BY THE LATE REV. NATHANIEL S. PRIME, D. D.

(Continued from the October Number.)

With the illustrations that have been already given, I think you will be able to appreciate the remark which I made in commencing, that "relative topography is the only sure corner-stone of all correct and useful geographical knowledge." The communication of this should be the first and constant object aimed at by the teacher, from the time he commences till he closes his labors with every individual scholar.

It becomes, then, a question of the highest importance: How can this attainment be most readily secured? And here I remark:

1. That everything depends on a right start. truth, applicable to all subjects, that the only

It is a universal

effectual way to

prevent the mind from imbibing error, is to pre-occupy it with truth. Man's natural tendencies are all to go astray; and this is most obviously illustrated in the case before us. If, then, you would guard the child from error, in relation to the relative topography of the different parts of the world in which he lives, you must begin early enough to set up before him certain distinguishing land-marks, that shall direct his steps, and keep him from going astray in all his imaginary peregrinations over the surface of the globe.

Indeed, the first All you need is to

For this, no books or apparatus are needed. few lessons are better taught without them. teach the child, not only that he himself occupies a particular locality, but that all other places and things hold a relative position with respect to him. The starting-point of every lesson should be the place which the scholar occupies at the time; and then the direction from him which the subject of the lesson holds.

Having taught him the four cardinal points, with their relations to his face, back, right hand, and left, and that with frequent changes of position, he is prepared to make short excursions from home. But it may be that he is too young, and his views are too limited to go abroad. You may find it necessary to begin on a very small scale, and confine his attention to the room in which you are sitting. Nay, even a more limited field of ob

servation than this may be requisite.

The teacher may take a book, or a slate, or any other plain surface, and placing it on the table or the floor, and surrounding it completely on every side by other familiar objects, he begins by asking the pupil to what point of the compass his own face is, his back, his right hand, his left, and then which way the slate is from him. Then he inquires what lies on the north side of the slate; what on the east, south and west. Thus you have taught him the process of bounding a particular locality, which soon may be extended to something on a larger scale. You may take a room, or the entire building you are occupying, or the court-yard -any thing that can be taken into his eye, with the contiguous objects which surround it. By-and-by you can take a wider range, but be careful that he always keeps in mind the direction in which the object lies in respect to the place he is in.

As soon as the pupil is able to form some ideas of the extent of the earth, he should be taught its spherical form, as a mere matter of fact, and the relative position of the four quarters of the earth with respect to each other, and above all, to the place where he lives. This should be taught so carefully and assiduously, that the moment any one of them is named, his mind should instantly, and as it were spontaneously, fly in the exact direction in

Then it

which that part of the world lies from where he is. would be well to name some of the oceans, giving him their true bearing. Then a few notable capes, large cities, and other ob jects, that will serve as fixed land-marks to guide his steps, in all his mental journeys and voyages over the earth. And this lesson, which at first is best taught without the aid of globes or maps, should be given with the idea kept constantly in view that the earth is a sphere, and not a flat surface, which, on the usual mode of teaching, becomes the prominent idea in the pupil's mind.

And here it is to be borne in mind, that a correct idea of courses and distances depends much on a correct view of the sphericity of the earth. To take a single example: I have asked thousands of scholars, who have been long familiar with geography, to tell me, without looking at the map, the exact direction from the city of New York to Cape Horn, and nineteen out of twenty have invariably answered southeast or southwest, and it was not till they had taken the map, and traced the curvilinear line of longitude, that they would believe that the Cape is nearly south of this spot. And in this same connection, I have often asked, before permitting the scholars to examine the map, if they were to start from New York and travel on the same meridian up or down to Cape Horn, on which side of them, as they passed along, they would find the greater part of South America? And generally as large a proportion as in the former case have unhesitatingly answered, on my right hand, or the west side. And they would scarcely believe their own eyes, when they came to look on the map, to find that the meridian of Washington runs more than half the length of South America in the Pacific Ocean.

This common mistake arises from looking frequently on the map of South America, without the idea of the spherical form of the earth in mind. The moment you look on a globe, or even a large map of the world, you instantly discover your error. And so, also, when you use the single map of that part of the continent, and keep your eye on the curved lines of longitude.

In this connection I will endeavor to illustrate the difficulty