtured, creation would have been an ever-opening and yet untiring volume. I once asked quite a large boy what clouds were made of. He replied, " Smoke." He had seen with his own eyes thick smoke go up into the air from all the chimneys of the neighbor- hood, and what could it possibly do there but be turned into clouds ? Nobody had ever pointed out to him the grand round of the va- pors from the ocean and all the waters of the land, up through the sky, and down to the earth, the streams, and the seas again, doing all the world good on the way. Yet that boy was at school, and might have been great at words, OBSERVING FACULTIES. 59 Phenomena of nature. remarkable before his school committee, and wonderful to his parents. I asked that young girl in the stage-coach, before mentioned, what clouds were, and she replied, "Oh! they are great bags up in the sky ; and now and then holes get torn, and down comes the rain." This was all she seem- ed to know about this ever-varying and mani- festly beneficent part of nature. But was she not at a grand boarding-school, learning great words in big books, and at high expense ? "Was she not getting a fashionable education ? What more could the world ask of her ? But it is not boys and girls alone who are ignorant of Nature. A large proportion of the grown-np do not understand her most common operations and appearances. There are mists, clouds, rain, hail, snow, ice, dew, fire, light, air ; now how few in all the civilized world have a philosophical knowledge of these phenomena I Why is it so ? One answer may be that they were not explained to the young. Their eyes at length became accustomed to them, the new- ness passed away, and curiosity passed away with it; so a whole lifetime is spent in igno- 60 THE OBSERVING FACULTIES. Phenomena of nature. ranee of changes, combinations, and beneficent results in the wise plans and works of the adorable Creator. Could some such natural phenomenon take place but once in a hundred years, and then be advertised as a spectacle, there would be a rush of eager multitudes to behold it, and a most earnest listening to the scientific explanations. Ah ! what minute proc- esses, what mighty movements, what number- less benefits every moment ! and how millions of the most privileged of our race live in the midst, and see not, and ask not how or why ! Good parents, you are entreated not to suffer your own beloved children to grow up with such deadened curiosity and contented igno- rance. If you have not the requisite knowl- edge already, become fellow-learners with them. A book or two for the purpose can be bought for what you would spend for some transient amusement or perishable luxury.* * The treatises here named would be convenient : Tate's " First Lessons in Philosophy, or Science of Familiar Things;" Wells's "Science of Common Things;" Brewer's "Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar;" and Peterson's "Familiar Science, or the Scientific expla- nation of Common Things." FARTHER SUGGESTIONS ON THE CULTURE OF THE OBSERVING FACULTIES. NOTE. The following suggestions pertain to a different class of qualities — those which are not inherent in substance itself, but which are circumstantial and concomitant. These also are exceedingly important subjects of the observing faculties, and afford occasion for careful direction and discipline on the part of parents and other teachers. Those who have an earnest and conscientious interest in early and right mental culture will proceed without requiring any special invitation. FARTHER SUGGESTIONS. PLACE. PLACE, OR GEOGRAPHY AT HOME. Place, or geography at home. A CHILD may begin geography long before he goes to school, or, rather, he may lay the sure and proper foundations for this science. When he shall have been taught the points of the compass — east, west, north, and south — then which side of the room the fire is, which the table, and in which direction are the barn and the garden ; and when he shall see just how the land lies and looks close around his home, he has had an introduction to geogra- phy, or has, in a small degree, been prepared for an introduction. A beginning has been made according to the real nature of things. He understands what he asks about and what he is told. All the words have a meaning to his little mind. Now what you may do, and 64 THE CULTURE OF THE Place, or geography at home. what he will be glad of, is that you carry him on a little farther, and still farther than he would go, clearly and certainly, without your personal guidance. You must talk him along, and walk him along, until you have together surveyed the neigborhood all around, and he has obtained a positive knowledge of it — a knowledge which he feels to be his own, just as he feels that a knowledge of your door- yard or sitting-room is his own. For instance, you can ask him in what direction the street runs ; and, if he has not already found out, tell him, and he will soon know beyond forget- ting. Have him learn who lives in the next house to his own home on the right hand and on the left ; who in the second, third, and fourth, and so on. Of course, this could hardly be done in the brick-blocked, heterogeneously neighbored but unneighborly city. Children at a very early age somehow learn what are a road, a field, a pasture, a wood, a hill, and a brook. Indeed, they quickly become familiar with most of the prominent features of nature, and the words by which they are designated. They learn much by the incidental conversa- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 65 Place, or geography at home. tion of persons around. But you might, by a little pains, make your child a more accurate as well as far-reaching observer than he would otherwise be. Train him to notice every dis- tinct object within the scope of his eye ; all the inequalities of the surface, all the varying tints of the vegetation between the first tender green of the spring and the russet of the au- tumn. Every rock, every little hillock and bush, or whatever else may make a distinctly observable thing, should be a lesson to his eye. Were these diminutive traits in the landscape only magnified, they would be such geograph- ical features as might be noticed in the big school-book; yet the fact that they seem but insignificant lines and dots, as it were, does not make them ungeographical. If geography, ac- cording to precise definition, is a description of the earth, then, when these diminutive things are described by your child, he makes real geography out of them, and it will be unspeak- ably more profitable than the dry, hard de- scription of text-books, as they have generally been forced upon poor little learners, or rather word-getters. If a child be accustomed to such E 66 THE CULTURE OF THE How not to get lost. minute observation, he will not, of course, over- look the more prominent marks in a prospect. But, in farther commendation, even some of these minutiae of the land's surface are impor- tant indications to the eye of science ; and would you not be glad to have your son look at nature with such an eye? Wherever he shall ramble or travel, would you not have him exercise a keen, detective sight, instead of a vacant gaze ? HOW NOT TO GET LOST. The exact understanding of the points of the compass is practically of no small importance. Many persons most easily lose the direction when they find themselves in a new place. Indeed, there are those who are absolutely so turned about that sunrise and sunset seem to have exchanged horizons, and it takes some considerable looking round and reflection to get out of the bewildering dilemma. Did all roads run at right angles toward east and west, north and south, and were all houses built square upon them, there would be no difficulty. But, trans versed and crooked in all OBSERVING FACULTIES. 67 How not to get lost. directions as roads and streets have to be, the points of the compass are sometimes hardly found in a whole lifetime. Indeed, there are those who, after a long residence in Boston, scarcely know the direction in which runs that most familiar of all its thoroughfares, Washing- ton Street, or which way exactly the grand and far-seen State-house faces. It seems, then, that there might be a real advantage in early and continually training the observation as to the points of the compass. At home, it can be made a matter altogether incidental, and cost no time which may be better employed. Let the cardinal points be well fixed, and it will be easy to fix in the child's mind the direction of prominent objects between, and also the course of the streets, roads, and streams. In the exercise of individualizing objects be- fore mentioned, as the child's understanding shall advance, it will be well to locate the vari- ous objects, in all directions, in respect to the points of the compass. There might be a little emulous pastime about it, as was recommended before in the culture of the perceptions. Why should not the parents be at the pains of pur- 68 THE CULTURE OF THE How not to get lost. chasing a compass for this very purpose? It would cost no more than many other things usually provided, but which might equally as well be done without. With this instrument, every point of direction might be exactly es- tablished. Thus it would be not only easy, but pleasant and profitable, for children to be train- ed, as they grow up, to know the precise point, from home as a centre, of every farm and house in the town ; or, if in the city, of every promi- nent object there. So accustomed would the young learners become to such definite obser- vations, that, as they should travel out to other towns now and then, they would quite readily fall into these exercises ; and the turnings of a road or the windings of a stream, the house on a hill, the village church spire in the distance, might be made an additional trial for this sort of judgment. So eventually, wherever they should travel through the country, their heads would not get confused, as now so often hap- pens. At least sunrise and sunset would keep their places, to their eye, just as Nature really puts them. OBSEKVING FACULTIES. 69 Judging of distances. JUDGING OF DISTANCES. In this connection, it may be well to say something more about the measure of spaces and distances. There is a great deficiency in people's minds generally as to accuracy in dis- tance. One has only to travel in the country, and inquire of various people how far it is from one certain place to another certain place, es- pecially if it be as to the way from one town to another, to be convinced how vague are the notions of many persons in respect to space. Why need this be so, if parents, at times, with- out interfering with any business, should just instruct and amuse themselves and their chil- dren in this matter ? If a father and son are proceeding to a distant field to work, or to any field, why not for once take a ten-foot pole or a measuring chain, and find out the exact dis- tance? But suppose a boy is going of an er- rand to a neighbor's, who lives, according to vague supposition, a quarter or half a mile off: let him take his pole or chain, and get the ex- act measurement, and settle it for good and all. Or, on some leisure time, let the boys, if there 70 THE CULTURE OF THE Education on a hill-top. are more than one, and the father with them, if he pleases, make a little pastime of the thing. This measuring entertainment may from time to time be extended to any house, or any ob- ject, or through any distance whatever, accord- ing to convenience. Thus a judgment about distances will be formed, which will come fre- quently into use in subsequent life. EDUCATION ON A HILL-TOP. Suppose, now, a pleasant day, and a little leisure at command, to afford your children, and indeed yourselves equally, some little en- tertainment, perchance instruction. You have already become acquainted, perhaps, with what- ever is within view of home. You have ob- served every house, field, pasture, wood, rock, shrub, gleam of water. However, it is not nec- essary to wait to get all these nearest things by eye and heart. Take your little company to the highest hill-top you can conveniently reach. From this elevation can be discerned various prominent objects in towns around. Give the young observers the names of these localities, and just the direction in which they lie. There OBSERVING FACULTIES. 71 Education on a hill-top. are certain eminences, each perhaps with a name : tell them the name. There, beneath, are the valleys also. Perhaps it may be known that a considerable river has its course through some of them, or at least some brook large enough to turn the useful mill. Describe these streams, well known to your larger experience, which the children can not discern in their sunken and shaded channels. But they can see with the naked eye, as well as you, the many varied features of the landscape between the centre where they stand and the whole horizon round. Now make a game of it: see who can count the greatest number of distinct fields, or pastures, or separate pieces of woodland, and the greatest number of hills. Indeed, as to this feature, you may let the eye descend to the mi- nutest prominences on the surface, and you will find that the sight will become amazingly sharp, and pick up the least little haycock of a hill at a distance which would not have been thought possible before. Then let the vision hunt after valleys, and any little dips and crinkles in the land's surface, in the same manner. There are cliffs, and rocks, and single trees standing in 72 THE CULTURE OF THE The use. open land, and houses and out • houses to be playfully sought likewise. Withal, take note in which direction exactly any road may run, or valley wind, or stream meander ; at what point of the compass any house or hill may be situ- ated. If there be a mountain in the distance, there will be something not only to fasten the eye, but to feed it with beauty or lift it to gran- deur. Depend upon it, my friends, that you will give your children and yourselves not only a most entertaining, but a very instructive ex- cursion. The visit to the spot may be repeat- ed several times before all the objects of the expanse shall fall beneath inspection, or the les- son or the pleasure be exhausted. By-and-by you will climb, with your little company of ob- servers, some loftier hill or the mountain-top, and, from such a height, advance your knowl- edge, possibly, to distant states. THE USE. Now let us consider the practical advantage of this actual observation of the earth's surface, and the various objects, natural or artificial, thereon presented. In the first place, it is evi- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 73 The use. dent to all that the examination of any mate- rial thing by the naked faculties is better, for all possible purposes, than the reading or stud- ying of a description of it. It is safer, certain- ly, to see a farm with one's own eyes before purchasing it, than to trust to any written de- scription. The general who has actually in- spected the ground on which he is to make a campaign is far better prepared for its emer- gencies than if he knew the field of operations only as presented by the map. The same may be said of every practical concern. The mind must be prepared to comprehend clearly what is distant, and what can not be come at through the naked senses, by a thorough inspection of similar things within their reach. These intellectual facts have scarcely been thought of by the generality of parents and teachers in this time-consuming, and, we may say, heart-burdening matter of education. Now what do children, for the most part, see when they cast their eyes upon a map ? Nothing but a plain surface of paper, with black lines crook- ing here and there, called roads and rivers, and little dots having the names of towns and cit- 74 THE CULTURE OF THE Where and how arithmetic should begin. ies, with blotches standing for mountains ; and this is just about all. The brute animals would take into notice almost as much. But with this actual training of the observing powers, as has been recommended, there would appear right on the map, as it were, in definite forms and colors, seen bj the vivid imagination, real hills, valleys, streams, roads, every thing just as the map was intended to represent them. That plain paper surface would seem moulded into all the various features and appearances of na- ture by that mind's eye which had been study- ing the real earth in these pleasant family ex- cursions. Thus geographical language would be all filled and made rich with real science — the earth's facts. Pray try the experiment, and see. N U M B E E. WHERE AND HOW ARITHMETIC SHOULD BEGIN. An early intellectual exercise, as has been before mentioned, is that of individualizing ob- jects; the considering of any separable portion OBSERVING FACULTIES. 75 Where and how arithmetic should begin. of matter by itself. This idea of distinct things, of individualities, is one of the primitive foun- dations of all knowledge ; and the idea, there- fore, is among the earliest introduced into the mind. The exercise of individuality affords the first occasion for the action of another fac- ulty, that of number. This, of course, must wait till words can be acquired and be applied to things. Quite an advance is usually made in a knowledge of things and their names be- fore the idea of number is distinctly appre- hended, and its appropriate terms intelligibly used. Counting, however, is an exercise which children very early perform. Friends put them to it in some playful mood, or to divert them from a trifling grief. They are asked, perhaps, how many thumbs they have, or how many fingers. In this way, or in some other as in- cidental, that science begins which reaches up into the sublimest mathematics. It does not take long to get through thumbs and fingers, and to the first and all - important waymark, ten in the numerical progress. So far, each term has a thing to which it is applied — a thing to be seen and felt ; but beyond this, the 76 THE CULTURE OF THE Where and how arithmetic should begin. majority of children, according to observation, are taught to use the terms abstractly, to utter them without any reference to individual and observable objects. There are, no doubt, par- ents who, in teaching the child, are wise enough to apply, in a much greater extent, the numer- als to substantial things. Sometimes children themselves, without any hint from others, will make the application. Nevertheless, the ma- jority, I think, in their first acquisition of nu- merical terms, are taught the words without things, in the same manner as much of other education is conducted. Now this need not be so ; it ought not to be, inasmuch as individ- ual things are all around, from one up to hund- reds, thousands, and millions ; and for every numerical term there may be a positive object on which to place the eye. Thus the little learner would clearly apprehend that counting is not merely putting one new word after an- other, but is adding thing to things, object to objects, one after another ; it is making an in- crease of quantities under the notice and evi- dence of his own immediate senses. In count- ing, for instance, articles of furniture in the OBSERVING FACULTIES. 77 The counting game. room, steps in the stairway, or doors and win- dows in the house, the newly -started arithmet- ical faculty has something real and firm to run along on, as the earlier used perceptive powers have. In the object game, recommended in a pre- vious section, there is an excellent opportunity at number; for the game may be not only to see who shall be quickest to find objects one after another, or who shall come to the very last thing possible to be found, but also who shall come to the largest number including these objects — who shall count the highest in the game. Besides things in the house, those abroad are sufficient for infinite counting, or until the mind even of the adult might get ut- terly tired and confused in its simple and straight-onward task. THE COUNTING GAME. It is a good plan to train children to observe the proportions between the number and the bulk of things. For instance, it will take about so many apples, or any other kind of fruit, con- sidering size, to fill a certain measure. Let 78 THE CULTURE OF THE The counting game. the precise number be ascertained. Make a pleasant thing of the matter, and see who shall come nearest to the fact in a guess about the measure of fruit from the tree, or of potatoes, or turnips, or any other production from the ground. Though you make a pastime of your guessing and counting, the judgment thus edu- cated will be a circumstance of positive prac- tical gain in those affairs where gain or loss depends on accuracy of judgment. This counting sport might be carried on in many ways, and to an indefinite extent, among brothers and sisters, enlivening the home. But the parents, especially the father, might well, in the evening's leisure, take a part in these numerical operations. Agricultural life affords a great variety of instances for this kind of mental action. Indeed, in any sort of civilized life, there must be purchases of farm products, and numerous opportunities for maturing the judgment about numbers, quantities, bulk, and, we may add, cost. There is scarcely a family which does not suffer more or less detriment in consequence of poor judgment about com- modities bought and money paid. Certainly OBSERVING FACULTIES. 79 An economical idea, the needed ability can not be bad except by experience, and this experience might as well begin as soon as nature gets ready for it, as to be deferred to a later period, when immediate occasion shall require. AN ECONOMICAL IDEA. One particular application of the numerical faculty is very easy and of practical impor- tance, and must, therefore, be interesting to the young learner. Various things of household use are in sets, consisting of a definite number. For instance, so many chairs belong to a room, or there is a particular number in a set of crockery, or knives and forks, and of spoons. The child will most easily count these, and hold the number in memory. This is a matter of practical use; for, unless the number of these things is kept in mind, there may be an unheeded loss. It will be really a strengthen- ing of the character, and a positive preparation for carefulness in the future, to give a daugh- ter quite early a specific charge over these more losable implements. There are also oth- er sets of things, the number of which might 80 THE CULTUKE OF THE An economical idea. be obtained and held with advantage, such as napkins, towels, pillow-cases, sheets, and per- haps other kinds of furniture. By this appli- cation of the enumerative ability, you might early enlist a daughter's special interest in your goods and their safety. In this connection, moreover, she might be easily led to consider it her duty to keep them all in their proper places, in their proper order, and with all desir- able nicety. This care will be a relief to your- self, mother, and a profitable discipline to her. There is no reason why a boy also might not be trained in this numerical knowledge as to household matters. Of course, he is ade- quate to it equally with a sister ; and, together with her, he is more particularly under the maternal care in his earlier years. It is alto- gether proper, and it will be beneficial for him, to learn whatever he may in company and in sympathy with sisters. All indoor knowledge, however minute, will the better qualify him for manhood and a new home of his own. Every man should have at least a general knowledge of his own household affairs, how- ever perfect the wife may be in her adminis- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 81 Outdoors. tration. Now, inasmuch, as a boy's liome edu- cation ordinarily continues for some years, it would be altogether easy for him to become thoroughly acquainted with matters belonging to the domestic domain. It could not but be, in most cases, altogether pleasant also, as long as he is privileged with such affectionate com- panionship. OUTDOORS. There are, however, outdoor concerns in which a boy can exercise numerical accuracy and care about sets and classes of things. Let him count the fowls on the premises, get the precise number in each flock of a species, and have an eye that none are missing. So also let him know and keep in mind the exact number of cows, sheep, and their young, or whatever else of the domestic animal kind may pertain to the homestead. A sister also might very properly accompany him in sympathy and care ; for thus her mind would be expand- ed, and, without any undue straining or task- work, would easily and agreeably acquire an initiation into that outdoor knowledge which 82 THE CULTURE OF THE Ownership. the future wife eventually might wish to have in the possessions, plans, and operations of her Imsband. Some may smile at this reference to proba- ble domestic life; but just as surely as early habits of any kind will influence the remote future for good or for evil, so surely will this sort of knowledge and carefulness affect the future economical character of the woman. OWNERSHIP. In this counting of furniture sets and of flocks and herds, a child's interest must natu- rally be quickened by the circumstance that they belong to parents, and have a certain use. This matter of ownership will draw the little heart toward them. It would be quite a dif- ferent affair to put the numeric faculty to work on stones in the public road, or pebbles along a water-shore. Let it be especially considered that the idea of possession and utility will be of no small importance to the incipient arith- metician. In continuing, therefore, this sort of discipline indefinitely onward, let the exercise be as much as possible on objects of property. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 83 Ownership. Let there be a sort of game to see who can rec- ollect the largest number of articles, or sorts of useful things, belonging to the house or the premises around, as they would not all be in immediate sight. In this thorough enumeration of goods there is one practical advantage which is certainly of no small importance. It occasions the 5^oung learner to become acquainted in detail with the various commodities, and objects of possession, within and around the home. Young persons generally have but a vague and imperfect knowledge of these things. By this exercise they will get in mind an inventory of property almost as if they were making an appraisal. They will acquire a habit of exactness as to what is possessed. Besides, there will come in- directly some notion of the specific uses of things: this will be an additional advantage. How many people have a very confused idea of their own possessions! The confusion reach- es and continues into their daily affairs with a quite injurious effect. Now, could an accurate apprehension as to these matters of property be made a habit of the mind from very childhood, 84 THE CULTURE OF THE Ownership. it would influence a whole business life. It would certainly be of no small importance in conducting the concerns of a store, especially one containing all sorts of goods, as is more generally the case in the country. It may be objected to the plan of giving chil- dren this special idea of property and owner- ship that it will make them think too much of material possessions, and strengthen their affec- tion for these things to a degree which in aft- er life might be detrimental to the character. Such a consequence would greatly depend on the native mental constitution. No doubt some children have the love of gain so born with them, that, without counter influences, these ex- ercises would really intensify the inherited av- arice. But there is to be a moral and relig- ious education ; and if parents are as faithful in this as in the discipline pertaining to material things, any such tendency will, in general, be quite sufficiently counteracted. Let it be un- derstood by readers, once for all, that in the present treatise there is intended no such neg- lect of the higher nature as will leave the lower unrestrained, or in the least degree unbalanced. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 85 Counting on indefinitely. COUNTING ON INDEFINITELY. After the class of things above referred to shall all have been gone over, the exercise may be continued on objects which excite no inter- est, except that they are to be enumerated one after another, each adding to the sum. With the start the young numberer gets in the way suggested, he will now be able to count to al- most any extent. Let him push ahead on any thing coming handiest. Outdoors there are, for lessons, trees in the woods, and stones in the walls. In counting the trees, it may be worth while to remark, there will incidentally arise some knowledge of species and their uses. There must necessarily be caught some glimpses of dendrology, to use a scientific term, which, as long and hard as it seems, a child would remember as well as any other word. Indeed, in touching and individu- alizing the stones in a wall, as he should trip alongside, what curious varieties he might dis- cover ! and thus the diverse riches of mineral- ogy would now begin to open on him, if not before. Within doors the learner may sit at 86 THE CULTUEE OF THE Counting on indefinitely. ease ; and with a measure of corn, beans, or peas, or the smaller grains, he may count on for hours, if he shall choose, and renew the op- eration day after day. And why should he not, if there be time and inducement ? He may as well do this at home as many other quite idle things, or something at school called " ed- ucation," but which amounts to nothing at all toward such end. Every grain he touches is an individual object ; it is a unit ; it is as dis- tinct and observable as if it were a mountain : it goes to make up a sum which is denominated a thousand or a million. Now just let a child, of adequate age and ability, enumerate palpa- ble, individual substances in this way, and he will proceed, not vaguely and confusedly, but clearly, definitely, and with a perfect intelli- gence, to almost any amount of numbers, piled up, in idea, one upon another. Then, when he shall come to the examples of the text-books at school, what otherwise would be empty abstrac- tions will to imagination cover and contain, as it were, like clothing, substantial and definite forms. He will have a distinct idea of numer- ical quantities, such as will be of invaluable OBSERVING FACULTIES. 87 Power of concentration and of individuality improved. service in the higher mathematical regions, where, as things have been, learners too often grope in a dark and cold misty expanse. POWER OF CONCENTRATION AND OF INDIVID- UALITY IMPROVED. Still other benefits from our enumerative ex- ercise may be adduced. It affords opportunity for concentrating attention. It would have the effect to bring a naturally unsteady and wan- dering mind to act for a time continuously in a specific direction. This is no small matter in education, and also in the practical affairs of life. Again : the act of counting one by one nec- essarily develops, more or less, the individual- izing faculty. An object must be apprehended as a distinct unit: it is individualized. Per- haps, indeed, this is the best method possible of developing the central and leading perceptive power. The occasion would be of special im- portance to a child whose individuality might be naturally weak, as is often the case. Such a person, in passing along a village street, would have a vague idea of houses, and this would be all ; but if he was set to counting the houses, 88 THE CULTURE OF THE Power of concentration and of individuality improved. each one would come, at least momentarily, into distinct notice, and in some degree, also, its concomitant circumstances. Or, supposing you take such a child to a store, you might suggest to him to count, while you are doing an errand, all the kinds of things he might see on the counter, shelves, or any where else, without be- ing obtrusive beyond propriety. Then, after- ward, let him give you his account, and you will find that his store- visit has been quite an instructive occasion. Still farther, the subor- dinate observing faculties would be called into exercise more or less in connection with indi- viduality. Of course, as each object is enu- merated and noticed, its form, size, color, place, etc., would be also in some degree observed. Thus we perceive how a simple operation, which at home is carried scarcely beyond thumbs and fingers except in abstract words, and which is pursued at school probably never beyond the numerical balls, may be made the means of large, various, and most profitable discipline. It is hoped that enough has been said to show clearly that simple countiog is no unim- portant item in intellectual discipline. Let it OBSERVING FACULTIES. 89 Business arithmetic. not, then, be neglected because it is not in- cluded, to the extent indicated, in the custom- ary educational programme, or because there is no precedent for it in ordinary experience. BUSINESS ARITHMETIC. In the young learner's first arithmetical ex- ercise, enumeration, the importance of having things to accompany words must be most evi- dent to the reader. But, furthermore, the same will hold true of other numerical operations. The purpose of the ordinary arithmetical edu- cation is to prepare the student for the busi- ness of adult life. The more, therefore, that numbers and figures directly pertain to real substances and to actual transactions, the more immediate and practical will be their bearing on future exigencies. Could exercises in addi- tion, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc., directly concern commodities, and could they, moreover, be performed right in the midst of things, there would be a reality and an inter- est which could not be felt at the distance of the school, and especially in such abstract ex- amples as generally make the lessons of the 90 THE CULTURE OF THE Business arithmetic. book. It is a common remark with business- men that they did not understand arithmetic, after all the time spent on it at school, till they had occasion to use it in their own actual af- fairs. The reason of this is very plain. In their business there are certain material sub- stances. If these are not at the moment with- in sight, they are before the mind's eye : the numerical relations of these things are, there- fore, more distinctly apprehended. There is no blur of abstraction about them. A calculation must be made, and this with perfect accuracy : no guesswork can be allowed here. Hence there is a real and pressing demand on the science of number. The interests, the feelings, and the arithmetical operation all tend together toward one end. Something of immediate and practical importance is to be accomplished. No wonder, then, that men who have quite forgotten their school-book rules should now invent rules of their own, and, as is sometimes the case, even make short cross-cuts to accurate and provable conclusions. Such is the testi- mony of practical experience. Now, could instruction be transferred to the OBSERVING FACULTIES. 91 Family ciphering. store, the mechanic's shop, or the farm, there is no doubt that arithmetic would be understood and appreciated to a degree which can not possibly be realized at the school-room, as the science is there more generally communicated. The intellect may be, to some degree, disci- plined by the abstract lessons there : they are better than nothing. This discipline, however, falls far short of what would come from the demands of actual business. FAMILY CIPHERING. But the school must remain in its one as- signed location. Its exercises are likely to continue for some considerable time as before — abstract and unreal ; for it takes a long while to improve text-books, and, we may add, to im- prove some of the teachers who superintend their use. Now, parents, must your children be limited to school-book examples? Must they remain with this hazy, half- way knowl- edge of arithmetic, until they also shall come into the actual business of adult life, or at least that of apprenticeship ? By no means, if you will only take a little pains yourselves. You 92 THE CULTUEE OF THE Family ciphering. have had your own school-days, and have gone through the abstractions as your children are doing now, and probably with no more profit. But, since then, you have been putting these dimly - apprehended abstractions to concrete and positive use. Perhaps you have been in- venting rules and methods of your own. At any rate, you can apply number and figure to visible and palpable commodities, to all the in- tents and purposes of livelihood and accumula- tion. Now it is just such an application which your own children need at this very moment, and which most probably they can not have, except in an imperfect degree, at school. Why, then, shall they not have it at home, and under the instruction of those whom they naturally love better than any one outside the family cir- cle ? All you have to do is to sit down among them in the leisure evening, and present the examples of your own business, just such as you have worked out in your own head, or on slate or paper, at your need. If you have been long in life, your memory must abound in in- stances, or you can invent numerous examples similar to what really occur. Depend upon it, OBSEEVING FACULTIES. 93 Family ciphering. arithmetic will put on a new aspect to the learn- ers, all the brighter and all the more pleasant because it shines out from a light reflected by the most beloved and trusted friends. If you have not been called by your own affairs to make much use of numbers, and if your own school abstractions — figure - shadows, as they may be called — have been quite forgotten — have fallen even from shadows into absolute nothingness, then you can become a fellow- learner with your children. With this fresh school -knowledge, such as it is, they can per- haps instruct you, or at least be the occasion of your learning. You can, at least, mutually assist each other in real, lifelike performances in calculation. Your larger general experience and maturer judgment will, of course, take a respected lead. Home is the proper place for children in the evening; but then there must be work or study, or some sort of entertain- ment to make home agreeable and worth stay- ing in, preferably to any outside allurements. Suppose, now, for instance, you try, among oth- er things, this arithmetical experiment, and see if it does not, as the saying is, come to some- thing. 94 THE CULTURE OF THE Explanation. EXPLANATION. By what has been said, let it not be inferred that any objection is intended to the more ab- stract exercises in numbers, in due process of an advanced education. This right beginning indicates really no hinderance to an ascent into the veriest sublime of mathematics. Indeed, the best assurance for the profoundest attain- ments in this science must be thoroughly dis- tinct ideas of material objects in their numer- ical relations at the outset. In conclusion, let me say that I have dwelt to such extent on this topic, because that, in the arithmetical branch of education, as in al- most every other, time, pains, and money are spent out of all proportion to profitable results. Boys and girls, instead of going straight on, step after step, in clear light and on a palpable path, learning the world and its things as they really are, wander, or rather, perhaps, are driv- en, over ground without any certain foothold — a sort of ghost-land. They are set to peer after and strike at flitting images, and not to lay hold on substantial knowledge, which stops and stays in the hand. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 95 The power of eventuality. ACTION. THE POWER OF EVENTUALITY. It is one of the earliest perceptive functions to observe action, to see what things do, to watch curiously for what shall be done next. No. matter what it is that acts or simply moves ; the little eyes are intent. It may be the flit- ting of a feather or the flutter of a leaf If the object is a living one, like the kitten, the dog, the horse, or a bird, how delightedly the vary- ing movements are followed! The comings and goings of human beings still more strike attention, especially those of new forms and faces, which may happen along. Now the observing of movement requires a distinct operation of the intellect. Puss asleep and perfectly still in her corner is an object of notice altogether different from puss skipping across the room and hopping into some indul- gent lap. So different is the action of an indi- vidual object from the individual itself, that phrenologists affirm there must be a distinct faculty to take cognizance of it. Indeed, they 96 THE CULTURE OF THE Differences in the observing power. think they have discovered a special organ for the purpose in the brain. This organ, matter and spirit together, is denominated Eventuali- ty. Whether the theory be true or not, it gives us a more distinct idea of the intellect in its relation both to actions in continuance and actions completed. Now this particular ob- serving faculty is of incalculable importance in the educational course of the young. It needs a systematic and thorough discipline as much as any other faculty. DIFFERENCES IN THE OBSERVING POWER. Parents and educators have scarcely thought of the difference between one person and an- other as to the ability of clearly perceiving ac- tions as they occur before the sight. Even in the same family, one organization will be found much superior to another as to this sharp-sight- edness at events. One particular child will be strangely and habitually unobservant of inci- dents around. Ask him if he saw such a thing done, and he knows nothing about it. It is as if he had been closed round with a thick mist, or been living in a dream-world of his own, or OBSERVING FACULTIES. 97 Differences of the observing power. had no eyes at all. His brother, much youn- ger, it may be, catches, at the same time, every passing circumstance as with a kind of appe- tite. He will look and learn at any rate. He will see incidents just in the order and connec- tion in which they took place, and he will nar- rate them with equal exactness. Now these differences will run on through life, and char- acterize the mental operations and acquire- ments, and perhaps the material fortunes of the two relatives. The originally strong power will become stronger through ever-new occa- sions, which it instinctively seizes on just for its own gratification. It will grow because it can not help growing. On the other hand, the defective perception will still continue weak and inadequate ; that is, unless it be developed by special training, or by peculiar circumstan- ces of business or necessity. The eventuality of the majority of people, though of normal and average strength, is so utterly neglected in specific education as but very imperfectly to perform its office. The world is full of action. Things inanimate are in movement, and produce effects. Living crea- G 98 THE CULTURE OF THE Differences of the observing power. tures, while awake, are almost always in mo- tion, either with or without some definite pur- pose. So thick, so various are activities of one sort and another around the human being, that he can not possibly notice all of them. He ob- serves only a part, and such as attendant cir- cumstances may bring to sight. Even these he may not observe distinctly and accurately, because there seems no special need of it. He notices, if he notices at all, simply because he happens to look. As a general matter, there is no directness of attention caused by any pre- vious special discipline. There is, moreover, no sense of moral obligation to endeavor to know exactly what takes place as he looks. Of course, if there is no call for particularity, why should the child or the youth be particu- lar ? He will have no more reason for it than he would have in counting the trees in the orchard, or the stones in the wall, till he shall be put upon the exercise, as in the case of the arithmetical discipline which has been already advised. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 99 Consequences of neglected culture. CONSEQUENCES OF NEGLECTED CULTURE. Thus it is that a faculty of incalculable prac- tical importance has failed in its office ; and, like all neglects and failures, this has been fol- lowed by more or less of retribution. To con- sider all the evils resulting from inaccurate ob- servation of facts, and careless statements about them, would be to take in all the world and all time since Adam's fall. Words and figures would fail of the amount. A few instances will give us some faint idea of the abounding evil. A careless young observer, giving an account of any disorder in a school-room, will make a statement quite different from what might have come from another witness with a clear-seeing eye. In consequence, some poor urchin may get an unjust punishment. The same careless describer of the offense, coming to be a man, or even before he arrives at this age, may be called to the witness-stand in a court of justice, and may unintentionally testify so wide of the truth as to what his eyes seemed to behold, that a fellow-man may innocently be subjected to fine, imprisonment, or even death on the gallows. 100 THE CULTURE OF THE Consequences of neglected culture. Now consider all the millions of cases which, in all the world, have been brought before mag- istracies and juries, and there decided according to testimony, and we can have some idea of the thousands of unjust decisions — unjust because of the imperfect perceptions of really honest witnesses. Take human society as it exists every where around us. Suppose any city, town, village, or even little neighborhood: what misappre- hensions and misstatement of facts are continu- ally occurring ! ISTow and then some base scan- dal starts up, and comes to an enormous growth. In the majority of such cases the story is not an entire fabrication. There has been some in- cident as a groundwork. But the eyes of the first observer and reporter of that incident were so inadequate to their office that he gave only a part of the truth, or added a trifle to it. Thus the error first sprang into existence; then, pass- ing from lip to lip, it grew at length into a great fiction, having but little of the original verity about it. All this might happen through a mere intellectual defect, without the least inten- tion of departure from the exact truth. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 101 Consequences of neglected culture. Again : the mistake might originate from the same incapacity in some one of the hearers of an affair. It must be understood that those persons who would naturally see a transaction but imperfectly, would also, from the same weakness of faculty, get imperfect notions in hearing an account of a transaction, even if that should be thoroughly correct. In the first place, they receive but a dim idea of an occur- rence as it comes to the ear; then they but faintly remember it. In a procedure embrac- ing a series of incidents, some one item or more may fall out of memory altogether. Conse- quently, their statement of the case will make quite a different matter. Thus, however ex- actly truthful a first observer and narrator may be, hearers will inadvertently receive only dim and altogether inadequate ideas of an affair. In this way, a chance auditor of some truthful narration may start a most egregious error on its irrepressible course through the lips and ears of a community. While there is but one original witness, and he entirely truthful, there may be at length a hundred hearers of his ac- count, many of whom will unintentionally re- 102 THE CULTUEE OF THE Consequences of neglected culture. peat it with more or less variation from tlie facts as they come to their ears. No wonder that falsifications so numerously and so uni- versally prevail, when we consider this one sim- ple, unthought-of intellectual deficiency. Still, all the evil is not to be imputed to this source. There are very often moral perversi- ties through which such mistakes are magnified, and made far more operative for evil. A char- acteristic love for gossip, together with peculiar imaginative ability, will enlarge a trifle into wonderful magnitude, and diversify it with cu- rious forms. But, what is much worse, an un- charitable, censorious disposition will exagger- ate and blacken little innocent affairs into hein- ous sins or even enormous crimes. A bad spir- it, with a big imagination, will create monsters out of almost nothing. Thus it is that heart- burnings, broken friendships, and even bloody assaults and cruel murders have come to pass without number. Yery few, as society has been and now is, go through life without some personal experience of the sort. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 103 Mistaken submission to the evil. What a new discipline would do. MISTAKEN" SUBMISSION TO THE EVIL. Such carelessness has there always beea in observation and statement, so uncommon is per- fect accuracy, that errors are taken as a mat- ter of course, and as what can not be helped. While an individual is under personal griev- ance, he will complain of careless eyes and truthless speech, but otherwise there is a singu- lar indifference to the evil. People do not ex- pect the truth. They are inured to falsehood, and let it go. Ko idea of improvement in the way of education has occurred probably to one in a thousand. Any moral obliquity, it is ex- pected, may possibly be corrected by Christian influences, but any thing farther is hardly con- sidered within the range of reform. Things are as they have been, and so must they continue to be, unless supernatural influences shall arrest their course and make a change. WHAT A NEW DISCIPLINE WOULD DO. It is rational to suppose that much improve- ment may be achieved by simply understand- ing the mental organism, and conforming the 104 THE CULTURE OF THE What a new discipline would do. early discipline to its conditions. There is a great advantage in good intellectual habits, in- dependent of moral convictions and principles, if these latter influences on conduct can not be had. Let a child be trained, as a matter of dis- cipline, to see and describe things exactly as they are, and this habit of accuracy will con- tinue in after life, just as any other habit may continue, entirely separate from the thought of moral obligation. A person may be educated to extraordinary facility in arithmetical calcu- lations : no moral element enters into this pe- culiar ability. Just so it may be with the per- ception of events. Could all the families of a neighborhood be trained, from their earliest in- fancy upward, to see things precisely as they are, and to describe them just as they were seen ; and could the same discipline be carried into schools, and the pupils be trained to be as exact in observation and description as they are trained to be exact in performing arithmet- ical problems, there would be an unexampled improvement in conversational trustworthiness and in neighborly relations. There would be, as there is in other things, a sort of emulative OBSERVING FACULTIES. 105 How the discipline may begin. desire for accuracy, and perfect truthfulness to fact. A failure as to the precise fact would lower the intellectual standing and reputation. A faulty observer and teller of incidents would be considered as poorly educated, like a blun- dering reader or a bad speller. Could such a discipline be carried into every family and ev- ery school of the country, there would be a na- tional reform. A whole people would be edu- cated to see events accurately, as they might be educated to survey correctly and minutely the geographical features of their native town, as was recommended in the suggestions about place. They would be capacitated not only to observe actions in their progress, but to appre- hend the causes and the results of action to a degree beyond all former precedent. Could moral and religious motives be brought to bear on this point of culture as they ought, what won- ders of improvement might be accomplished ! But the all-important aid of the conscience and the heart will be hereafter considered. HOW THE DISCIPLINE MAY BEGIN. As soon as a child is able to tell his expe- 106 THE CULTURE OF THE How the discipline may begin. riences, it may be easily perceived what native strength and precision of eventuality he may possess. Then according to his lack must be the particularity and assiduousness of his edu- cators. • Now the question comes, Where and how shall the necessary training be commenced? There need be no search after lessons ; for — to use several of the appropriate terms — motion, action, incidents, events, and facts are close by, and every where around. The first thing that happens may be an exercise of discipline, if the child is old enough to notice and give some ac- count of it. Still, there must be advantage in system ; and, for this reason, one subject will be preferable to another. Certain transactions are better suited to be- gin with than others, which might be good for a farther stage of progress. One of the ac- knowledged rules of education is to commence with what is best known or can be most easily known, and thence proceed to things more dif- ficult. The chief requisites are distinctness of perception and correctness in recital. It is im- portant that the several parts of a proceeding OBSERVINa FACULTIES. 107 Household lessons. should be noticed according to their precise succession. Those operations are excellent for attention and questioning, at the outset, in which first one thing is done, then another, in necessary order. HOUSEHOLD LESSONS. The industrial concerns of a household are numerous and diverse : let them, by turns, be- come lessons for observation. No better in- stances can be presented to children than the goings-on around them in ordinary work. They are interested in what their friends do. The smiling aspect and kind tones of invitation will be all that is wanted to enlist their special attention to any movement, or series of move- ments, performed by their domestic friends. But let us illustrate. Take, for example, the setting of the table for dinner. There is, first, the drawing-out of the table to the proper po- sition; second, the lifting and fastening of the leaves ; then the spreading of the cloth, and so on, one performance after another, till the meal is ready, and the family are at knife and fork. Now let the child, as a matter of discipline, ex- 108 THE CULTURE OF THE Household lessons. actly describe every process of the table -set- ting in its exact order. Let there be no mis- take in the sequences, as perfect accuracy in this particular respect is one of the benefits of the lesson. The same use may be made of other household duties in which there is a me- thodical routine. Of course, children, whether desired or not, usually notice such proceedings. These are among the occasions of that uncon- scious and gradual development of intellect which will go on without care or thought on the part of the little lookers or their friends. But, according to their native power of event- uality, they may either notice each particular of a transaction in its due order, or have but imperfect perceptions and confused ideas. The important point aimed at is accuracy in seeing and telling, as a settled characteristic ; an abil- ity which shall prevent no small harm, and do great good, in that future which depends so much on early-formed habits. Take mental constitutions as the average, and this perfect exactness of sight and speech can not be had without some special discipline. The practical advantages warrant all the pains which can possibly be given to the subject. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 109 Manufacturing and agricultural lessons. MANUFACTURING LESSONS. Besides the various kinds of orderly work at home, the several divisions of skilled labor, the distinct and life-long occupations of people, will afford most valuable exercises in this sort of observation. First, take those more simple mechanical trades which are common in every country vil- lage or town, and are mainly carried on by hand. In each one of these there is an order- ly procedure : first one thing is done, then an- other, and so on through a course of work. Now let a child of adequate, age watch the processes, and afterward give an exact account. In due time, have him visit mills and factories, and trace their more complex operations, no- ticing how the several connected forces produce results. AGRICULTURAL LESSONS. Educational visits to the farm must certainly not be omitted. Its affairs are probably more numerous and diverse than those of any other separate productive employment. From the 110 THE CULTURE OF THE Benefits. first touch of culture in the spring till all the harvests are gathered in, there is orderly pro- gressive work. Then, in the winter, there is the kindly care of animals in several daily processes. There are, besides, useful but less regular doings which come in between the rest. Now all these matters, judiciously presented, would be exceedingly interesting and instruct- ive to the fresh perceptions of the young. They should begin their agricultural observa- tions with the earliest movements in the spring. Let them notice every distinct kind of labor in all its items, and these in their or- derly and precise succession. Then an account should be required as perfectly exact as any prescribed recitation at school. BENEFITS. All industrial occupations might afford les- sons similar to those indicated above. It is not necessary to particularize any farther. Now it can not be doubted that this peculiar disci- pline would be of no inestimable advantage to the young as candidates for life's activities and uses. No descriptive books could equal, or OBSERVING FACULTIES. Ill What a father might do. make up for, this positive knowledge caught by the naked eye. One special and important benefit would be the obtaining of some considerable insight into the various trades and pursuits of men. The pupil would also learn something not only about methods of procedure, but about the ma- terials and implements used. What is, more- over, of much consequence, he would obtain that knowledge of different kinds of business which is really necessary to develop his own taste, and to form his judgment in respect to the choice of an employment for himself Still farther, he would eventually come to that un- derstanding of the various avocations of men which is quite necessary to form a just esti- mate of their respective and peculiar services. Indeed, such a knowledge would lead to that charity and kindliness which is so much need- ed, but is so often withheld. WHAT A FATHER MIGHT DO. It may be averred that, in this intelligent part of the country, most people have some general ideas of the different departments of 112 THE CULTURE OF THE Nature's works and ways. industry. But why not possess a more thor- ough and systematic knowledge, when it can be so easily gained ? During the years usual- ly devoted to education, there might be ob- tained a quite extensive and comparatively in- timate acquaintance with the various pursuits of life, and this without much that would seem like a task. Nothing would be necessary but simply to take or make occasions. A father could scarcely better employ a little respite from business than to take his children, as a pleasant pastime, to places of various indus- trial activity. A small portion of the time now spent in school on studies unadapted to the pupil's age, but faintly understood and quickly forgotten, would suffice for the pur- pose. nature's v^orks and ways. Man's art and industry should not engage the whole attention. In the mean time, let children, from the earliest ability, observe the movements and processes of nature. If they are capable of admiring human inventions and their effects, they can be led to admire and OBSERVING FACULTIES. 113 Nature' s works and ways. study the wonderful machinery by which the Creator brings about results. Some will see and reflect considerably, and ask questions, and grow in knowledge with but little prompt- ing. It is not so with the majority. They soon become so accustomed to all regular phe- nomena that they cease to think much about them. As for the more covert processes, ex- cepting such as may unexpectedly startle their sight, they scarcely, by themselves alone, find them out. Whatever is going on continually in regular successions of movement, and which has been thus going on from the earliest re- membrance, is unheeded by most, simply be- cause of this very order and constancy. It is with people, as they grow gradually up, in re- spect to the mechanism of nature, as it is in re- spect to the household time-piece : they are so accustomed to its tick, tick, that they do not hear it ; and if they happen to catch a glimpse of the inner machinery, they have no curiosity to study a structure which, close by, has served their convenience so well and so long. These faculties, thus admirably fitted to ob- serve and know, should not become so dead- H 114 THE CULTUEE OF THE Nature's works and ways. ened and useless. The infinite Designer and Maker not did so intend. The infant possess- or begins early and aright to use them. His innate instincts, almost as soon as he fairly gets his eyes open, prompt him to look and learn. How intently he gazes on the flickering flame or the waving tree! He is pleased with any sort of gentle motion. But these instincts should grow into earnest desires to look farther and farther, and to learn still more and more. All that is needed with most is easily -given direction and sympathy. At first the child simply observes movement, and has no thought beyond the impression on his sight. But this observation is the initiative step toward the whole philosophy of causes, effects, and uses. This one perceptive power, eventuality, holds the key, as it were, to all natural science. This science, in large degree, consists in understand- ing how the masses and elements of matter, and the organic forms of it, act on each other, and what are the ends designed. Of course, the action must first be known before it can be discerned whence it comes, or- to what it tends. What rounds, and ranges, and mazes of move- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 115 Casual events. ment between the stupendous rolling and cir- cling of worlds and the leaping affinities of atoms! — an infinitude of agents and activities; millions of distinct organs, and offices, and op- erations, yet one connected and harmonious mechanism, moved every moment by one in- finite Power. Now, parent, shall all this be no more to your beloved child's curiosity than the ever-swinging pendulum or the ceaseless tick of the old convenient clock ? CASUAL EVENTS. Besides those processes which take place in regular routine, and which may be repeatedly observed by the learner, and, as it were, got by heart, there are other occurrences which are fortuitous and unexpected. Nothing before has been exactly like them, and nothing will follow exactly similar in the collocation of all the sev- eral objects and circumstances. Events of this sort are transpiring every moment. Mankind, exercising their own wills, are continually do- ing this and that, according to contingencies. It is such transactions, not distinctly observed, and affording no second opportunity for bet- 116 THE CULTURE OF THE * Casual events. ter sight, which occasion those misstatements whence come innumerable difficulties and heart- burnings in society. Perfect accuracy in ob- serving and representing these is of surpassing importance. A habit of being truthful to facts should as early as possible be formed. To this end, no discipline can hardly be too persistent and thorough. Those unimportant incidents, ever new and various, which are continually happening with- in and around the home, present the most con- venient lessons to the little observer. Of course, it is not necessary that he shall get through all the methodical processes before alluded to, even those within the house, before he may be put upon these. Let it be an emphatic require- ment that, in his account, he shall omit no cir- cumstance, nor put one out of its exact order, any more than he did in the case of the table- setting, or any other fixed and regular proceed- ing. Thus a habit will be formed of distinct and consecutive observation. Besides, in this way, the young mind will be aided in acquir- ing that ability of concentrated attention which is so important to success in either study or business. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 117 Influence upon literature. If those casual occurrences which are in themselves of no special importance shall be accurately noticed, those transactions which make their mark on a day or a week, or on the times, will, of course, secure the pupil's close and minute attention. There are those proceed- ings which may be not only a discipline, but a rich instruction. Among these are public movements and spectacles. Some of them grow out of prevalent tastes and customs, such as funeral and civic processions, ordinary military parades, and anniversary occasions. Others make a part of the history of the times, such as the marching of troops and the sailing of war- vessels, as in the present great national cri- sis. Hitherto no specific and circumstantial at- tention to such events has generally been re- quired as a part of education ; but they afford lessons of far greater value, if rightly conduct- ed, than are found in the naked, crumb-like facts of some historical text-books, which weari- ly occupy much time in seminaries of learning. INFLUENCE UPON LITERATURE. It is by no means intended to disparage the 118 THE CULTURE OF THE Influence upon litei'ature. Study of well-written history. Indeed, intent and thorough observation, study of passing af- fairs, which has been recommended, will be a valuable preparative for the study of history in the school, or for the profitable perusal of it at any subsequent time. It will be a useful quali- fication for any sort of reading in which facts are comprised. A person who, from constitu- tional defect, takes but a slight or confused notice of present occurrences, will have but a slight remembrance of them. He will have a much more imperfect idea and remembrance of transactions which are presented only through language. The action-noting faculty, which has been well disciplined by what transpires imme- diately before it, will be more readily impressed by mere verbal communications. A narrated occurrence will thus be more clearly conceived of: it will not seem distant and dim, but, as it were, present and distinct, to this particular ob- serving power. The memory, moreover, will be proportionally retentive ; for each intellect- ual faculty is supposed to have a memory of its own, so that the eventuality which is keen to perceive is also strong to retain. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 119 Influence upon literature. This exactness in the knowledge and pres- entation of -events, as a matter of culture and general habit, must necessarily have a most salutary effect upon the literature of the peo- ple, both that which they themselves make and that which is made for them. If conversation become more true to fact, epistolary communi- cations will share the improvement. Gossip by the pen will be reformed as well as gossip by the tongue. But, beyond this, historical compositions will be characterized by more thorough and satisfactory research. A public opinion which has been trained up to the mark of absolute truth must press upon the respon- sibility of writers, so that history, in future, shall not have to be rewritten, and the charac- ters of men rejudged, as heretofore, for the sake of right and justice. Again : with this better culture as to action, fictitious productions, which now make so large a part of the common reading, will be altogeth- er more faithful to nature. No small portion of the novels, and especially of the juvenile tales of the day, are poor representations of human life. Their authors seem to have beeq 120 THE CULTURE OF THE Newspaper reform. living, from childhood up, in an imaginary world. They have not studied, as they should, nature and man in those multitudinous activi- ties by which traits and qualities are truly made known. Now this special culture of eventuality will supply fancy and invention with those truthful materials which have hith- erto been so much wanting. Thus the crea- tions of genius will become verisimilitudes of what has been actually experienced, or what at least is possible to man in view of the known principles of his being and his surrounding conditions. Coming generations will have this true liter- ature. When the whole people shall be train- ed to an exact observation of the real and moving world, then the few who shall write for the people will not fail of that best disci- pline and knowledge which comes through the primitive and surest use of the eyes. NEWSPAPER REFORM. One of the most important benefits to come from eventuality, as it should be, is the im- provement in newspaper literature. Every OBSERVING FACULTIES. 121 Newspaper reform. body in our country, who can read at all, reads the newspaper. It exerts a wider and deeper influence than any other emanation from the press. It does unmeasured good, but also much evil. A new appetite has been engen- dered, or rather a constitutional one intensified tenfold. It is a rabid hunger for something new ; and, besides this, for something as much as possible exciting. The newspaper would not be a newspaper unless it furnished this new thing. Hence a competition between journals. That goes off best which contains the keenest stimulative for the moment. The slightest ru- mor is caught up, and made the most of to-day ; but it may be utterly contradicted to-morrow. No matter; it serves its end; it satisfies the craving. Thus, if no other harm is done, thought is prevented from settling down on serious and really important subjects. The popular mind is unsettled, and is kept unset- tled and unstable. There is especially a bad effect upon the young, who, as they grow up, ought to be getting their faculties more and more, and continually, into a condition of strength and consolidation. For thorough-go- 122 THE CULTURE OF THE Newspaper reform. ing, substantial reading, there is not time ; and as for deeper science and philosophy, they are scarcely thought of after leaving the school. Now, should there be an education from the earliest to a clear perception of passing inci- dents, and to a thoroughly accurate statement of them, the young would come up into life with a habit of accuracy, and, in consequence, with a taste for it. Vague observation, and more vague description, would be no part of their experience. For such readers, the news- paper item about somebody or something must have a ground of probability. If such things be found within a day or a week utterly false, the public taste and habit will say, " Away with them ! nothing of this !" Thus journals will compete with each other for exactness to the truth. A public man's character will have a safety not recently experienced. A distin- guished lady's delicacy will not be offended by some false rumor about her, as is now some- times the case, published from end to end of the land. Thousands of things, utterly unwar- ranted, will not be breathed into growth, as at present, by this hot breath of desire for the new and exciting. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 128 Partisan calumnies checked. In this advanced age, when steam and tele- graph bring news from all quarters of the world, suflS-cient for every day's entertainment, falsehood will not be needed. Indeed, there will hardly be leisure to glance along the abundance of authenticated facts; and many of these, in this new and wonder -producing era, may be quite as attractive to curiosity as any catchpenny fabrications, or even the more innocent scintillations of genius. PARTISAN CALUMNIES CHECKED. But, above all, the bitter calumnies of polit- ical partisanship must receive a wholesome check, if they do not utterly come to an end. These are the worst concomitants of our elect- ive government. These are the abominations of the country. These too often thrust our best men prematurely into retirement, or pre- vent them from coming out of it at all. As things are now, character is mangled, murdered in political warfare. Could the people of this country be trained to be faithful to fact, a salu- tary influence must be exerted in this direction. A change for the better would be wrought, 124 THE CULTURE OF THE Partisan calumnies checked. such as hitherto has never been known in pop- ular governments. If absolute fact be demand- ed, all electioneering misrepresentations must cease. That party which should resort to fal- sifications must succumb — must wear written on its very forehead Wroiig. Let a thorough examination into facts be the groundwork of political opinion, and the reason, the intelli- gence, the common sense of voters would bring an overwhelming majority to the side of the right and the best. The people would come to know who are their truly wise, good, and great men, and would give to them their confi- dence. The people would confide also in each other. Then, instead of democracy, deceived, cheated, degraded, and made a by-word through the monarchies of Europe, there would be a democracy like the clear shining of the sun after the rain, enlightening the eyes, and warm- ing the hearts of the common masses all over the world. It would be like a great luminary in the heavens, ascending toward its noon, it might be, but there to stand still, as the sun did of old, while the true and the faithful every where should become victorious and free. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 125 Present state of our nation. PRESENT STATE OF OUR NATION. But such a state of things has not yet been, and many fear that it will not exist perhaps for ages. Our nation, at this moment, heaves and tosses like ocean in the storm ; yea, as with the more terrible earthquake, opening new chasms downward, shooting new volcanoes up- ward, even shaking the nations that are afar off, and perplexing monarchs on their thrones. And all this has come from the lies of selfish, wicked men. Old custom, the love of ease, of power, of wealth, and luxury, could not possi- bly have prevailed, had it not been for this diabolical " refuge of lies." Had the truth as to facts, nothing but the truth, been presented from the platform and the press for the last thirty years — had the people received the truth, and reflected it to each other just as the mil- lions of the summer dewdrops reflect the un- failing, benignant sun, the present fratricidal war could never have been. It would have been as utterly impossible as for hailstones and thunderbolts to have fallen from the cloudless sky on herb, and beast, and man below. 126 THE CULTURE OF THE Present state of our nation. The demons of falsehood still divide the land. The Father of Lies himself hangs, as it were, invisibly over it, in all his hideous, heav- en-defying malignity, and scatters his own ar- rows of destruction into the ears and the un- derstandings, and down into the hearts of a credulous people. What the end will be, no one but the omniscient God, or foreseeing and truthful angels, can tell. Parents and teachers, such now is the state of our country ; and why is it so? why has it been so? Because the parents and teachers, your predecessors, gener- ation back behind generation, did not train the young to see the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth. It is because the educators themselves have been false : how, then, could they train their children and pupils to be true? Now, shall this state of things remain? Shall it be ages before we become a stable people, with a stable government and a stable pros- perity ? It all depends upon you, parents and teachers of this nation, whether we shall grow into safety, and realize the hopes of yearning millions the earth over, or not. Accept the OBSERVING FACULTIES, 127 Discipline of the conscience. views which have been here imperfectly pre- sented as to training to the truth ; let them be adopted in the family, in the school, in the land throughout; and, with one addition in the ed- ucational plan, there will be, there must be, in- evitable success. DISCIPLINE OF THE CONSCIENCE. But this addition — the discipline of the con- science — is the most important matter of all. Without it there can be no assurance of steady progress and of final security. This is the cul- ture of the conscience side by side with the discipline of the observing intellect. Nothing can be more true, as all history proves, than that the human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Such is the selfishness of human nature — a selfishness act- ing from very infancy, and strengthening with the years, subjugating the intellect to its serv- ice — that the conscience must be awakened at the earliest, and set to its restraining work. All the solemn warnings of religion will be needed with some constitutions to make the tongue's statement true to the eye's witness- 128 THE CULTURE OF THE Discipline of the conscience. ing. Parents, upon you is imposed, by the in- finitely True, the responsibihty of quickening the moral sense of your children to the surest guardianship over the tongue, and, indeed, over the feelings and motives which lie beneath the speech. Teach them that knowingly to devi- ate from exactness, even as to trivial incidents, is to be guilty of falsehood, and falsehood re- plete with danger ; for it prepares the way for more serious deviations, and thence more hein- ous obliquity. Impress upon them that what has once really taken place is fixed: it has been, it exists as a fact forever. However hu- man beings may misconceive it, take from it, or add to it, there it is, printed on the irrevers- ible page of the past; there it is, moreover, naked before the Omniscient Eye. Neither wishes, nor prejudices, nor passions, nor vol- umes of words can change it one tittle. In the process of time, and in the passing away of temporary motives and feelings, events may come to be seen in their true light. Then self- seekers and falsifiers will stand out exposed in the same light, and in their naked deformity. Train your children, therefore, to believe and OBSERVING FACULTIES. 129 Two beings who can not be escaped. to feel that they might as well struggle up, de- spite of gravitation, into the clouds for a hid- ing-place, as to struggle away, and forever keep away, from the fastness of fact and the search- ing severity of txuth. TWO BEINGS WHO CAN NOT BE ESCAPED. There are two beings from whom the un- truthful man can not conceal his guilt. One is himself. At the moment of its utterance he is conscious of the falsehood. Henceforth it is written on his memory that he has lied. He can no more wipe it out than he can wipe out the wrinkles on his brow above it, or shape into infantile openness the sinister expression of his face. There it is, registered on his mem- ory forever. It may sink away from the con- stant glance of his own thought, perhaps it may remain unseen for years; but it is not gone. The leaves of more recent experiences are but laid over it. Some time, with light- ning swiftness, these leaves may be flung back ; and tliere^ as in years long before, blazes out the record — falsifier^ liar. Teach your children, therefore, that, if the untruthful shall escape all I 180 THE CULTUKE OF THE Time. the rest of the world, lie shall ever, ever be pursued and found by himself. The other being from whom the liar can not hide is that One of whom it is said in the sa- cred oracles, " He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? Shall not God search this out? For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of in- iquity may hide themselves. Hell and destruc- tion are before the Lord; how much more, then, the hearts of the children of men !" TIME. In close connection with action is another important matter of discipline. It regards the relation of time. Movement occupies more or less duration according to the space or dis- tance passed through, or according to the num- ber of motions, as in those indicated by the ticking of a time-piece or in the pulsations of the blood. It is supposed that there is a spe- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 181 Time. cial faculty for the perception of time, as there is in the case of other qualities and relations in nature. There are those who can tell al- most any hour of the day or night without clock or watch. Such persons have a natu- rally keen perception of time, which has been increased by constant use. They are always to a moment punctual to their engagements. They keep nobody waiting ; that is, if their moral nature is as true as their one intellectual ability. Others have a character directly the reverse. Owing to a constitutional weakness, or the undeveloped condition of this faculty, they have but little consciousness of the pass- ing moments. In early life, they are behind at school, unless well prompted ; as they grow up, they are behindhand in their engagements, behind in their business, behind at public meet- ings. Are they on committees, or in any serv- ice associated with others — they are always tardy, and keep their fellow-officials in uneasy endurance. Perhaps, when they do arrive, they may consume much time in needless talk, through the same unconsciousness which made them late. 132 THE CULTURE OF THE Time in talk. Public occasions. TIME IN TALK. Some persons are particularly unconscious of time in conversation. They will spend the whole space allotted to the call of a friend on some casual topic uninteresting and tedious to the hearer, who may wish to touch on subjects more accordant with his tastes, or on which he came especially to confer. Cases are not infre- quent in which speakers, who had been ap- pointed, together with others, to address an au- dience, have appropriated to themselves nearly the whole time of the occasion. An opening speech has been known to consume almost the whole evening. PUBLIC OCCASIONS. Again : how often are the movements of va- rious public occasions tediously delayed by a few persons, and, indeed, by some one individ- ual having the direction! So common are such delays that people hardly expect any thing better; yet they are obliged to observe the appointed hour, or they might possibly forego the profit of the occasion. Thus some- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 133 Punctuality as to promises. times the precious hours of thousands are irre- trievably lost through the neglect of a few tar- dy ofifi-cials. If these thousands of lost hours were aggregated into one amount, and their worth to industry estimated, the waste would appear enormous. PUNCTUALITY AS TO PROMISES. There are other cases in which the pinch of punctuality is not sufficiently felt, and disap- pointment and inconvenience may annoy, and possibly much pecuniary loss be incurred. For instance, how often mechanics and other pro- ducers engage to furnish articles by a certain date, and then fail of accomplishment! In fact, through all the circles of business, promises as to time are frequently broken ; hence losses of money, or comfort at any rate, of good feeling, and perhaps of amicable relations. This is a matter of ordinary experience. The fact is, that many a man, in promising the completion of work at a certain day, has but a vague idea of the time necessary for the performance. He goes by guess. His judgment as to time and movement has not been cultivated. Perhaps 134 THE CULTURE OF THE Disastrous lack of promptitude. he is constitutionally defective, and can meas- ure days and hours scarcely much better than the senseless clock with its machinery askew. DISASTROUS LACK OF PROMPTITUDE. In human affairs, there are crosses and losses innumerable and incalculable through lack of promptitude. At the first battle of Bull Eun, the long delay of one division in the morning's march was an incidental cause of that lament- able defeat. Had our army got into action as early as was intended in the commander's plan, a decisive victory would have probably been won several hours before those re-enforcements arrived which turned the scale in favor of the enemy. It was probably a miscalculation as to time on somebody's part which prevented the pontoon-bridges from reaching Fredericks- burg coincidently with the army, and thus de- laying Burnside's great movement and leading to ultimate defeat. History records numerous instances of similar disasters. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 135 Early attention to the time-faculty. EARLY ATTENTION TO THE TIME-FACULTY. ISTow, as this defect as to time is often a con- stitutional deformity, it should be understood at the very outset of education, and be rem- edied by the most assiduous culture. It may be discovered, by a little attention, what the native capacity of children is in this respect. See whether they are prompt at school, church, or any other place, at the appointed moment. Note whether they seem to lose all idea of time in play or talk when some pressing duty is before them. Should there appear an un- consciousness of duration, then they must be watched, and trained accordingly. As a dis- ciplinary exercise, they may be put in many ways to the exact observation of time in the course of ordinary duty. In some affairs, cer- tain operations require a certain measurable period of time for their accomplishment. The usual routine of every day in household or farm matters is divided into several parts ap- pertaining to one thing and another. In the course of experience and habit, calculations are very readily made in respect to the quantity 136 THE CULTURE OF THE Help from the time-piece. of time demanded by each, so that every thing may be attended to and finished in order. But the young generally need some special disci- pline before they can accurately adjust one thing to another in their engagements. Some require very much care for the purpose. If they should be neglected in this matter by the first parental educators, they would be likely to go through the whole subsequent life, con- fused themselves, and confusing others. Innu- merable people continue all their days in this unfortunate predicament, and just from the lack of forethought and discipline. HELP FROM THE TIME-PIECE. Accustom, therefore, your children to notice particularly the hours, the half hours, and even the minutes occupied in any regular work or duty. Let it be, however, insisted on that per- formance shall be thorough and without flut- tering haste. In this way they will learn how to portion out time to its several uses. They will be educated into a substantial and reliable judgment as to the seasons of regular duty. There are occasional transactions which also OBSERVING FACULTIES. 137 Measuring time by the sun. may well be made lessons. In doing errands at a store, or a neighbor's, or any where else, let the time of going and coming at ordinary speed be carefully noted. As children are fond of special exercises if they be made agree- able, let them guess how long it will take to walk or run a certain distance and back again, or to make a certain number of motions with the feet or hands in imitation of work, as in the Kinder -garten plays. Suppose any new work is to be undertaken : let there be guesses as to the time occupied. Indeed, no matter what the operation is, it will serve to discipline the young to mark time with precision, and to form habits of adjusting movements to move- ments with an economical accuracy, which shall be a lifelong benefit to themselves and to every body who has to do with them. MEASURING TIME BY THE SUN. It is a good plan, furthermore, to have chil- dren measure time by the place and the prog- ress of the sun. Let them guess the time of day by the sun's position in the sky, and then refer to the time-piece to see how near the pre- 138 THE CULTURE OF THE Measuring time by the sun. cise moment they have hit. Let such an exer- cise be pursued till the hour of day, at any place of the sun, may be quite accurately de- termined. A similar course might be pursued in respect to the moon and the stars, for the sake of a more thorough education of the fac- ulty, and perhaps for occasional and valuable use in emergencies that might arise. Indeed, the first idea of time came from the regular movements of the heavenly bodies. Hence originated those divisions of duration which are named in the languages, and govern the doings of all the world. These phenomena of the heavens perpetually teach and remind man- kind of the importance of method or economy in the use of time. No lesson pertaining to life's practical affairs is inculcated on a grander scale than this. It is written on the expanse of the firmament. It is illustrated by revolving globes. Parents, shall this wisdom, so might- ily and momentously vouchsafed, be lost to your children because you fail to interpret it to their understandings and impress it on their hearts ? OBSERVING FACULTIES. 139 Order. A special faculty. E D E R. In the works of God there is a certain order, or methodical arrangement, which is best adapt- ed to the end for which they were made. Not only organic forms of matter, but the opera- tions by which they accomplish their uses, ex- hibit this perfect adaptation of one thing to another, and of means to ends. Thus they give an all -important lesson to man for his own works and ways. In human affairs, by a similar systematization, the greatest good is brought to pass. A SPECIAL FACULTY. It is supposed that there is a special mental faculty which takes cognizance of order. It gives to the individual the ability to notice and appreciate it in things around, and also the ability to do things, and keep things him- self, according to the same rule. There are sometimes wide differences between one per- son and another as to the native strength of this faculty. To be convinced of this, we 140 THE CULTURE OF THE A special faculty. have but to recall our experiences with vari- ous people. One has a place for every thing, and keeps every thing in its own place. Such a one is thoroughly systematic in business. That thing is done first which in good judg- ment should come first. He knows when his work is completed. There are no hurried runnings or flurried huddlings to finish up what was supposed to be already finished. With him, " done" means done^ and is truly so. His anticipated leisure is not all cut up or cut short in the least by his own neglects. As far as depends on himself, he is always sure of time for pastime. Just like the sun that reg- ularly shines on him, he knows his exact path, and his exact place in that path, at every hour from morning until evening ; and then he knows when his day is done, as the sun knows his going down. How entirely different from this is the con- stitutional character and prevalent habits of another person ! Indeed, how many there are who, as to a systematic disposition of things, are about as much to be calculated on as the dust blown and tossed by the wind ! They OBSERVING FACULTIES. 141 How to discipline the faculty. can not calculate on themselves. They are disturbed by tendencies which have crept into their natures from some progenitor: so these tendencies impel them to and fro, up and down, evermore, because no educating hand came in good season to the rescue. Such being the contingencies of poor hu- man nature, they should be looked after with- out fail, and right early. The educator should understand the child's native mark of ability to appreciate order and conform to its laws. It can soon be seen whether much attention shall be required. Be the faculty stronger or weaker, it should be put to its use, and conse- quently under discipline, the same as the other intellectual powers. The parent's loving heart will be glad at an easy task ; and the same heart, together with a quickening conscience, will prompt to perseverance and insure success in the more difficult case. HOW TO DISCIPLINE THE FACULTY. Let us now consider what a child may be put upon quite early in the way of training the faculty of order. 142 THE CULTURE OF THE How to discipline tlie faculty. I once knew a child, not more than nine months old, who was disturbed and uncom- fortable when some prominent article in the room, as a table, work-stand, or chair was not in its accustomed place. He would point with his finger, together with a significant — indeed, an imploring expression of his eye, to the thing in its irregular position. This child, no doubt, possessed the faculty of order in very strong constitutional development. But we may in- fer from the instance that children, on the average, may, in this respect, be quite early trained to strength and accuracy. A child who only creeps might be set to the use of pushing a displaced chair into its position in line with the other chairs. When he shall get fairly upon his feet, he might have a care, ac- cording to strength, that any article of furni- ture in the room, when out of place, should be put right. Such a charge would be not only a discipline in the plan of the parent, but an actual pleasure in the idea of a child. He wants to move ; he can not bear to be still : if he can do things to a certain end like others, and especially if he can gratify others by his activities, he is in his life's delight. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 143 Care of playthings and clothes. CARE OF PLAYTHINGS AND CLOTHES. Accustom a child to take the best possible care of his own playthings — to have a special place for them when not in use. They should never be thrust confusedly down, and lie in a jumble, as so often happens, but be laid by with as much regard for convenient arrange- ment and neatness as any implement of adult industry should be put away, each where it belongs. This order about playthings will be an important preparation for order in the work- things of after life. Still farther: let children be educated to keep their own clothes in the best possible disposure in the drawer, chest, or closet, or wherever they may be placed. Let each article, how- ever small, have its own particular position, where, if need be, it might be found in the dark. Their clothes, on being taken off for the night, should be put in a certain definite and appropriate place ; not here at one time, and there at another, but in the best position for airing; and each article in such a manner as 144 THE CULTUKE OF THE Household matters. to be most easily come at, even without light. Thus, in the case of fire and the necessity of quick escape, whether at home or abroad, whether at the house of a friend or at a strange hotel, the clothes could at least be snatched by the hand, if there should not be time to put them on. By an orderly habit of this sort, thousands in the conflagrations of the past would not have been driven almost naked from the burning into opposite elements, which diseased them perhaps for life by their inclem- encies. HOUSEHOLD MATTERS. When children shall be old enough to assist in household affairs or other duties, it is of much consequence that they should do every thing according to that exact succession of op- erations by which any kind of work can be most speedily and thoroughly accomplished. Days and weeks, and, in a long life, even months, are lost to some because the precise firstly, secondly, thirdly, etc., are not linked into habit. The buzzing, clattering, rumbling fac- tories of all sorts might instruct such wasters ; OBSERVING FACULTIES. 145 Boys. for here must be a certain beginning, a regular progress, and a definite and sure completion. Early and fixed habits of this sort will have great influence on their own industrial condi- tions and success in the far future. In the case of girls, the practice of order can not be too early commenced, and it should never be intermitted. They grow up right in the midst of those matters and things, the like of which is to make their own chief duty as wives and mothers. Laxity of order in girlhood, unre- formed then, will run very probably a disturb- ing force through all their housekeeping fu- ture. ' BOYS. In the case of boys, they may be put to ap- prenticeships in which there is a necessity for a certain order, as in mechanical trades and the use of machinery. They may be compelled to be systematic in their vocations to a certain extent, yet in other affairs they may fall into exceeding laxity and confusion. Whatever, therefore, they have to do, within or around the house, should be performed with regular- K 146 THE CULTURE OF THE Neatness. ity and precision ; not only because it is best for the occasion, but because it will be a valu- able discipline toward tbeir future. NEATNESS. Personal neatness comes under tbis bead of order. This, with some constitutions, will be found to require much training and discipline. There are children who, from a native instinct, have a strong abhorrence of any soiling of their persons or clothes. They are early quite sensible of any lack of neatness about a room. Others are much the reverse. These seem to enjoy dirt and disorder as much as others do the best condition of things. These disorderly natures must be early looked to, and continu- ally watched as they go along up, that, through mere discipline, they may have that habit of neatness which will be necessary for the com- fort and satisfaction of others, if not for their own. Many a man, slovenly in his person and in his business, many an untidy woman and housekeeper, might have been blessed with at least average habits of neatness had they been properly disciplined in their early homes. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 147 Neatness. Such children should be set particularly to put and keep things in order about a house or the surroundings. If any thing should be out of place, they, above all others, should be set to put it in place. If they must go, in case of need, up into the garret, down into the cellar, to some distant out-house, or away into a field, so much the better. The farther they shall have to run, the more impressive and profit- able the practical lesson. This sort of task should be made an imperative duty, to be con- tinued as long as is necessary. By this dis- cipline, such faulty organizations will be forced into the desirable habits, even against their own natures. There is a neatness in work, and in the way of doing a thousand little things, which many people, for the lack of early education, do not possess. They will drop and slop, spill and spatter, in every direction, simply because they are not trained to steadiness of hand, careful- ness of the foot, or quick observation of the eye. Pains and perseverance with such chil- dren will save much trouble under the parent- al roof, and will prevent them, doubtless, from 148 THE CULTURE OF THE An appeal. innumerable discomforts and a thousand cha- grins in their own future home. But let it be especially remembered that example will be unspeakably more powerful than precept. The young will hardly practise order amid the sur- rounding confusion of their elders. The dis- order in which they have been brought up, and to which they have been from the earliest accustomed, is quite likely to be the earliest and habitual experience of their own rising families, and to become, possibly, the unprofit- able inheritance of generations still beyond. AN APPEAL. Parents ! for your own sakes in the dear home ; for the sake of loved children in their future abodes and vocations, and for the sake of that common usefulness which every one owes to his kind ; for the sake of some higher and wider good your son or daughter may be providentially called to accomplish, do not omit a duty comparatively so easy as the one now enjoined. Train your young families to that methodical arrangement, to that best order which is so necessary to give to art and indus- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 149 An appeal. try, and to all virtuous endeavors, the highest success. By such a habit, work that must be done, however coarse, may be done in a way which is not only the shortest and the easiest, but which may have even something like a gracefulness about it. By this, the humblest task may have an adornment. The inferior animals, each after its kind, are orderly by instinct, and might instruct the in- telligences put over them in dominion. In- animate nature, close by and all around, teach- es those who labor in its midst the same les- son. How instructive are soil, water, air, heat, and light, as they work and build up bloom- ing and fruitful vegetation ! The same wis- dom comes from the far silent heavens: with a power mightier than any human speech, they proclaim the necessity of system. They show forth the beauty, the majesty, the divine per- fectness of order, while they declare the glory of God. 150 THE CULTURE OF THE Conclusion. CONCLUSION. Other specific topics belong to the subject of these suggestions, and might properly have been considered. But this division of the vol- ume has been extended much beyond the orig- inal design. It is hoped that the patience of readers will hold out for some closing thoughts, which may still farther elucidate and confirm the theory presented. It is a well-known fact that the majority of mankind do not begin to study specifically and minutely the substances on which they are to operate through all their industrial lives until they get into apprenticeship or into ac- tual business. Then there must be disadvan- tage and loss, for a time, in proportion to the ignorance. In some cases, this ignorance con- tinues quite palpably and injuriously through all their vocational course. Now the training which has been indicated is a process of fitting- one, in a degree, for all sorts of business what- ever — a process begun with the very opening of the eyes and the putting forth of the hand. OBSERVING FACULTIES. 151 Conclusion. Indeed, Nature is continually striving to edu- cate the perceptive faculties, and would really double and quadruple their development and attainments if we would let her have her own methods, and lend her a helping hand amid the multitude of objects which might confuse the young learner's attention. There are certain individuals whose peculiar organization will make them sharp -sighted; will place things, and all their qualities, before them just as they are, in spite of the distract- ing circumstances of number, variety, and even disorder ; but these are comparatively few. The majority need help and showing, that the most may be made of the materials around. This must be evident from the exercises in objects and qualities which have been here proposed ; for how few, without advice, would pursue these matters in the best way, and to the most profitable extent ! Indeed, how has the whole world gone blundering along with the idea that education consists in words — words wide apart from the things to which they belong ! It has scarcely occurred to edu- cators generally that, in presenting things to 152 THE CULTUEE OF THE How a good judgment comes. the learner, they must almost necessarily pre- sent words — nouns, adjectives, and verbs — which would stick to these things like their color in the daytime, or as their temperature does both day and night. n HOW A GOOD JUDGMENT COMES. There is a common saying about certain in- dividuals something like this : " He has an excellent judgment ; he is remarkable for his judgment." Now what is meant ? It is this: He knows what things are in their qualities and relations, and he knows what to do with them to the best possible advantage. Innu- merable instances in the various avocations of life might be adduced in illustration. How common it is for a citizen to be called on to appraise the goods of a neighboring estate, or, as a public officer, to make valuations of prop- erty for taxes ! In such cases, a practical knowl- edge of commodities is all-important. "We may take the most striking and instructive instances from these very times. Millions of money are lost to the nation through the ignorance of commissaries, quarter-masters, contractors, and OBSERVING FACULTIES. 153 Vivid recollections important. other providers for our armies, through the lack of that early and continued education of observing faculties which has now been ad- vised. If the loss, for the most part, comes from any other cause, it must be from a criminal dis- honesty, deserving the punishment of a peni- tentiary from a cheated country. VIVID RECOLLECTIONS IMPORTANT. Furthermore, a great deal of business is done in the way of trade without the actual presence and inspection of the commodity to be bought and sold. In this case, much is to be trusted to the honesty or honor of the seller. Neverthe- less, a great deal depends, on both sides, upon the actual knowledge of things previously ac- quired. Without such knowledge, the buy- er must take the seller's word; and without this knowledge, the seller himself may unin- tentionally mislead ; for in both of their mem- ories and conceptions there may lie a confused mass of things, designated by certain names. As for the absolute qualities, fitnesses, and val- ues, it may be the merest guess-work with both. Or, if but one of the parties is ignorant, 154 THE CULTURE OF THE Distinguished men. he must go by guess, or trust implicitly to the integrity of the other. Now, let a thorough acquaintance with objects and their qualities be obtained, and there they lie in the memo- ry in all distinctness. There is no confusion. The mind's eye sees similar commodities in the distant ship or warehouse, or any where else, about as clearly as the physical eye would see them lying beneath the face. The memory, as a general rule, performs its office well or ill just in proportion as the original perceptions are disciplined and developed ; so that, in a large portion of business transactions, what is good judgment depends on distinct and accu- rate recollections. DISTINGUISHED MEN. The histories of many distinguished persons show that a culture quite independent of pre- scribed educational forms made them useful and eminent. Among the extraordinary men of our own country are those whose literary advantages were exceedingly limited. They simply exercised their naked faculties on what- ever came before them, or lay in any provi- OBSERVING FACULTIES. 155 Distinguished men. dential line of duty. They might have had some one power, like individuality or eventu- ality, in uncommon strength. This, spontane- ously leading the way, might have brought concomitant powers into action and increasing ability. All the faculties were employed upon the objects, the events, the realities of the pres- ent world and state of things, while their priv- ileged contemporaries were engaged on ab- stract books and chapters, sentences and words. Though these students of real life might be quite inaccurate in the nice uses of language, yet they obtained the weightier matters of a useful education. Such men, nevertheless, gen- erally possess an adequate ability at expres- sion, as far as it is necessary simply to convey their own ideas. Indeed, these observers and doers have often a remarkable facility of speech. This comes from the very nature of their education. They somehow pick up words appropriate to all the things, qualities, relations, actions, and transactions within their notice, and those words are presented naturally and easily with the subjects to which they belong. If there be any defect at all, it is that of some 156 THE CULTUKE OF THE Books. little point which they might have rectified themselves, as many do, by a strenuous and determined self-discipline. The strongest men in our nation, the centres of momentous circles of affairs, may be excelled by school-girls of fifteen as to verbal and grammatical niceties. The ability adequate to the presidency of the nation or to a cabinet secretaryship does not depend on verbalities obtained at school or col- lege, but on an acquaintance with things, and actions, and principles — a knowledge of indi- vidual, social, municipal, civil, military, nation- al, and international realities. Washington's success at the head of armies and administra- tions was the result of that sound judgment which had been matured amid present sub- stances, passing events, and pressing emergen- cies. BOOKS. Let it not be supposed, by what precedes, that an unwarrantable discarding of books is advised. It is simply meant that books shall not come into use so early, so numerously, and so unintermittedly as to stifle and dwarf the OBSERVING FACULTIES. 157 Books. faculties instead of aiding to strengthen them. The distinguished men alluded to improved themselves by reading as they had opportuni- ty; and, in one respect, they read with a pe- culiar advantage. Their preliminary experi- ence with the world's naked realities enabled them to take hold of language with a strong, effective grasp, as if words were palpable han- dles to the meanings underneath. They la- bored, however, under many and great disad- vantages. Their improvement came without system — now and then — here a little, and there a little. With our present command of means, we should seek for our children that education which begins exactly in the right place and at the right time ; which proceeds also in the best order, and in those directions, and to that ex- tent, which shall make the largest and fullest measure of good. Dear fellow - educators ! with what gentle touches of nature's elements, as with his own tender fingers, does the infinite Parent awaken his immortal offspring to consciousness and thought! Why shall we not follow these di- 158 THE OBSERVING FACULTIES. Books. vine intimations? Be assured that thej run, with unbroken continuance, into grand rules of development and great infallible signs along the way of everlasting progress. A LETTER FROM THE AGENT OF THE MASSA- CHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION. " Rev. Wakeen Bueton : "My deae Sie, — Your hints on ' Object-teach- ing' will accomplish much good, if they lead par- ents to the early and proper discipline of the observing faculties of their children. So far as relates to intellectual training, I heartily concur in the sentiment of Ruskin, ' The more I think of it, I find this conclusion more impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk to one who thinks, but thousands can think to one who can see.'' " The importance and methods of ' Object- teaching' have been a frequent topic of my lec- tures at teachers' institutes and normal schools for more than six years. The system is gradual- ly working its way into our schools, and, when in skillful hands, with the happiest results. I have spent several weeks during the last year in visit- ing the best ' object-schools' in the country, espe- cially in New York, Albany, New Britain, Conn., 160 A LETTER FROM THE AGENT OF THE Toronto, C. W., and Oswego, N. Y. This system has been more fully and successfully applied in the schools of the latter place than any where else in this country. As a result, the primary schools of Oswego, which a few years since were in a low condition, have been raised to a degree of excellence probably not surpassed, if equaled, in this country. I visited all the schools of the city, with a single exception, in order to observe the working of the system under a great variety of circumstances, and with all classes of children, the rich and the poor, Germans, French, Irish, and Scotch, as well as Americans. So celebrated have these schools become, that Oswego is now a sort of Mecca for educators from nearly all the loyal states. During a visit of less than two weeks in that city, I observed representatives present from several distant states, including teachers, committees, and superintendents. This, I was told, was but the usual number of visitors from abroad. While I should dissent from some views and methods there adopted, the system, as a whole, is, in my judgment, practical, philosoph- ical, and admirably adapted to young children. " But this drill ought to begin long before the school age. The parent should daily give train- ing-lessons in common things. I value this book as one designed and fitted to make parents ' ob- ject-teachers ;' to convince them that the facts MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION. 161 and objects surrounding the child in e very-day life should be the earliest and most effective in- struments in developing his powers, and that thus habits of close, accurate, and exhaustive observa- tion should be early formed. " BlEDSEY G. NOETHEOP, ^^ Agent Mass. Board of Education.''* L NOTE. That more inviting words might greet readers at the open- ing of the book, this preface-like explanation is placed at the end. Many years ago, the present writer, in lecturing on early intellectual culture, together with moral and religious education, earnestly urged the discipline of the observing faculties. He then had not the remotest idea that this disci- pline, as an indispensable requisite, would be so long neg- lected ; for it was at that time practiced in European schools, and advocated also by eminent writers in our own country. More than twenty years, however, have elapsed since his first humble efforts and sanguine expectations, and yet but little progress comparatively has been made in this direc- tion. In reflecting on this great educational deficiency, it came forcibly to mind that a much-needed help might be rendered to the family and the school by publishing some- thing similar to his former utterances. The lectures alluded to were mostly extemporaneous. By the aid, however, of a single written passage which makes a few of the first pages, together with some brief notes, they have been substantially recalled to memory, and, with the interspersion of fresh mat- ter, they constitute the body of this work. The original ex- temporaneous style in a degree ran into the composition. This will account for occasional looseness of construction and every-day phraseology, which it is hoped will be rather agreeable than otherwise to the majority of readers. W. B. OBJECT TEACHING, AND THE CULTURE OF THE PERCEPTIVE POWERS. From the American Literary Gazette and Publishers' Circular, September 15th, 1864. " There is no royal road to learning ;" but nei- ther is it necessary that the acquisition of knowl- edge should be made hateful to youth. The young mind is ready enough to receive information ; it craves facts, but it requires them to be in a nutri- tive and digestible shape. All children ask ques- tions. Some parents endeavor, with more or less success, to satisfy these inquiries ; others turn the inquirers over to the school-master, holding it to be his duty to attend to the brains, and the pa- rents' to care merely for the bodies of their chil- dren. Yet others discourage the questioners. The school-master, unless he be a man of genius, is apt to furnish words and phrases, where the child wants facts and ideas; therefore schools are so often hateful and unprofitable to the most intelligent of the children, and men are found to 166 OBJECT TEACHING — THE CULTURE declare that in their boyhood they learned more out of than in school hours. Within a few years an important improvement has obtained in this country in the theory of edu- cation. Intelligent and thoughtful teachers ob- served the pleasure which all children take in the observation of natural objects; they noticed that, while spelling and reading are a weariness, the young learners never tired of studying the varied and interesting objects of nature which surround them. "Suppose we should attempt to answer these many questions of the children?" they said. " Suppose that, instead of teaching them to read in dry books, conveying no useful or interesting in- formation, we should provide them lessons which should gratify their desire to comprehend the na- ture and fix in their minds the shajoe and use of the various natural objects which so excite their curiosity ?" Out of this suggestion has arisen quite a school literature — a series of works of remarkable merit, intended to help parents and teachers to answer, instead of repressing, the inquiries of the children, and thus to foster and develop, instead of discour- aging, the burning desire for real knowledge. The system of tuition which has thus grown up is rightly called "Object Teaching." It aims to satisfy the craving of the child or youth for prac- tical information ; it recognizes the important fact OF THE PERCEPTIVE POWERS. 167 that children are the most practical of beings, who refuse phrases, and demand constantly /ac^s. "Object Teaching" did not originate in this country ; it has been practiced in Europe in the best schools for many years ; but the most com- plete literary aids have been furnished by Ameri- can teachers and authors, and this from the rea- son that while common school education is uni- versal in the United States, the great mass of our youth must turn early to trades and business pur- suits, and have no time, after they leave school, for the study of text-books. The principle of "Object Teaching" is, there- fore, peculiarly and admirably adapted to the prac- tical, common -sense character of the American mind. It has been seized upon with avidity by parents and teachers ; and its success is exempli- fied in the number of books which have been re- cently published, either directly relating to the subject, or involving the use of its principles. Sheldon in his " Manual of Elementary Instruc- tion" and his "Model Lessons on Objects," Wells in his " Graded Schools," and " Lilien- THAL and Welch in their "Object Lessons," and several other writers, have endeavored to help the teacher to correct notions of " Object Teach- ing." But among the series of works bearing upon the subject, those of Marcius Willson, E. A. Calkins, and Worthington Hooker merit special 168 OBJECT TEACHING — THE CULTURE mention. These works, published by Messrs. Har- per & Brothers, and got up with great care and at a heavy cost, are furnished with many hundreds of wood engravings, executed in the best style of the art, and especially for the books in which they appear ; they are admirably suited to the use of parents as well as teachers, and they are gradu- ated for the instruction of children of all ages. Dr. Hooker remarks in the preface to one of his excellent series, the " Child's Book of Nature," that "the inquisitive observation of children is commonly repressed instead of being encouraged and guided. The chief reason for this unnatural course is, that parents and teachers are not in pos- session of the information which is needed for the guidance of children in the observation of Nature. They have not themselves been taught aright, and so they are not able to lead others aright. In their own education the observation of Nature has been almost entirely excluded, and they are therefore unprepared to teach a child in regard to the simplest natural phenomena." He might justly have added that they have not even been taught to observe. Most men see without per- ceiving, excepting in the case of those objects with which they are most intimately connected by business pursuits. Their children see more of all objects about them than their parents. How should the latter be able to guide and instruct OF THE PERCEPTIVE POWERS. 169 this faculty of minute and intelligent observation, when they have themselves lost it ? Now the excellence of these works of Hooker, Willson, and Calkins, and of others of the class, consists in this, that they suggest to parents and teachers how to observe natural objects, how to call the attention of children to their quaUties and parts, how to explain them, or cause them to ex- plain themselves. They make teaching what it ought to be, a pleasant pastime, rather than what it too often is, the hopeless drudgery of a drill- master. This is especially true of the two "Man- uals of Instruction in Object Lessons," by Pro- fessors Willson and Calkins, works which may be regarded as quite a boon to the anxious mother and to the conscientious teacher. Dr. Hooker's series, beginning with the now well-known and well-approved " Child's Book of Nature," and including a "Natural History," a " First Book in Chemistry," a Chemistry for more advanced pupils, and a " Natural Philosoi^hy," and soon to be enriched by the addition of a carefully prepared text-book of "Geology and Mineralogy" — all fully and carefully illustrated — completes a library of School and Family Text- books which is without a rival. In Dr. Hook- er's, as in the others, the labors of the teacher or parent are lightened by judicious helps, hints, and suggestions ; the instruction is conveyed in fa- 170 OBJECT TEACHING, ETC miliar language, and the aim is to satisfy the in- telligent cm'iosity of the child or youth, and teach him to observe correctly and minutely, and en- courage him to investigate the mysteries which surround him. With the help of these books, question - asking children need no longer be a "bore" and "bother," and parents as well as teachers will find it an easy pleasure to gratify and encourage the questioners, whom now they too often repress. BOOKS FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York. „ Haepee & Beothkes tvilL send any of the following Works by Mail^ postage prepaid^ to any part of the United States^ on receipt of the Price. 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A Manual for the Use of Teachers, Employers, Trustees, Inspectors, &c., &c. By Rt. Rev. Alonzo Pottee, D.D,, and George B. Emeeson, A.M. En- gravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. Strong's Harmony of the Gospels. For the Use of students and others. 12ino, Cloth, $1 50. Spencer's Greek Ne"w Testament. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25 ; Sheep extra, $1 50. Upham's Mental Philosophy. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 00; Abridged Edition, 12nio, Sheep, $1 50. Upham on the Will. 12mo, Cloth, %\ 50. Whateley's Logic. 18mo, Cloth, 75 cents. Whateley's Rhetoric. 18mo, Cloth, 75 cents. "Willson's Readers and Spellers. A Series of School and Family Readers : Designed to teach the Art of Reading in the most Simple, Natural and Practical Way; embracing in their Plan the whole Range of Natural History and the Physical Sciences ; aiming at the highest Degree of Usefulness, and splendidly Illustrated. Con- t'isting of a Primer and Seven Readers. By Maecius Willson. The Primer, and First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Readers now I'eady. Prices : Primer, 30 cents ; First Reader, 45 cents ; Second Reader, 65 cents; Thu-d Reader, $1 00 ; Fourth Reader, $150; Fifth Reader, $2 00 ; Primary Speller, 20 cents ; Larger Speller, 45 cents. Willson's Manual of Instruction in Object Les- sons, in a Course of Elementary Instruction. Adapted to the Use of the School and Family Charts, and other Aids in Teaching. 12mo, Cloth, $150. Willson's Primary Speller. A Simple and Pro- gressive Course of Lessons in Spelling, with Reading and Dictation Exer- cises, and the Elements of Oral and Written Compositions. 20 cents. Willson's Larger Speller. A Progressive Course of Lessons in Spelling, arranged according to the Principles of Orthoepy and Grammar, with Exercises in Synonyms, for Reading, Spelling, and Wri- ting ; and a new System of Definitions. By Marcius Willson. 12mo, 45 cents. WILLSON'S SCHOOL AND FAMILY SEEIES OP READERS AND SPELLERS. ALL BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED. Willson's Primer (Introductory), 12mo, 48 pages, 107 cuts. Willson's First Eeader, 12mo, 84 pages, 132 cuts. Willson's Second Reader, 12mo, 154 pages, 100 cuts. Willson's Third Reader, 12mo, 264 pages, 142 cuts. Willson's Fouth Reader, 12mo, 360 pages, 164 cuts. Willson's Fiftu Reader, 12mo, 540 pages, 208 cuts. Willson's Primary Speller, 16mo, 80 pages, 56 cuts. Willson's Larger Speller, 12mo, 168 pages, 36 cuts. The leading objects aimed at on the part of the author have been to construct a series of Readers that shall not only present the very best means and methods of teaching Reading as an Art, but which shall also contain a large amount of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. For a full description of the Plan., aims, and objects of Willson's Read- ers and Spellers, with specimen pages, notices, testimonials, &c., send for our Educational Pamphlets.^ which will be forwarded, free, on appli- cation. Willson's Primary Speller contains a simple and progressive course of lessons in Spelling, with Reading and Dictation Exercises, and the Elements of Oral and Written Compositions. Most of the Spelling Les- sons are so arranged that the meaning of the words is shown by their appropriate use in sentences. Willson's Larger Speller contains not only a progressive course of Lessons in Spelling, arranged on a new method, in accordance with the principles of Orthoepy and Grammar., but also numerous Exercises in Synonyms, for Reading, Spelling, and Writing, and a new system of Definitions. The Success of Willson's Readers. The succeis of the Plan adopted in this series is unprecedented in the hiitory of School-book Literature. Although it is now (January, 18!!5) 2 Willso7i^s Series of Headers and Spellers. but little more than four years since the early numbers of Willson's Readers were first published, yet these new books have already attained a sale second to only two (at most) of the old series of Readers. They have already been officially adopted by many of our principal cities, by great numbers of Town and County Boards of Education, and by several entire Statep; while they are otherwise known and used throughout the whole country. In Preparation. An Intermediate Second Reader. An Intermediate Third Reader. These seem to be required, as Intermediate Readers^ especially in the Public Schools of many of our cities, where the grades of Reading Classes are more numerous than in most country schools. While these additions to the series — intermediate in gradation be- tween the present Second and Third, and Third and Fourth Readers — will keep prominently in view the general aims and objects of the regu- lar series, they will present an unusual number of pieces adapted to the greatest variety of useful rhetorical exercises. I. State Adoptions. In March, 1863, the State of Indiana officially adopted Willson'a Readers. The State Board of Education, consisting of the Secretary of State, Auditor, State Treasurer, Attorney-General, and the Superintend- ent of Public Instruction, say : " The books and charts of the School and Family Series, by Marcius Will son, and published by Harper & Brothers, are decided improve- ments in the line of Educational Agencies. They are new in pfan, and new in the application of Natural Principles to the art of instruction ; and they differ widely from all other Charts and Readers in use in our schools. But new though they are, they have been fairly and exten- sively tested in a large number of the best-conducted schools of the country with highly satisfactory results. The several books of the Se- ries of Readers are not only appropriately graded, and happily adapted to the progress of the pupil in the art of reading, but they introduce to him the Natural Sciences in so elementary and pleasing a way, that their principles, many of their details, and a tolerable knowledge of their ap- plication to the affairs of life, are acquired while learning to read. The manner in which the whole is presented is as interesting as the matter is instructive and profitable." In May, of the same year, the State of Kansas officially adopted them. The following is from the published Report of Hon. Isaac T. Goodnow, State Superintendent of Public Instruction : Willson^s Series of Readers and Spellers. 3 " Willson's Readers have been substituted for M'Guffey's. This is a change eminently fit to be made. The series stands head and shoulders above all others. To examine these Readers is to be convinced. "While they possess all the excellences of other Readers, they contain, in the most attractive form, a synopsis of Literature and Science, illus- trated in Harper's best style with beautiful engravings, Avhich present to the eye, on the Object System, the subjects of the lessons. The Nat- ural Sciences, divested of technicalities, enlivened by incident and anec- dote, and adorned by poetic selections, are here presented in a new and attractive light." In a late Report Mr. Goodnow says, of the introduction of Willson'tj Readei"s, " Sever has a change met with a more hearty approval." In May, of the same year, the State of California officially adopted them. First, the State Teachers' Association recommended them to the State Board, by the following vote: For Willson's Reader's, 115 votes; for Sargent's, 13 ; for Parker & Watson's, 4. The State Board, of which the Governor of the State is President, and the State Superintendent is Secretary, then unanimously adopted them. The State Superintendent says, in his recently-published Report : *' No other books adopted are destined to icork so radical a change for the better, in methods of instruction, as Willsoji's Readers. They are, in my opinion, the most valuable books that can be placed in the hands of our school-children." ■ The California Teacher of July, 1864, says: "Willson's Readers and Speller have been adopted in all the Public Schools of San Francisco, su- supersediug Sargent's. Willson's Readers are now in use in all the schools of the State, with the exception of Sacramento and Stockton." In April, 1864, Willson's Readers were officially adopted for the Tee- EITOEY OF L'TaH. Among the larger cities and towns which have already officially adopt- ed them (several exclusively) for use in their Public Schools, are Neio York, Brooklyn, Rochester: Waterbury, Litchfield, Xeio Britain, Con- necticut : Deerfield, Groton, Edgartown, East Needham, Cambridge^, Massachusetts: Nei02)ort, Rhode Island: Philadelphia, Harrisburg : Baltimore, Hagerstown, Maryland : Wilmington : New Brunsivick, Plainfield, Hudson City, Pater son. New Jersey: Galesburg, Pekin, CarrolUon, Ottawa, Lacon, Illinois : Circleville, Salem, Lebanon, Ohio : Jnnpsville, Beloit, Wisconsin: St. Clair. Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, Battle Creek, Sheboygan Falls, Michigan: Lidianapolis, Lafayette, Willson''s Series of Headers and Spellers. Union City, Indiana : Council Bluffs, Iowa : St. Paul, Minnesota ; Memphis, Tennessee: Leavenworth., Kansas: San Francisco-, Califor- nia, &c., &c., &c. II. Notices from the Public Press, Reviews, &c. From many hundreds we select the following : In their wonderful variety, the large amount of practical instruction conveyed, and the useful knowledge embodied in them, these volumes surpass all others we have seen. — New York Observer. We earnestly recommend parents and teachers to adopt Willson' s Se- ries of Readers. — New York Independent. The Series is excellent in aim and admirable in execution. It de- serves to become a favorite in the school and in the family. — New York Evangelist. These volumes are the best works of the kind we have ever seen. — Willis's Home Journal. This is the most valuable series of school-books, in our opinion, that has yet been published Buffalo Express. The Harpers liave never produced any better books than this Series of School and Family Readers. — Philadelphia Press. As a series we prefer them to any we have yet seen. — New Hampshire Patriot. We have never examined a set of school books with so much satisfac- tion as this series of Mr. Willson — Lutheran Observer (Baltimore). The best works of the kind that have ever fallen under our notice. — Baltimore American. They evince the most thorough success of the author in the attain- ment of his object -Morning Pennsylvanian. The child who finds these attractive school-books dull will be a dunce to the end of time Worcester Daily /Spy. Here we have the most beautiful Series of Readers, we suppose, that the world ever saw. — Methodist Quarterly Reviciv. The plan is one that combines peculiar attractions for the young pupil with solid and valuable instruction. — New York Tribune. A series of school books of exceeding value. — Albany Evening Stand- ard. These Readers are unsurpassed in the whole range of elementary works of instruction in the English langunge Newark Daily Advertiser (New Jersey). This series of Readers is a realization of our ideal of school books. — Kennebec Journal (Maine). These Readers impress us as having unusual claims upon all who are engaged in the work of elementary instruction. — Christian Witness. WiUson'^s Series of Readers and Spellers. 5 We think these Readers are a decided improvement upon any hitherto issued Central Christian Herald Cincinnati). They contain the two essential elements which such books should pos- sess, viz., that while they instruct they amuse, and they instruct all the more because they amuse — New England Partner. By far the most attractive and complete system of School Readers ever oflfered to the American public. — Western Christian Advocate (Cincin- nati). This series is the most complete and satisfactoiy of any which has ever met our notice. — Xew Haven Daily Journal. As books designed to teach children the art of reading, we believe them to be far in advance of any other Readers — Baltimore Christian Advo- cate. In the first volumes of the Series the selections are specially designed to promote naturalness of intonation ; and it is almost impossible for the child to read them in that dry, measured, artificial manner which is so common. — American Quarterly Church Review. The pictures in these books are really illustrations of the reading les- sons, and not mere pictures. — Bethlehem, Advocate (Pennsylvania). The best adapted to their purpose of all the school reading-books that we have ever seen Salem Register (Massachusetts). An admirable Series, aiming not only to instruct in the noble Art of Reading well, but at the same time imparting a great amount of useful knowledge. — American Theological Review. Although heartily opposed to the innovations and revolutions in school books, which entail a new set at the commencement of every quar- ter, we commend the introduction of this Series of Readers into every school in the land, and an auto-da-fe of all previous ones, with total dis- regard to their cost. — Xew York Times. We unhesitatingly pronounce Willson's Readers the best books of the kind ever issued. — Muscatine Journal (Iowa). We consider Willson's Readers to be eminently superior to any other Series of Readers with which we are acquainted Des Moines Register (Iowa). III. Notices from Educational Journals. An admirable series of Readers. We see nothing to stand in the way of a great success — Maine Teacher. These Readers combine more of the essential requisites of utility in this department of instruction, than has been attained by any other au- thor with whom we are acquainted. — Massachusetts Teacher. Willson's Fifth Reader is fully as satisfactory as the others. Its elo- cutionary matter is excellent in character and sufficient in amount, and there is no want of variety in the style of the selections. — Xew Hamp- shire Journal of Education. 6 Willson's Series of Headers and Spellers. These books are got up with a view to their usefulness. They may well find a place at the fireside, as well as in the school-room. If teach- ers will examine them they will be satisfied of their great merits Rhode Island Schoolmaster. This is the first attempt to bring the elements of the sciences into a systematic series of reading lessons ; and we are free to confess that we are agreeably disappointed. The attempt has been a success. — ^'ew York Teacher. The plan and design of these books are admirable. — Pennsylvania School Journal. Other School Readers remain on the shelf undisturbed by our chiU dren, but these have been read with great interest by all of them The Educator (Pennsylvania). There is every thing to recommend these Readers. They have met with so cordial a reception from the public that their success is demon- strated beyond question Indiana School Journal. We have always abstained from commending any series of Readers as the best ; but we confess ourselves sorely tempted, by this series of Read- ers, to abandon that ground. — Illinois Teacher. Mr. Willson has wrought out his plan with eminent skill and judg- ment — Michigan Journal of Educatioii. Willson's Readers have an idea in them, which we have often won- dered has never been attempted before. The idea is most excellent, and, if successfully carried out according to the plan proposed, will ef- fect a revolution in this department of school literature. — Iowa School Journal. He who reads these books as they should be read, will not only have acquired the art of good reading^ but will have collected a large fund of useful knowledge. — Iowa Instructor. When our attention was first called to the plan of these Readers, our mind was full of skepticism; but a careful examination of the books destroyed all our unbelief. Even the Natural History portions are so enlivened with description, incident, anecdote, and poetry, that we can not conceive of any thing more charming in the way of reading lessons. — Missouri Educator. IV. Testimonials from Educators. I find a greater variety of interesting selections in these Readers than I have ever met with in any or all other series. — Prof. A. P. Stone, Principal of Plymouth High School, Massachusetts, and late President American Institute of Instruction. I shall earnestly recommend the Series as the best in the world. — Rev. Charles Ayeb, Principal High School, Brunsmck, Maine. Wlllson^s Series of Headers and Spellers. 7 They are the best Readers extant. I hope the time is not far distant when they will be used in all our schools. — H. F. Howaed, Princijial Normal School, N. Bridgeton, Maine. I am prepared to approve the Readers in full, and to labor for their adoption here and elsewhere ^\V, J. Rolfe, Principal High School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. They combine, in a happy manner, all that is necessary in Element- ary Instruction in Reading, with systematic instruction in Natural Sci- ence. — Hon. David N. Camp, Superintendent Public Instruction of Comiecticut. These Readers will do more than any others to excite in the minds of children that interest in study and that love of nature which are so essential to the right development of character, — J. B. Chapin, State School Commissioner of Rhode Island. I think this Series of Readers leaves nothing to be desired, either in respect to manner, matter, mode of treatment, or mechanical execution. — Prof. \Vm. F. Phelps, late Principal Normal School, Neiv York., and noio Principal of State Normal School of Minnesota. I regard Willson's Readers as better than any others that I have ever seen Daniel Holbeooe, late Superintendent Public Schools of Roch- ester., Neio York. A beautiful and inviting series. Children will soon settle the ques- tion of their use for themselves, if the opportunity be offered them Hon. Heney C. Hickok, late Superintendent of Schools of the State of Pennsylvania. The Plan of Willson's Readers possesses characteristics of great value. — Hon. Ansox Smyth, late State School Commissioner of Ohio. As much as I like the mechanical execution of Willson's Readers, it is as nothing when compared to their Plan and development. How much more useful men and women our pupils will make when they are in- structed on the plan which the artist and author have so ably developed in these books ! The principle in the School and Family Charts is the same as in the Readers Daniel Hough, late Principal of First Ward School of Cincinnati. These are remarkable books of their kind. They raise an important educational problem, namely: Can skill in reading and knowledge in the physical sciences be successfully acquired at the same time? If practice shall answer this affirmatively, these books, in my judgment, stand without a rival Prof. G. W. Hoss, State Superintendent of Puh- lic Instruction of Indiana. The plan of Willson's Readers is a novel one, and has been executed with a master's hand Prof. J. V. N. Standish, Lombard University, Galesbury, Illinois. Preferring Willson's Readers above all others with which we are ac- 8 Willsori's /Series of Headers and Spellers. quainted, we cordially recommend that they be introduced into the schools of our respective counties. Wm. M. Beooks, Swp. of Tremo7it Co.-^ and Prill, of Tabor Lit. Inst., J. R. Little, Sup. of Mills Co.., J. A. Woods, Sup. of Page Co., v r t E. S. Hughes, Sup. of Jefferson Co., ' Rev. D. V. Smock, Sup. of Keokuk Co., J. Root, Jr., Sup. of Iowa Co., E. F. Ripley, Sup. of Hardin Co., For hundreds of similar testimonials send for our Educational Pam- phlets, which will be sent free on application. A SERIES OF COLORED SCHOOL AND FAMILY CHARTS, BY MAKCIUS WILL80N AND N. A. CALKINS. An accompanying MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION, BY MAKOIUS WILLBON. These beautiful charts, twenty-two in number, each about 22 by 30 inches, maybe had either in sheets or mounted on eleven pasteboard cards. Notices, Testimonials, &c. The most extensive and perfect series of School Charts published in this country. — Massachusetts Teacher. Send for these Charts and use them. If you do, our Avord for it, you will bless us for penning these lines. — Rhode Island Schoolmaster. We should be glad to see these Charts in every school-house in the land Connecticut School Journal. The most attractive and beautiful School Charts ever published. — Maine Teacher. We have seen nothing in the shape of School Charts so beautiful and valuable as these Ohio Educational Monthly. Willso?i's Series of' Readers and Spellers. 9 A school-room with these twenty-two Charts suspended on its walls is converted from what is too often a prison of dreariness to a picture-gal- lery of childish delights Indiana School Journal. There has been nothing published in the educational line for years that, to our mind, is such a means of conveying knowledge as these Charts and the Manual that accompanies them. — Iowa Instructor. Willson's Manual is the truest American expression of the principles of Pestalozzi that has yet been made. Mr. Willson is legitimately car- rying out, in this Manual and the accompanying Charts, the basis of his admirable system of School Readers. — New York Teacher. Willson's Manual is admirably suited to the object for which it has been prepared. The Charts are the most complete and beautiful ever published. — W. H. Wells, Superinteyidt 7it of Public Schools, Chicago. I highly approve of tlie design and execution of the School and Family Charts, and the accompanying Manual. — S. S. Randall, Superintend- ent of Public Instruction, Xeio York city. I am delighted with the "School and Family Charts," and the accom- panying ''Manual." I design to make tlie Charts the basis of my talk on Object Lessons at the Educational Conventions which I am holding. — E. P. Weston, Superintendent of Schools of Maine. I am happy to express my hearty approval of the plan of the works and of its execution — David N. Camp, Superintendent of Public Schools of Connecticut, and Princi2ial of State Normal School. The "School and Family Charts" have been in use in the Normal School of New Jersey and its branches for several weeks. They are al- ready regarded by our primary teachers as a necessity. — W. F. Phelps, Princix)al of Neio Jersey State Normal School. In the preparation of these Charts and Manual you have done a great and good work for the cause of school and home education in America. — Prof. J. L. Teacy, Assistant Superinteiident of Public Schools of Mis- souri. I am myself so well pleased with the Charts and Manual that I shall use them constantly in my own family. — Edwakd Richards, Principal of Illinois State Normal School. In my opinion these Charts are the most valuable contribution that has ever been made to the cause of education in our country. — ]Mose8 Ingalls, Agent of Iowa State Teachers' Association. I think Willson's Manual the best thing on Primary Instruction that has yet appeared in this country Samuel P. Bates, Deputy Superin- tendent of Common Schools of Pennsylvania. We could not well do without them. They should be in every school in the country J. V. Montgomeey, Principal of Pennsylvania State Model School. Every one is delighted with the School and Family Charts. No such charts have ever before been published in any country Geoege W. Minns, Pincipal of Normal School, Sa7i Franciseo, 10 Willsoji^s Series of Headers mid S2:>ellers. The Charts are the loonder of the age in this department. Both edit- ors and publishers have executed their parts nobly W. E. Sheldon, Principal of Public Schools, West Newton, Massachtisetts. Their publication marks an important step in the progress of Object Teaching in this country. — Rev. B. G. Noetheop, State Agent of Mas- sachusetts Board of Education. These Charts surpass my highest expectations. — D. Feanklin Wells, Professor of Theory and Practice of Teaching, State University of Iowa. We are delighted with your School and Family Chartri. — John Swett, Superintendent of Public Schools of California. PRIMARY OBJECT LESSONS. Primary Object Lessons for a Graduated Course of Develop- ment. A manual for Teachers and Parents, with Les- sons for the Proper Training of the Faculties of Children. By N. A. Calkins. Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth. The fundamental idea of this work is that primary education should aim to develop the observing powers, rather than, as is the usual plan, to exei'cise the memory. For this purpose a series of interesting exei'- cises has been framed to develop the ideas of form, color, number, size, weight, sound, and place. "The work," says an eminent educator, "meets fully the demand that is now made for guides to teachers in properly directing the minds of children. There has been much written on the subject, and many attempts at systematizing, but we have not seen any thing so well adapted to suggest to teachers a practical course of training for our schools as the work before us." MANUAL OF OBJECT LESSONS. Manual of Object Lessons and Elementary Instruction. By N. A. Calkins, Author of " Primary Object Les- sons." Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth. (Nearly Heady.) GERMAN SERIES OP SCHOOL AND FAMILY READERS. THE SECOND BOOK OF NATURE. Translated from Willson's Readers by G. Bremen. Pages 445. Illustrated by 318 Engravings. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 842 994 6 *''' jpiiiili w^iiiiliiii w}.>