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try and recollect something that is transparent. C. Water. T. If I were to let this glass fall, or you were to throw a ball at the window, what would be the consequence? C. The glass would be broken. It is brittle. T. Could I in the same manner break the shutters? C. No. T. Could I break it if I used great force? C. Yes. T. Would you therefore call the wood brittle? C. No. T. What substances then do you call brittle? C. Those which are easily broken."

These are probably as many qualities as would occur to children at their first attempt, which, being arranged on the slate or board, form an exercise in spelling. They should then be effaced, and if the pupils are able to write, they may endeavour to remember the lesson, and put it down on their slates. Various other qualities of glass might afterwards be described to the pupils, particularly its power of forming images and magnifying objects, when ground into convex lenses, and combined in telescopes and microscopes, which unfold to our view the wonders of the heavens, and the minute parts of creation. The chief business of a teacher, in such exercises, is, to draw out the ideas of children, to direct them in a right channel, to teach them to fix their attention on what is immediately before them, and to employ their reasoning powers in drawing the proper conclusions from the objects they contemplate. Contrary to the almost universally prevailing practice, the idea of any object should generally precede the term by which it is designated; so that a child having acquired a clear conception of an object, may feel the want of a term or terms by which its nature or qualities may at any time be expressed, and be enabled, on every occasion, to associate the one with the other.

SECTION II.-Writing and Composition.

On this branch of education, I shall offer only a few general remarks, in addition to those formerly stated.-Writing is an art of the greatest utility and importance, and to which children should be accustomed at an early period of their lives. In the first instance, they may be taught to write on a slate, with a slate-pencil, which they may be taught to hold in the same way as we hold a goose-quill or a steel-pen. Instead of beginning with straight lines and parts of letters, they might at once begin either with complete letters or short words, which should seldom be made of a larger size than half text, as in the actual business of life there is seldom occasion for writing a large text-hand. Mr. Buchanan (a gentleman who has been long a successful teacher in Greenock, and the author of several useful publications) lately showed me a plan he had recently introduced to facilitate the

forming of letters, when a child is set to write on a slate. The method is as follows:-Slates are prepared, as in the following figure, with the letters, a, b, c, &c. indented on the left-hand side.

The pupil works his pointed slate-pencil several times throughout the indentings of each letter, and, after he has become familiar with its slopes and curves, and acquires the movements requisite to form the letter, he tries to write a number of the same letters in succession, on the line drawn on the slate immediately opposite. Mr. Buchanan has found this plan greatly to facilitate the accurate formation of the letters, in the first attempts of children to write on slates; and it certainly deserves a fair trial in other seminaries. Short words might be indented in the same manner; and when the pupil is at a loss as to the formation and the joinings of the different letters, he may recur to the indented model, and by following with his pencil its turnings and windings, three or four times in succession, he will soon be enabled to form the word on his slate.

On a principle somewhat similar, a child may be taught to write with ink upon paper, by setting before him a piece of good writing made with a red pencil, and making him pass and repass over all the strokes and curves with a pen full of black ink.-In Professor Jacotot's system of education-instead of commencing with elementary lines, curves, and letters, in what is called texthand-a complete sentence, written by the master, or engraved in small hand, is put before the eyes of the pupil, which he is directed to copy. He writes, as well as he can, the first word— suppose The; and no further progress must be made, till, by an attentive comparison of his own performance with the original

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nearly twenty-five thousand miles before we could go quite round it.' "The Atlantic ocean lies between Europe and America, and it is three thousand miles broad." "Africa is a very hot country, and there are great numbers of people living in it whose skin is entirely black. "China is the most populous empire in the world: it contains about three hundred millions of inhabitants. The whole world contains above eight hundred millions." "The moon is two thousand one hundred and sixty miles in diameter; and is two hundred and forty thousand miles distant from the earth." "The sun is ninety-five millions of miles distant; and is more than twelve hundred thousand times larger than the whole earth." "The air, or atmosphere, presses upon every square yard of the earth's surface with a force equal to more than nineteen thousand pounds." "The river Amazons is three thousand miles long, and is the largest river on the globe," &c.

A sentence or two of this description might be given to a whole class of writers, to be copied several times over; and after the class has finished the writing, the fact, or sentiment contained in the sentence might be explained and illustrated. By this means, a number of useful facts and practical rules of conduct might be gradually communicated to the youthful mind; and, being noted down in the pupil's copy-book, they might be reperused and referred to on any future occasion. Perhaps it might not be inexpedient to classify a number of fundamental truths, facts, and aphorisms, under such heads as the following-Religious, Moral, Geographical, Historical, Astronomical, Chemical, Optical, Botanical, &c. allotting two or three pages of the copy-book for each department. The above suggestion proceeds on the principle, that in every department of study, an opportunity should be taken of imparting some new and useful truth to the understanding of the young, or impressing some moral lesson upon the

heart.

As soon as the pupil is able to handle the pen with some de-, gree of dexterity, he should be accustomed to write forms of letters, narratives, essays, or real epistolary correspondence. He may likewise, at this period, be gradually taught the art of composition. This may be effected, in the first instance, by recounting to him a striking narrative, or an interesting historical fact, and desiring him immediately to repeat it in his own style, and afterwards to write it down nearly in the same manner. After being accustomed to write, a few simple narratives, descriptions of some objects connected with natural history, or some striking moral sentiments, may be read over several times in his hearing, as exercises in composition. He may next be requested to give a narrative of any excursion he has made, either alone, or in company, and a description of the scenes he has visited, the events that occurred, and the friends by whom he was entertained. He

may also be desired to describe the rural scenery around him, and the streets, lanes, public buildings, and other remarkable objects connected with the town or village in which he resides. A stuffed bird or quadruped, an insect, a plant, flower, or any other object, might occasionally be presented to him, with a request to describe in writing, its form, parts, proportions, and properties, as they appear to his senses after a minute inspection. The apparent motion of the sun during summer might be prescribed as an exercise of this kind, in which he might be desired to describe the direction or position of the sun at 6 and 9 o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at 3, 6, and 8 o'clock in the afternoon. A description of the different phases of the moon, and of the positions in the heavens in which she appears, immediately after sunset, when she assumes the figure of a crescent, a half-moon, a gibbous phase, and a full enlightened hemisphere-might form another exercise.* Such exercises would tend to excite a spirit of observation, and to impress the mind with various facts, which would be found of immense benefit to the pupil when he should afterwards enter on the regular study of the sciences. When such exercises are prescribed to a whole class, a day and hour may be appointed, when a few of the compositions might be read by the teacher in the presence of the class. This will give him an opportunity of offering remarks on the merits of the different compositions, and of showing how the same ideas may be expressed in different language. On such occasions, orthographical and grammatical errors may be pointed out, and directions given how they may be avoided. At the same time, instructions may be given in reference to the proper use of capital letters, stops and marks, and the proper arrangement of any piece of composition into sentences and paragraphs.

The utility of such exercises will scarcely be called in question. They would habituate the young to observation and reflection— instead of looking at the objects and phenomena of nature with an unconscious gaze, they would learn to inspect them with minute

* In order to understand the object of such an exercise, it may not be improper to state, that immediately after sunset, the moon, when in a crescent phase, appears near the west or south-west quarter of the heavens, in our northern latitude-when of the figure of a half-moon, she appears near ly in the south at the same hour-when of a gibbous phase, about the southeast-and when a full moon, in the east, nearly opposite to the point of sunset, and sometimes a little to the south-east or north-east, according as she is in north or south declination. These circumstances can be easily ascertained in the course of a fortnight, and it is of some importance to a young person that he be enabled to determine them from his own observa

tions.

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