scarcely to be expected, and especially from those who could not read.

By this plan, then, the reader will perceive, that the way may be paved, if I may be allowed the expression, almost to insure a desire in the children to read the Bible when they are able, and by their previous knowledge of the many leading facts contained therein, it is to be hoped that most of them will understand what they read, and consequently read day after day with increased delight, until they have acquired such a love, veneration, and esteem for the sacred writings, as all the powers of evil will never be able to eradicate.

It is generally the case, that what we have always with us, becomes so familiar, that we set little store by it; but on being deprived of it for a time, we then set a greater value on it: and I have found this to be the case with the children. If the pictures we make use of in our schools be exposed all at once, and at all times, then there would be such a multiplicity of objects before the eyes of the children, that their attention would not be fixed by any of them; they would look at them all, at first, with wonder and surprise, but in a short time the pictures would cease to attract notice, and, consequently, the children would think no more of them than they would of the paper that covers the room. prevent this, and to excite a desire for information, it is always necessary to keep some behind, and to let very few objects appear at one time. When the children understand, in some measure, the subjects before them; these may be replaced by others, and so on successively, until the whole have been seen.

To

CHAPTER XIV.

ON TEACHING BY OBJECTS.

AS I have before said that it is our object to teach the children from objects in preference to books, I will mention a method we adopt for the accomplishment of this purpose. It consists of a number of boards, of which, and their use, the following description will convey an accurate idea.

The boards are about sixteen inches square and a quarter of an inch thick: wainscot is the best as it does not warp. These will go into the groove of the lesson post: there should be about twenty articles on each board, or twenty-five, just as it suits the conductors of the school; there should be the same quantity of things on each board, in order that all the children may finish at one time; this will not be the case, if there be more objects on one board than another. I will give an account of a few of our boards, and that must suffice, or I shall exceed the limits I have prescribed to myself.

The first board contains a small piece of gold in its rough state, a piece of gold in its manufactured state, a piece of silver in both states, a piece of copper in both states, a piece of brass in both states, a piece of iron in both states, a piece of steel in both states, a piece of tinfoil, a piece of

solder, a screw, a clasp nail, a clout nail, a hob nail, a spike nail, a sparable, and a tack.

These articles are all on one board, and the monitor puts his pointer to each article, and tells his little pupils their names, and encourages them to repeat the names after him. When they finish at one post they go to the next.

'The next board may contain a piece of hemp, a piece of rope, a piece of string, a piece of bagging, a piece of sacking, a piece of canvass, a piece of hessian, a piece of Scotch sheeting, a piece of unbleached linen, a piece of bleached linen, a piece of diaper linen, a piece of dyed linen, a piece of flax, a piece of thread, a piece of yarn, a piece of ticking, a piece of raw silk, a piece of twisted silk, a piece of wove silk, figured, a piece of white plain silk, and a piece of dyed silk, a piece of ribbon, a piece of silk cord, a piece of silk velvet, &c.

The next may contain raw cotton, cotton yarn, sewing cotton, unbleached calico, bleached calico, dimity, jean, fustian, velveteen, gause, nankeen, gingham, bed furniture, printed calico, marseilles, flannel, baise, stuff, woollen cloth and wool, worsted, white, black, and mixed.

The next may contain milled board, paste board, Bristol card, brown paper, white paper of various sorts, white sheep skin, yellow sheep, tanned sheep, purple sheep, glazed sheep, red sheep, calf skin, cow hide, goat skin, kid, seal, pig leather, seal skin, wash leather, beaver, &c.

The next may contain about twenty-five of those wood animals which are imported into this country, and are to be had at the foreign toy warehouses; some of them are carved exceedingly well, and appear very like the real animals.

The next may contain mahogany, and the various kinds of wood.

The next may contain prunings of the various fruit trees.

The next may contain the different small articles of ironmongery, needles, pins, cutlery, small tools, and every other object that can be obtained small enough for the purpose.

The lessons are to be put in the lesson post the same as the picture lessons; and the articles are either glued or fastened on the boards with screws or waxed thread.

The utility of this mode of teaching must be obvious, for if the children meet with any of those terms in a book which they are reading, they understand it immediately, which would not be the case unless they had seen the object. The most intellectual person would not be able to call things by their proper names, much less describe them, unless he had been taught, or heard some other person call them by their right names, and we generally learn more by mixing with society, than ever we could do at school; these sort of lessons persons can make themselves, and they will last for many years, and help to lay a foundation for things of more importance, at some future period, when perhaps vice will be less encouraged than it is at present, and virtue encouraged a little more, for it appears to me that whoever denies that virtue is owing to education, denies there is any such thing as virtue, for it proceeds from being taught, and he that hinders the teaching of it, does what he can to root it out of the world.

CHAPTER XV.

METHOD OF GIVING LITTLE CHILDREN
BODILY EXERCISE, IMPROVING THEIR

MINDS, AND PLEASING THEM, AT THE

SAME TIME. OF SINGING.

Would you make infants happy, give them variety, for novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.

AS an Infant School may be regarded in the light of a combination of the school and nursery, the art of pleasing, forms a prominent part in the system; and as little children are very apt to be fretful, it becomes expedient to divert, as well as teach them. If children of two years old and under are not diverted, they will naturally cry for their mothers; and to have ten or twelve children crying in the school, it is very obvious would put every thing into confusion. But it is possible to have two hundred, or even three hundred children assembled together, the eldest not more than six years of age, and yet not to hear one of them crying for a whole day. Indeed I may appeal to the numerous and respectable personages who have visited Infant Schools, for the truth of this assertion: many of whom have declared, in my hearing, that they could not have

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