ARITHMETIC cultivates the reasoning powers, and induces habits of exactness and order.

GRAMMAR cultivates the faculties of abstraction and

reason.

GEOGRAPHY specially cultivates the memory and the conceptive faculties.

MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY cultivate the reasoning powers chiefly in relation to the acquisition of necessary truths; they also cultivate habits of abstraction.

THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES exercise the observing and perceptive faculties, cultivate all the reasoning powers in the highest degree, and lead us to appreciate the force of moral evidence. If properly taught, they also foster the sentiment of devotion.

POETRY AND WORKS OF FICTION specially cultivate the imagination, the taste, and the moral feelings.

BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND NARRATIVES specially awaken the faculty of attention, and cultivate the memory. They also exercise the moral affections, and lead to the formation of habits of reflection and self-inquiry.

MUSIC cultivates the taste, and refines and elevates the moral feelings.

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY cultivate all the higher faculties of our nature, and induce habits of abstraction and self-examination.

PART III.

ON THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION.

THE systems of instruction, at present in use, are— - the individual system; the collective system; the monitorial, or pupil-teacher system; and the system of home instruction.

These systems may be carried out on any of the plans or methods of giving instruction which we have described. The most important of these methods are as follows-The synthetic and analytic methods, which may be either demonstrative or dogmatic; the interrogative, or catechetical method; the simultaneous method, which may be employed in the ordinary form of questioning, or in connection with the elliptical method; the lecturing method.

SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION.

I. THE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE SYSTEMS.

The individual system may be used with advantage in small schools, especially if it be occasionally associated with collective teaching, and in constant co-operation with the system of home instruction. By the individual system of teaching, the master is more fully able to adapt his instruction to the peculiar capabilities of his pupils; at the same time, it is not so much calculated to engage their sympathies, or to arouse the principle of emulation, as collective teaching. Individual teaching may be conducted after any of the leading methods or forms of communicating knowledge, that is to say, it may be either synthetic or analytic, demonstrative or dogmatic, lecturing or catechetical, &c. If the upper classes of a school are well supplied with good text-books, individual instruction becomes very effective, when it is associated

with self-instruction. In this case, the master has merely to give an occasional glance at the work of each pupil, and to give him, time after time, such hints as may be required to stimulate him in proceeding with his work. Individual instruction, as it is practised in most of our Scottish schools, is merely supplemental to the system of home education. Here the parents are the real instructors, and the master merely directs, controls, or tests the progress of his pupils, who are to get up their lessons, tasks, &c., under the parental authority.

But, whatever may be the advantages of individual instruction, it is utterly impracticable, as a general system, in the common schools of this country. An easy process of arithmetic will show that a master of a school, containing one hundred and twenty children, could not give more than five minutes' individual attention to each boy in the course of a day! So that, after all, we have not to consider the abstract question,—whether the individual or the collective system is the best; but which of the two systems, under existing circumstances, is best calculated TO GIVE THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF INSTRUCTION TO THE GREATEST NUMBER IN A LIMITED TIME.

A

modern teacher shows his tact and skill by multiplying and subdividing his power, and by acting on numbers at once. The great point to be considered, in the management of a large school, is, not how you may rapidly advance a few scholars, but how you should classify, arrange, and instruct a large number of boys, differing in age, knowledge, and capacity, so as to give the greatest amount of instruction to them, as a whole. A master, who is skilful in the management of numbers, and who has practised the collective system, may teach a hundred boys at one time, on certain subjects, adapted for gallery lessons, as efficiently as he could teach one boy and with a proper arrangement of classes, and a large black board, he could give more efficient instruction to a class of twenty or thirty boys, on almost any subject of education, than he could give in the same time to a single pupil. A good teacher always seeks to employ his energies to the greatest advantage: he rarely, if ever, wastes his

strength upon one or two boys; what he does for the benefit of one boy, he does it in such a way as to conduce to the benefit of his whole class. While he teaches his own class, he, at the same time, directs the movements of half a dozen contiguous classes, placed under the management of his monitors or pupil-teachers. The motive power of the master is everywhere performing available work: amid the wear and tear of his various avocations, he economises the expenditure of his labour, by constantly keeping in view the principle of acting with the greatest efficiency on the greatest possible number. Like the machine, which drives a hundred spindles, weaves cloth, blows furnaces, &c., he never departs from the great end of his labour, or, for one moment, relaxes his directing and all-controlling power. But all this requires great skill, energy, decision, and conscientious perseverance. The modern schoolmaster holds no sinecure's place.

The collective system of teaching should never be employed in schools where the pupils are not properly classified. The pupils, to whom a collective lesson is given, should be nearly about the same stage of mental culture.

II. HOME EDUCATION.

We have already shown, that the master of a family is God's vicegerent, in relation to the education of all the members of his household; and that every good teacher will act in co-operation with a proper system of home instruction. The school subjects most eligible for home study, are,—religious knowledge, writing, drawing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and reading lessons. Those subjects are best adapted for home exercises which admit of being exactly defined, and of being readily tested: boys work the most industriously when they can see the results of their labour. Hence it is, that drawing and arithmetic are the best of all subjects for home study. Drawing cards should be given to the pupils to be copied at home; and exercises on arithmetic, grammar, geography, &c., should be given them out of text-books, which they should be allowed to take home with them.

The master should always have a certain time set apart for reviewing and correcting these home exercises: with a proper system of management, a few minutes every morning would suffice; and occasional hints should be, time after time, given to the parents, relative to their duties in carrying out the system of home instruction. Such a course would not be without its influence on the character of the parents themselves.

We suggest the following, as a routine of home lessons, for the upper classes in an elementary school:

III. THE PUPIL-TEACHER SYSTEM.

We regard the pupil-teacher system as one of the greatest improvements which have taken place in modern education. No school, whatever may be its character, should be without pupil-teachers. The advantages of the system are two-fold :—(1) It constitutes the best nursery for schoolmasters. (2) It forms the great element of the order and organisation of a large school, and gives power and efficiency to the whole system of instruction.

The pupil-teacher should be adequately paid, and the master should always set apart a certain time for their special instruction, not only in the ordinary subjects of technical learning, but also on the subject of method, as applied to education. The master should register the progress which they make in the different subjects of instruction, and he should especially note down the manner