Speivel Coll. #9487065 HL 2013 Educ 2125.5 HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION MONROE C. GUTMANN LIBRARY HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 1882, Sipril 18. Rev. Fr. G. Peabody, PRINTED BY J. S. HODSON, CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN. TO HER MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, THE QUEEN, THE MOTHER OF HER PEOPLE, THIS VOLUME, BY HER MAJESTY'S GRACIOUS PERMISSION, IS INSCRIBED, WITH PROFOUND HUMILITY, AND THE WARMEST DESIRES FOR HER MAJESTY'S PRESENT AND ETERNAL HAPPINESS; BY HER MAJESTY'S MOST LOYAL, GRATEFUL, AND DEVOTED SUBJECT AND SERVANT, SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. PREFACE. IN again presenting this volume to the world, and especially in doing so under the distinguished patronage of our beloved Queen, I trust I feel thankful to God for the favor with which the Infant System has been received, and for all the aid I have enjoyed in my course of labour. Had the measures I originated for the development of the Infant mind and the improvement of the moral character been sanctioned at first, as many now think they should have been, their progress would, undoubtedly, have been far greater; but when I consider what has been accomplished under the Divine benediction, amid greater difficulties than ever beset the path of an individual similarly occupied, 1 know not how to express the gratitude of which I am conscious. It seems proper and even necessary to remark, that the system explained in this volume, is the result of many years of labour. Thousands of children have been attentively observed, and for the necessities that arise in their instruction, provision has been made. Others have doubtless reached some of the conclusions at which I have arrived, but this is only another instance of the coincidence in judgment and effort often discoverable in persons far apart; for, with the exception of the elliptical plan devised by Dr. Gilchrist, I am not aware that I owe an idea or contrivance to any writer whatever. Nearly sixteen thousand children have now been under my own care, in various parts of the United Kingdom, whose age has not exceeded six years; myself, my daughter, and my agents, have organized many scores of schools, and thus I have had opportunities of studying the infant mind and heart, such as none of my contemporaries have ever possessed. Still I am aware I have much to learn-I am far less satisfied with my knowledge, and |