| concourse of people from the neighbourhood is said to be immense. The Ayuntamiento causes the whole of the pavement of this vast area to be removed, and takes possession of all the surrounding balconies, which are let out to the public, the proprietors being deprived of them, unless they hire them themselves. If an individual refuse to give up his balcony, it is either taken possession of by the alcalde, or it is forcibly blocked up so as to obstruct the view of the spectacle. Mr. Roscoe noticed in the neighbourhood of Salamanca, among the numerous herds which were feeding in the fields, those champions of the ring which supply the arena of the great towns and cities for leagues around. "Many who have seen them goaded into terrific fury by their cruel assailants would suppose these fine animals were naturally vindictive and ferocious, and are surprised to behold them quiet and gentle as the sheep themselves. They would seem only fierce and desperate in self-defence, and what animal is not? Men, it has been justly remarked, do not always wait for these powerful motives ere they delight in seeing the agonies of an irritated bull, or the fury of the tiger.” In visiting a town for the first time, the traveller has no better method of gaining a correct idea of it than by ascending some eminence, which commands a view of it and its vicinity. From the summit of the tower of the cathedral a magnificent view is obtained, commanding a radius of ten miles, and towards the east of more than thirty. "As far as the eye could distinguish, from Alva -where still stands the castle of the renowned duke of that name-till lost in the remote west, the Tormes sought its winding way, through fields of every various tint, though the bright green of the young wheat, prevailing almost everywhere, gave evidence of the favourite production of the most noted corn region of Spain. Discovering itself again in a succession of lake-like sheets, the river was either darkened by the ripple of a passing breeze, or shone a bright and unruffled mirror under the influence of a blazing sun. Not a cloud was anywhere to be seen, and the most distant objects, however minute-flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, wagons, trains of mules, and sweeping caravans-seemed distinct and near, as brought with telescopic clearness to the eye through the medium of this transparent atmosphere. In a few directions were seen clumps of trees, the absence of which is so universal a defect of Spanish scenery, but in general the plain spread itself in interminable and unbroken monotony. The banks of the Tormes near the city, devoted to the production of vegetables, offered the richest and most varied hues; indeed, throughout the whole course of the stream, its immediate banks, submitted to irrigation and skirted occasionally with trees, decked out the landscape with its fairest attractions. finished till 1734. Opinions, as usual, differ respecting its architectural merits: one writer describes it as a stupendous specimen of modern Gothic; while Mr. Roscoe says, "Though erected in the Augustan age of the arts of Italy, it would be pronounced a huge, ill-assorted, and unmeaning pile, instead of exciting the mistaken admiration of travellers, were it not for the boldness of its nave; the splendour and elaborate ornament of its decorations, assisted by gorgeous show and the pomp of its public worship. But the effect of the interior view, the broad-spreading aisles, the profuse and exquisitely finished ornaments, the deep sombre light, the loud thrilling music of its admirable choir, especially during the Holy Week, leave you little wish to criticize its exterior beauty, or the want of exact symmetry in its parts. It is still a magnificent structure, not unworthy this ancient seat of learning and the arts." "Having completed the survey of remoter objects, I contracted my delighted gaze to the nearer and more palpable object of the outspread city at my feet. More than half its surface was covered with public buildings-the colleges, convents, and churches of this great nursery of Spanish learning, and stronghold of the national faith; the singular magnificence of its edifices, when thus contemplated together, is indeed astounding, and it is with no vain or unfounded boast that the Salamanguinos claim for their fair city the appellation of Roma la Chica [Little Rome]. "From this point one could properly estimate the vastness of the Gothic cathedral that lay below; next to it in conspicuousness was the Jesuits' college, which covers an immense space, having at its front a grand temple, adorned by two lofty towers, while in the rear is a double row of edifices, surrounded by covered ways to serve as promenades, the roofs being sustained upon long series of arches, as in the Roman aqueducts. Hence, too, could be estimated the extent of the lamentable destruction occasioned by the resistance of the French during the siege, impressing the mind with a fearfully vivid picture of the terribleness of man's energy to destroy and cast down the proudest monuments of his power; the shattered walls of convents, built with the solidity of fortresses, yawning sections of unsupported naves, with the columns and arches of halfdemolished cloisters, battered by cannon-shot, or blackened by sulphureous explosions, lay exposed to view with the freshness of recent demolition, impressing the mind with a combination of the gloomiest images.' The cathedral was commenced in 1513, and not "" In the neighbourhood of the cathedral is a very remarkable Gothic building of the twelfth century, containing many monuments of interest. In one of its chapels mass is still said according to the Muzarabic ritual. In addition to these there are twenty-five parish ries of both sexes, now shut up. The convent of St. churches in Salamanca: there are also thirty monasteDominick is a beautiful and magnificent building. "Here was debated the grand question-a curious one for the sages and doctors of Salamanca-as to the existence of another world, at least in the western hemisphere, when the great Columbus was referred by the royal court to the wisdom of St. Dominick for the reception of his new theory; which accordingly pronounced that it was all moonshine-that the great discoverer had lapsed into a dangerous and egregious error." Perhaps the most interesting institution in this city is its University, which, during the middle ages, was celebrated as one of the first in Europe. At one time not fewer than twelve thousand students congregated within its halls, and its opinion was sought by councils, popes, and sovereigns. It was founded in 1200, by Alfonso the Ninth, of Leon, and extended in 1239, by his successor Alfonso the Tenth, surnamed El Sabio, (the Learned,) under whose auspices the science of astronomy made considerable advances. The university continued in high repute till the reign of Philip the Third, attracting_numerous students from Spain and Portugal, from France, Italy, England, and even from Spanish America. It possessed sixty-one professorships, and a college for the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages. The Aristotelian philosophy held a high rank in the branches of ancient learning. During the seventeenth century the bright rays of the Baconian philosophy, which to other nations illumined the paths of science, shed no lustre in the university of Salamanca; consequently the number of its students rapidly decreased with its declining reputation, and at present the number does not exceed one thousand five hundred. The following particulars respecting the present state and condition of this celebrated seminary are chiefly on the authority of the author of A Year in Spain, and Spain Revisited. and write, and are for the most part acquainted with The students who resort to this university can read Latin; but this is the usual limit of their acquirements. In order to obtain the degree of Bachelor, the student is obliged to follow, during three years, the course of philosophy, which includes ethics and mathematics: he may also, if he pleases, attend the lectures on physics, astronomy, and other useful branches of knowledge, of which there are chairs in the university; but skill in science is not necessary to take out the degree. It follows that very few students attend these courses, and in many instances the lecturer has only to acquit himself of his daily duty by going to the amphitheatre, taking his station in the pulpit, and waiting the stipulated time to see if any accident should send him listeners. Having received the degree of bachelor it is necessary to follow the courses of theology, law, or medicine, in order to obtain the degree of Licentiate in any one of these faculties, and before acquiring either degree it is necessary to undergo an examination, and produce certificates of regular attendance from the various professors. The graduate is, moreover, to defend satisfactorily a certain thesis in Latin against all disputants. The students, from constant practice, converse and dispute in Latin with great fluency. Never was the line of distinction between rich and poor more strongly marked than in this university. The rich in all countries are more or less alike, but poverty is constrained by peculiarities of place, climate, and institutions, to assume forms which usually give character and identity, and are distinguishing marks to every observer. Thus the aristocratic student of Salamanca is known by his costly dress, his courtly manners, and his exclusiveness; but how can we describe the dress of the poor student! "A pair of one-legged trowsers, a garment to which courtesy concedes the name of cloak, a torn and foxy cocked hat, a wooden spoon in readiness for soup, and a pack of greasy cards, wherewith to gamble and cheat." A collection of these worthies is thus described:-"Squalid in their dress, starved in their appearance, and cringing in their manners, the plebeian students, heedless of the dignity of learning, cultivate the acquaintance of the inferior classes of townspeople; others stood apart meditating mischief, which the humility of their attire might seem to justify, dressed as they were in tattered cloaks, faded to every possible shade of discoloration, and their meagre faces bearing an expression of premature ingenuity, imparted by the difficulty of existing, and the cunning that was necessary to succeed." Some of the poor students serve as domestics in the houses of the more opulent professors or ecclesiastics; others prefer liberty, eating as they may at the doors of convents, where they attend the stated distribution of soup. They are called sopistas, and are in general a disreputable set, secure themselves, having nothing to lose, from plunder or misfortune. The temptation to this sort of life is the chance of securing something from the humble walks of church patronage, and the prospect of gaining admission to a convent, where, deprived of no gratification, the charms of a life of idleness repay the privations of the student. When it is considered that many of the working clergy of Spain have qualified themselves for the cure of souls by passing through a course of life such as this, we cannot wonder at the present low state of the Spanish population, already demoralized by civil war. Twenty-five private colleges are attached to this university, besides four collegios mayores, or superior colleges, so called from their being designed for the children of the nobility. Among these is the Collegio del Arzobispo, where proofs of nobility are demanded from the candidate through many generations, on both sides. Some of the private colleges are richly endowed: their students are known in the university as "collegians;" they reside in their respective colleges under the care and observation of a rector. Perhaps the most interesting of these institutions is the Irish College. The Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland were formerly accustomed to seek their education in foreign countries, where they possessed colleges of their nation connected with universities of note. Such institutions have long been established in Paris, Valladolid, and Salamanca. The last, owing to the superior character of its university as a school of divinity, has long been celebrated. But since, by the establishment of the College of Maynooth, a Government provision has been made for the education of the clergy, this institution of Salamanca has ceased to attract students from Ireland, although about a dozen scholars still resort there to enjoy the advantages of the divinity lectures of the university, and they are supported by the endowments of the college, which originated chiefly in the benefactions of noble Irishmen who entered the service of Spain on the downfall of the Stuarts, and who, rising to rank and distinction in their adopted country, thus evinced their attachment to that of their birth. According to Townsend, who visited Salamanca towards the close of the last century, this college received sixty students at a time from Ireland, the same number being returned home: they were required to come well grounded in the languages, and their course of education lasted eight years: during the first four they studied philosophy, and during the last four divinity; they rose every morning at half-past four, and had no vacations. The library of the university is described as a magnificent room two hundred feet long by sixty wide, with an arched ceiling, through apertures in which the light is skilfully introduced from above, descending uniformly upon the page, in whatever part of the room the reader may be seated. The book-shelves of richly carved wood are arranged in a double gallery around the whole apartment, and at frequent intervals was hung out the fearful notification contained in a bull of the Pope, in which he denounces the sentence of excommunication against any sinner who should abstract, lose, or deface any book in that library, the sentence remaining for ever in force, until the moment of perfect restitution. In different positions along the centre of the room are massive tables, surrounded by commodious chairs for the use of the readers. Next to the students, the beggars of Salamanca are celebrated. In walking through the town, the stranger is invariably besieged by groups of ingenious mendicants, who keep up a continuous exhibition of well-assumed infirmities, and incessant appeals to the saints. In the education of facts, the great object is to make children observe and reflect; without this, previous acquisitions are but matters of rote, well enough as a means, but worthless as an end. They may be brought into frequent contact with instructive prints, interesting plants, minerals, animals, and the ordinary productions of human industry. The attention must not be distracted, or the memory fatigued, by too much variety; the great thing is to create a lively interest, and by judicious repetition and interrogation, to secure the retention of what has been learned. It is obviously better to bring things directly under the operation of the senses; description merely is a subsidiary process. The world around is full of wonders; every situation is replete with objects of interest. The metals with which earth; and their conversion by human skill into articles of our dwellings abound; their origin in the bowels of the ornament and utility; the transparent stone in the windows, the wood, and the materials from remote quarters of the globe; the varied stuffs, the stained paper, and the pitchy coal, that gives out light and heat, constitute a fund of copious instruction. Why not make the child acquainted with the names, uses, and structure, of everything that he sees; how contributions have been levied on all the kingwisdom, goodness, and power, has furnished so many applidoms of nature, and how the Deity, through his infinite ances for the promotion of human comfort and human happiness.-M'CORMAC. THE characteristic difference between the school and the university seems to be this: In the first, we are learning our own position; in the second, we are learning how to act upon others; the first is intended to form man, the second is intended to form teachers. This distinction is tolerably well understood, and in the main is acted upon. Those who are intended for all active professions frequent the grammar school; those who are meant for professions which directly inform the mind of the country, frequent the university. But there is another distinction consethink is often overlooked: it is quent upon this which that the studies of the school are purely living studies, in which the student is the main object; the studies of the university are scientific, in which the study is the main object.-MAURICE on Education. THE ART OF READING. VII. DESCRIPTION OF THE PHONIC METHOD. UNDER the Phonic System of Instruction, when pro- INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE. DAWSON was the son of a farmer in Berwickshire, where he was born in 1734. At the age of sixteen he proceeded to Norfolk, and other parts of England, to examine the best courses of husbandry, and store up for his own use whatever seemed likely to be introduced with advantage into his own country. Returning to Scotland, he commenced operations on the farm of Frogden in Roxburghshire, in the year 1759. Disregarding the evil anticipations of his friends and neighbours, he proceeded in his course, upon the rational plan of bringing his lands into the best possible condition. This he accomplished by the turnip husbandry, by the use of artificial grasses, then unknown in Scotland, and by the liberal use of lime, not for the purpose of scourging the soil by successive grain crops, but to obtain the means of bringing it advantageously into grass. His object was to support upon his lands a great number of cattle, and by means of them to enable a moderate proportion of the soil to bring forth a larger crop of grain than had formerly been done by the whole. Every man who, in our times, has attempted to improve an ill-cultivated and exhausted soil, must be sensible of the merit which attends success in such an enterprise; but in those days Mr. Dawson had to encounter difficulties which do not now exist. He had numerous prejudices to encounter; and it was nearly two years before he succeeded in training an expert ploughman, who was willing to follow out his plans. All difficulties are overcome by perseverance. Mr. Dawson's fields soon became more fertile and beautiful than those around him. This his neighbours might have overlooked, as they had disregarded the fertility produced by the costly efforts of certain enterprising land-proprietors; but as his conduct had become an object of minute attention, a more important point was speedily discovered-namely, that he was becoming a rich man. They now became eager to tread in his footsteps. Men who had been once in Mr. Dawson's service were always sure to find employment; his ploughmen were in the utmost request; they were transported to East Lothian and to Forfarshire, and everywhere spread the improved practice of agriculture. Roxburghshire, in the mean while, together with the adjoining county of Berwick, soon became the scene of the most active agricultural enterprises; and Mr. Dawson, independently of his own personal prosperity, had the satisfaction to live to see himself regarded and hear himself called the Father of the Agriculture of Scotland.-Agriculture and Drill Husbandry. Greater knowledge and tact are undoubtedly required in the teacher who adopts this system, than in one who begins with the alphabet and spelling-book; for it is a necessary part of the Phonic method that the teacher engage in conversation with his pupil, and be ready to draw out, by prompt and enlivening questions, the little store of information which his class may possess on the subject of each picture. Children when first sent to school are naturally timid and diffident, yet they are not altogether unaware of the powers they possess, and are pleased when they find an opportunity of using them. A good teacher will soon win them from their shyness, and gain their confidence and affection. It will be his aim not to depend on the mere men emory of the child, but to call in the aid of familiar associations, and to keep that which is known in active use, as an indispensable means of searching for and discovering that which is unknown. Teachers of reading on the Phonic method in Germany commence their instruction by exercises in speaking. Before any letters are set before the child, or sounds taught, before even a picture has been introduced, the teacher talks familiarly with his pupils, that he may observe their most common errors of pronunciation. These he contrives to bring into notice, by forming little sentences of the words mispronounced, and making all the children repeat them after him in a correct manner. Repeated trials will overcome the difficulty, which the children at first feel in giving the true sound to the words; and although it will be impossible to overcome, in the course of a few lessons, errors and provincialisms that have grown habitual, yet good is done by drawing attention to these faults of speech at the outset. The teacher then continues his conversations with another end in view. As he is shortly to teach reading on a method which relates especially to the sounds of the language, he is anxious to get his pupils to observe, that most of the words they use are made up of separate sounds. We give a familiar example of the sort of exercise which would be employed to teach this; but we must observe that such exercises are discretionary with the teacher, and do not form part of the prescribed course of instruction contained in the Phonic Reading Books lately published. Indeed, in many cases, it has been found impossible to interest English children in these conversational lessons, except in private teaching, where individuals can be more particularly addressed. To show a child that a word is made up of two or three sounds (a knowledge which is soon to be put in use) the teacher will perhaps talk somewhat in this fashion. T. Have you ever seen a blind man led about by a child, or by a little dog, or groping his Ch. I have alone? way seen blind Thomas; he walks about by himself. T. How does he walk? Quickly, as you and I do, or slowly as if he was afraid of falling? Ch. Slowly. T. Why? Ch. Because he cannot see where to go. T. He cannot | see. I want you to notice that word see. Repeat it after me more and more slowly. [Pupils repeat it until it becomes separated into two sounds.] T. Leave out the first sound, and what is left? Ch. ee. T. Right: now we will search for that sound ee in other words. One of your hymns tells you about a little insect that gathers honey all the day From every opening flower. T. What insect is that? Ch. The bee-the busy bee. Say that word slowly. [The children give the two sounds in it, not the names of the letters.] T. Leave out the first sound and what is left? Ch. ee. T. Now tell me the name of a game you all like to play at, where some of you hide yourselves, and the others try to find you? Ch. Hide and seek. T. Hide and what did you say? Ch. Seek. T. Say it very slowly. Repeating this word with the children the teacher makes them notice three sounds, and tells them to leave out the last. There then remains "see," and on their leaving out the first and last they once more get ee. T. Now, children, repeat the names of the days, beginning with Sunday. How many are they? Ch. Seven. T. What do those seven days make? OneCh. Week. The teacher makes them separate these sounds also, and says-Take away the last sound. Ch. Wee. T. Take away first and last. Ch. ee. T. In how many words have we now found this sound of ee? Ch. In four-see, bee, seek, week. The teacher then touches one of his eyes, and says, What is the name of this part of my face? Ch. Eye. T. I want you all to sound that word distinctly and to remember it. -Right. Now I am not going to talk to you about the eye, nor to explain what a beautiful and useful organ it i3. This we will talk about at another time: I only want you now to remember the sound, eye. Which of you has seen the water of a pond, or of a river, frozen quite hard in winter? Ch. I have. T. You did not call it water then, when was so hard and firm; what did you call it? Ch. Ice. The teacher then proceeds as before, and the children find the sound eye, or i, at the commencement of this word. T. I dare say you know what those little creatures are called that get into the larder, and nibble the cheese, and the bacon, and the bread, whenever they can. Ch. Mice. T. Now let us separate the sounds in that word. They do so, and find three, the middle one of which is i. T. You would not like to eat the cheese which mice have nibbled, I dare say: it does not look Ch. Nice. T. Let me hear that word again, and see if you can tell me how many sounds there are in it. The children have now been accustomed to search for several sounds in one word, and will probably do it without the teacher's aid. T. You have found the same sound in four different ― words-eye, ice, mice, nice; what is the sound? Ch. I. When the teacher has attained a full command of his class, and can readily interest them in this manner, such preliminary exercises are undoubtedly a good means of preparing them for the first lessons in the Phonic Reading Book, and the time bestowed on them will not be lost. In private tuition such conversations on sounds might be given occasionally, for several months previous to the commencement of the regular reading lesson; but in schools, especially those for the lower orders, the ability to read is of such great importance to a child, in preparing the way for, and supporting the other branches of instruction, that any considerable delay of the reading lessons must be avoided, and whatever preparatory exercise may be made use of must be given in a manner and at a time which shall not interfere with their early acquirement. We have now to notice the course of regular lessons presented to the pupil under this method; these are given by the assistance of what is called a ReadingFrame. (Fig. 1.) This is an arranged cabinet, with numerous divisions for containing pictures and letters, and with a series of ledges or grooves, in which the letters (which are separately mounted on little boards,) may be made to slide easily. Several copies of each letter are contained in the cell appropriated to its use*. By means of these letters, &c., and with this arrangement, a whole class can be instructed, and from the facility with which the letters can be shifted, different combinations can easily be produced. The teacher's guide to the order in which the lessons are given is a small volume, called the First Phonic Reading-Book, which he can either keep at hand while giving the lesson, or (which is better), he can make himself master of, so as to have no hesitation in the course he is to adopt. The first lesson is devoted to the teaching of the simple vowel sounds, a, e, and o; but ere we describe the mode in which they are taught, we must allude to a difficulty which exists with respect to the English language, and which is very embarrassing to young children. There are numerous sounds in our language for which we have no sign or letter, so that one letter is frequently employed to represent several sounds. This is the case with the letter a, which has four distinct sounds, as we may observe in the words fate, far, fall, and fan. The letter e has two sounds, and o has four, u and y have three sounds, i two, and c, g, s, and u have also each two. Moreover it is a puzzling and capricious property of our language, that two or even three letters are sometimes *The picture illustrative of the particular sound to be taught is set up between two notches at the top of the open cover. When it is deemed necessary to use an easel, the cover of the reading frame, by moving it a little to the left, can easily be shifted from its hinges, and placed in the required situation, as represented in Fig. 2. 3 readily gave the right sound to a wherever they saw it, "because," as they said, "of the little mark over it;" and as å and á do not occur until a later part of the course, it was not thought necessary to trouble them with learning the figure, as such. The children are now exercised in the difference between the a and a. In this way the teacher proceeds with the other vowels, giving a picture of a bee for the sound of e and also of ee, that of a rose for the first sound of o, that of the moon for the second sound marked ỏ, and which is the same as 00. Here the first lesson closes, having given the three letters, a, e, o, with their five sounds, a, ah, e, 0, 00. The lesson is so arranged as to be capable of division if desirable. used to signify the same sound. In the explanatory notes to the First Phonic Reading-Book, these facts are stated, and it is remarked that the circumstance of our modes of spelling and pronunciation being often widely different, would almost prevent the employment of the Phonic method, were it not for the license adopted by Walker, and which is claimed for this method, namely, that of distinguishing the different sounds of the same letter, and also the mute letters, by appropriate (marks. Thus in the reading lessons å, å, à, represent the second, 4 As third, and fourth sounds of a; a circle over a letter shows that it is mute; and a mark resembling the letter e placed over y shows when it has the sound of e. These marks are not used in the exercises which accompany each lesson, and in the lessons themselves they are Vowels are commonly distinguished as being long and gradually omitted, and not used again except in those short. Throughout the First Phonic Reading-Book the words in which an exceptional pronunciation occurs. This being understood, we return to the lesson. The long vowel sounds are employed in conjunction with teacher conveys his instruction by means of pictures, single consonant sounds; two consonants never come which have been found so universally useful in conveying and combinations of two or more consonant sounds, are The short vowel sounds, together in the same syllable. instruction to children, that it would be unwise to neglect their aid. The first picture is that of a hay-reserved for the Second and Third Reading-Books. The second lesson makes the class acquainted with field, with labourers at work. The teacher asks such The sound of i is questions, and gives such explanations, respecting this the first long sounds of i and u selected from the three sounds in fire, a picture of which department of rural labour, as are suitable to the capa- is set up on the reading-frame, and while they are taught cities of his class, taking care not to weary them by saying too much. He then makes them repeat the word to recognise the sound of the letter i, they are also hay more and more slowly, until the two sounds in it taught that y has the same sound. It must here be remarked, that all the lessons are at first given in small are separated from each other. If they have had prepa- letters. It is not thought desirable to trouble the class ratory exercises, such as we have described, this process will be neither new nor difficult, and they will readily with learning the capital letters at this early stage; the select the sound required. Perhaps it may be objected, only exception being in the case of the pronoun I, which, that by giving children the picture of hay, in order to necessarily, requires it. Somewhat later, when proper names are introduced, the capitals appear one at a time, teach the sound of a, we lead them to the common error and their use is pointed out without adding to the diffiof dropping the sound of the h; but in practice the reverse of this is the case, and in the selection of the culty of the lesson. The letter u is taught in this lesson word hay it has not been overlooked that it would afford by means of a picture of a mule, and the questions and an opportunity of combating at the very outset, a fault conversations conducted in the usual manner. in the speech of the lower orders which is almost univer- change of occupation often affords rest to active minds, sal. The very exercise they get in first giving the word the good teacher on this, or any other method, is always its full and proper sound, and then separating it into ingenious in affording variety to his pupils, and if he finds their attention flag, he causes them to perform a two sounds, is more likely than anything else to correct few simultaneous physical manoeuvres, or allows of the evil complained of. To persons who have never heard a lesson given on the Phonic method, it may some other short digression from the subject. By such means the pupils acquire renewed interest and freshness appear impossible that young children can be made to for their task. The long vowel sounds now being separate sounds, or to utter peculiar "breathings" as they may be called, which constitute the real sounds of acquired, another lesson will introduce them to the h and other consonants. Such person are so possessed sound of consonants as given by this method, and these we shall take another occasion of noticing. with the idea of the name of the letter, that they have no idea of the sound of h except aitch; whereas, the real sound is merely a hard breathing. We recommend to those who are sceptical as to this mode of teaching, to seek admission to the School of Industry at Norwood, or the Village School at Battersea, and when they have witnessed the admirable results produced by the intelligent teachers of the Phonic method in those establishments, they will perceive advantages which, in writing on the subject, it is impossible fully to point out. When the sound of a is clearly given, the board on which the picture is mounted is turned, and on the other side the children perceive the same picture with the letter a under it. The sound they have just learnt is thus connected with its sign, and they are taught that the letter stands for that sound. A few more questions will help to fix this in their memories, and they are also required to point out this letter, as it may occur on the tablets on the walls of the room. The next picture is that of a door with a bar across it; and this, after some talk about the reason for barring or locking doors, the sin of theft, &c. leads to the second sound of a, as we hear it in bar, far, &c. The picture has beneath it the letter with a mark over it thus, då. This difference will be quite enough to the quick intelligence of a child, to recall the sound it is intended to remind him of. Some little children who knew nothing of figures, THE KITCHEN GARDEN. XI. THO' oft the shrouded welkin lowers Yet wants there not a cheerful beam, Of radiant gladness.-MANT's British Months. In this season of mists and gloom the gardener's toil is often suspended by the unfavourable state of the weather; but when the soil is in tolerable condition for working, there cannot be a greater economy of time than to use the present month (when little is to be done in the vegetable department,) for making various improvements in the garden itself. These will frequently suggest themselves to the attentive cultivator; but he finds no time to put them into execution while the routine crops, the fruit, the salads, &c., are occupying his notice; nor indeed would any season be so suitable as the present, since the soil would be too fully sown or planted at other times, to allow of any material alteration in the plan or details of the garden, except at the expense of the crops. According to the state of the case, and of the weather, the operations of digging |
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