operations, that give scope to the exertions of the quickest mind, while they supply energy and activity to the dullest.

THE reader will not easily and correctly appreciate the value of Dr.

Obviates difficulties.

Bell's method, until he has attended to the difficulties, which have been in general considered as impediments to the progress of instruction, and has examined the manner in which Dr. Bell has obviated them. By these means he will trace the operations of an attentive and scientific mind, anticipating and removing difficulties. -I shall state these points separately, and distinctly; in the hope that some, who may not yet be prepared to adopt the whole at once, may however be willing to try the effect in part :-and I shall offer them to the Reader, under the nine following heads.

1. The incapacity of continued attention in children. The imbecility

As to attention.

of young minds makes not

only employment but even unvaried amuse

ment, in a short time, irksome and unpleasant. Moral writers, in every age, have commented upon this fact. Still, however, in our schools, the attempt is continued, to chain down the attention of youth for two hours and more, to the same object: so that when they come to say their lesson, which requires the fullest exertion of intellect, the powers of application have been already worn out and exhausted. In Dr. Bell's schools, no lesson is given to a little child, that will occupy more than five minutes* in the learning. For the saying of it, ten minutes are allowed. The lessons are such as may be acquired easily, and without labour, within the limited time; but the ten minutes which succeed, constitute the period of exertion and improvement. The least want of attention will then subject a boy, to yield his

What is said here applies to the younger children, in the early period of the instruction. As their habits of attention and application are increased and confirmed, their period for learning their lessons is gradually extended to ten or twelve minutes.

The call for attention is further increased by the manner in which the lessons are said; the pupils being

place to a competitor, who is more attentive at the moment. The scholars at this time seem to have acquired new and unknown powers; and will advance more by saying one short lesson, than in learning two long ones in the usual mode. The consequence is, that children who have with difficulty achieved two tiresome lessons in a morning, will now with eagerness and pleasure, dispatch twelve or fifteen in the same time; while the constant and rapid change of situation and employment, and the renewed contest for places, preclude weariness, excite eagerness, improve intellect, and keep the body in a state of motion and action.

2. Confuled and Imperfect knowledge.

Knowledge.

In the usual mode, where

any boy makes a mistake in saying his lesson, the master sets him

arranged round the teacher, and each reading one word of the lesson in his turn, and then (a practice of which nothing but the effects of repeated experiment could justify) each one taking his word backward to the beginning of the lesson again; and so reading it back wards and forwards, till all the words are thoroughly impressed on the mind.

right. Nothing more, however, passes to produce a permanent effect, or to impress the instruction either on him or on the rest of the class. The time of hearing also is comparatively short, and as soon as it is done, the class proceeds to another lesson. Thus error is frequently blended with instruction, and false and incorrect impressions left in the mind. In Dr. Bell's schools, if so many as three mistakes, however trivial, are made in the course of the hearing, the class is ordered back again to learn and relearn it; and a second lesson is never given them, until they have all perfectly learnt the first. But then their progress is not impeded by the dullness or idleness of a single scholar; for if he cannot keep up with the others, he is removed to a lower class, as will be noticed under another head.

3. The former lesson being obliterated by the latter. This is found

to be a common evil, not

Retention.

only in schools, but in the studies of mature life; and we justly estimate the habit of

retaining from what is presented to the mind's eye, all that is valuable, and of rejecting what is not so, as one of the most useful habits that a student can acquire.-The books which Dr. Bell's scholars learn, they go through a second, and sometimes even a third time; and they are not allowed to proceed to another book, until they have completely mastered the former. Their second passage through a book (and still more the third if necessary) is of course more rapid, and does not consume much additional time: but it fixes the whole distinctly and permanently

in their minds.

Exertion.

4. Want of motive to exertion.-There are in most schools, periods of examination, when the comparitive diligence and improvement of the pupils are the objects of inquiry, and when their places are fixed accordingly. These examinations, however, are infrequent, and the decisions are not by fixed and unvaried rules. In the new system, the examination is subject to certain public and