II. CONVERSATIONS ON OBJECTS.

▲ PRACTICAL COURSE OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN LANGUAGE, AND FOR MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.

CONVERSATIONS ON OBJECTS-Commencing with the earliest indi cations of the infant faculties, and proportioned to the progressive development of reason which varies in different individuals, will be found not only to be an excellent substitute for the irksome and mechanical processes of almost all our elementary schools, but the best vehicle of diversified knowledge and the ground-work of mental discipline, while it is introducing children to a practical acquaintance with their native tongue. We shall adopt in the discussion of this subject a chapter from C. Marcel's admirable treatise on Language.*

Although the order in which the various conversations on objects have been introduced may be modified according to circumstances, it must not be regarded as altogether a matter of indifference; for we have endeavored to conform to that which nature follows in gradually. inuring the mind to habits of investigation. She imperatively enjoins that the first efforts of the child should be directed to the improvement of those powers by which he may form clear and correct notions of things. He should therefore be made to pass progressively through the exercises in perception, observation, reflection, and reasoning.

Another rule which should be strictly adhered to is, that, whenever a topic, an exercise, or a branch of information, acknowledged to be useful, has been entered upon, it should be occasionally repeated, until the children have a clear insight into the subject brought before them, or until the object proposed from it has been attained. It should also be borne in mind that the following course, although intended as a preparation for the scholastic instruction of boys, is equally suitable to girls; for, until the age of twelve, the intellectual education should be the same.

SECT. I.-EXERCISES IN PERCEPTION.

1. Names of objects, their Parts, Matter, and Color.

From the moment that a child articulates distinctly, various famil*"Language as a Means of Mental Culture."—London. 2 vols.

iar objects should be offered to his notice, and their use explained; their names being, at the same time, clearly uttered for him, he should be made to repeat them slowly and aloud. But he must not be forced into premature efforts to speak, lest he should acquire habits of indistinct and defective utterance. Premature walking is not more injurious to the organs of motion than is premature speaking to the vocal organs. In order also to guard against fatiguing him by a dry repetition of words, the instructor should enliven the exercise by making, in plain language and in a playful manner, some simple observations on the nature and use of the things which he is called upon to

name.

This exercise should, at first, be limited to a few objects at one time, and the same things should be repeatedly presented to him associated with their names, until he perfectly knows these names. His vocabulary should be gradually extended by the introduction of new objects which he is made to observe and name, such as articles of dress, food, furniture, every thing which he can hold in his hand, or which may be seen either from the window or out of doors. This mode of proceeding will soon put a young child in possession of a considerable number of useful nouns. It is a triple exercise in perception, articulation, and memory, which must, from the variety of objects and the movement required in passing from one to the other, be more interesting to the child, as it certainly is more profitable at this age, than the ordinary practices of conning for months over the same six-and-twenty, to him, unmeaning letters, reading nonsensical trash, or learning by rote the unconnected words of a spelling-book or dictionary.

As the child's intellect opens and becomes capable of examining objects minutely, of distinguishing their resemblances and differences, of noticing their parts, their matter, their color, their form, and their number, his attention should be successively directed to all these points. Thus will his mind be early brought in contact with the external world, and be duly exercised by ascribing to every object of sense its qualities and peculiar condition. He will also easily remember the words, when the ideas they signify are once clearly apprehended. A correct acquaintance with the meaning and application of words must not be deemed a matter of little moment in the first years of life. If we consider the disastrous results to which ignorance on these points has led, and the inconvenience which often arises to the best educated among us from this single source, we shall find that time well employed, which is devoted to securing a knowledge of the meaning of words. This practical instruction may be

commenced with the second period of youth-at the age of six. Curiosity and the perceptive powers being then in full activity, the child's attention may be easily cultivated through them, and a spirit of observation, analysis, and comparison, the foundation of a correct judg ment, be early fostered.

The first inquiry to be made in the examination of an object consists in ascertaining the parts of which it is composed. These are sometimes so minute that considerable attention is requisite to discern them all. So important is this inquiry, that an acquaintance, for example, with all the parts of a plant, and with their forms and colors, constitutes the knowledge of its botanic character, and involves a considerable portion of the botanic technology. The child must be shown bow all the parts of an object are connected, how they harmonize, and how far each is indispensable to the completion and pleasing effect of the whole: thus will he be accustomed to discriminate what is principal from what is accessory, what is useful from what is merely ornamental.

By attending to the matter of which the object and its parts are composed, the child will learn how to distinguish animal, vegetable, and minerable substances; he will form clear ideas of what is natural and artificial, simple and compound, native aud foreign, indigenous and exotic.

The next consideration will be that of color: this beautiful property of matter, diffused over all the works of nature and art, will, by the infinite variety of its shades and combinations, offer to the visual faculty an endless means of exercise. Accuracy of perception in reference to it will prove useful for various branches of knowledge and pursuits in life. A due attention to the diversity of colors, to the proportion of parts, and to the gracefulness of forms, considered as the elements of beauty, will sow the seeds of taste.

An acquaintance with colors can be very early imparted to a child. To enable him the better to distinguish them and recollect their names, the instructor should be provided with a tabular illustration of their prismatic order; he should, first, point out to him the primitive colors, red, yellow, and blue, then the three intervening compound colors, orange, green, and violet; and, afterwards, their various shades, from the lightest to the deepest hue. Glasses of different colors, placed by pairs one over the other, would afford him the means of perceiving the effect of the mixture of colors. He may be shown that white is the color of light, or the blending of the prismatic colors, and that black is the absence of them. As all imagin. able shades of color can be produced by a diversified mixture of red,

yellow, blue, white, and black, the child may be exercised in discovering which of these elements prevails in any corapound color presented to his sight.

2. Numbers; Ball-Frame.

The elements of arithmetic may enter as part of the exercises of this early period: the practical nature of its first rules is well suited to the understanding of children. Relations of number and arithmetical calculations are also, from their simplicity and mathematical accuracy, admirably adapted to the training of the young mind to habits of attention and reasoning. But, before a child is exercised in mental calculation, which at this early period might overtask his reflective powers, and before he is taught the numerical figures, which are signs of abstract ideas, he should be accustomed to associate the numerical adjectives with the names of objects which admit of computation; for these adjectives, when used by themselves, being mere abstractions can not impart clear and correct notions of number. A variety of similar things should be employed, particularly the current coins of the country, counters, cards, inch square, or cubic blocks, which, by gradual addition and subtraction of units and groups, would teach the value and relation of numbers as also the fundamental rules of arithmetic; he should be taught to express in numbers the dimensions of objects by applying to them a unit of measure, the inch or foot, as the case may require. When the child has frequently associated real objects with the ideas of number, the numerical names and figures will easily pass in his mind from the concrete to the abstract state.

The ball-frame, consisting of one hundred sliding balls on ten horizontal parallel rods, may, in the hands of a skillful instructor, not only assist in explaining the numeration, that is, the formation and names of numbers, but also serve to teach how to solve readily the elementary questions of addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. If the balls be of two contrasting colors and strung alternately, the eye will be pleased, attention captivated, and calculations considerably facilitated. With this frame a child can himself discover the products of the multiplication of any two factors under ten; he sees that these factors can be inverted, that multiplication is only an abbreviated form of addition, and thereby clearly understands the principles of this operation. The mental act, also, by which he finds out these products will enable him to recollect them better than the absurd mechanical parroting of the multiplication-table.

This frame is not a late invention, as may be seen in Friend's work on Arithmetic, published fifty years ago; it has been used for a long

time in the primary schools of France and Germany. It must not be confounded with the abacus of the ancients, in which one line of beads or balls was made to stand for units, the next for tens, another for hundreds, and so on. But, although the abacus was originally intended for casting up accounts, it might also prove useful in teaching the first principles of arithmetic. The Russians and the Chinese have, from time immemorial, performed calculations by means of such frames; but that of the latter, called shwan-pan, differs from the one adverted to here by its having only five beads on each wire, the relative values of which are distinguished by their size and color.

The one hundred ball-frame is preferable to that which is composed of 144 balls, and is adopted in many infant schools in this country, inasmuch as it answers all the purposes of calculation, and besides clearly illustrates the principle of the decimal system, since the relation of units to tens and hundreds is observable through all combinations and computations. It is a matter of great importance that a child should in his first conception of number perceive the simple and beautiful arrangement by which a place is assigned to the different powers of ten that compose any number. In fact, a knowl-` edge thus acquired of the composition of numbers leads to a rapid understanding of the mode of representing them by numerical figures. To effect this last object, pasteboard, wood, or brass figures would be found more convenient and more interesting to a young child than writing on paper or slate.

At a more advanced age, toward the end of the second period, he should be exercised in mental calculation, passing very gradually from simple to complex operations. This exercise, which admits of endless variety, accomplishes several objects: it brings into action the reflective and recollective powers; it disciplines the understanding in exact reasoning; and gives habits of calculation, such as the daily transactions of life require. But not only is arithmetical expertness useful in the practical business of life, it is also indispensable as the basis of all real progress in the mathematical and experimental sciences, in which the learner has constant need of applying the rules and performing the operations of arithmetic.

3. Fractional Numbers; Fractional Apparatus.

When a child has a clear idea of numeration and of the elementary rules in whole numbers, he may be initiated into the first notions of fractional arithmetic. These notions, intricate as they are, when taught abstractedly through the fractional notation, become extremely simple and intelligible, even at a very tender age, when explained by