stories are illustrated by drawings, the advantage is increased, especially in the first two or three books of the series.

2. When the reading lesson, accompanied by all the necessary explanations, shall have been completed, the pupil should be required to define to the teacher such words from the lesson as may be given to him, and subsequently to write them on a slate for a spelling lesson; if he be directed to write the meaning also, so much the better will it be for his progress in the language.

3. The next exercise I should recommend would be a paraphrase of the story, in the pupil's own language, according to his understanding of it; by which the teacher could ascertain whether he had a correct idea of the whole, as well as of individual words, and also furnish a good opportunity for laying the foundation of the scholar's style.

This exercise would, with the aid above suggested, be found a very agreeable one to the pupil, who would, in no long time, be prepared for the use of the dictionary. This might be first put into his hand as soon as he should be able to distinguish synonymes. Until then, for the lesson in question, he had better be with

out one.

4. The teacher now having marked in the reading lesson such words as he deemed most suitable and useful, the pupil should seek in his dictionary for such as could be substituted for them, without changing the import of the sentence; when he might either write the original words with their synonymes on a slate, or read the latter in lieu of the former-incorporating them into the sentence.

This practice, continued for a while, prepares the

scholar for reading with unhesitating fluency the supplied synonyme for the original word, in the same manne that a good linguist translates a language at sight, and looking on a page of French-for example -reads it in correct English.

A sure and satisfactory method of ascertaining that the pupil has acquired the meaning of every word along with its definition, and to invest him with the highest and most important benefit arising from this exercise, is to require of him to embody every word he is asked to define in a sentence of his own composing. Such exercise, it is hardly necessary to observe, calls into action all the resources of the mind, and produces a readiness of thought which is an invaluable acquirement.

It is not to be expected that the pupil will accomplish all this without many failures and much occasional aid from the instructor, but every step of his progress will tend to make the next more easy, and will, besides giving him a correct understanding of the subject of the lesson before him, lead him to observe those nice shades of difference in words and expressions, without which he can never write his native tongue with purity and precision.

These methods of teaching spelling and defining are not merely theoretical. They are the results of positive experiment, practised under my own superintendence for eight or ten years. And as far as my opportunities have enabled me to compare results with those of other methods of teaching, in these departments, I am satisfied that such as have been recommended,if not the only true ones-are of that practical character without which all methods must be useless, if not worse than useless.

I have said nothing of the practice, once so common, of assigning lessons in spelling and defining from the columns of a dictionary, sweeping through the whole, from the letter A to the last word under Z,-if the pupil continued long enough at school to accomplish it, for I cannot suppose it to have come down to this day. If it had, however, I should feel impelled to pronounce it one of the most stupid and useless exercises ever introduced into a school-compared with which, the "committing to memory" indiscriminately of all the pages of an almanac would be agreeable, beneficial, and instructive.

To say that it would be impossible to remember the definitions thus abstractly learned would be to assert what must be perfectly obvious to every one. And even if they could be remembered, they would be of little utility; for as the right application of a definition must depend entirely on the situation of the word to be explained and the office it performs in a sentence, the repeating of half a score of meanings as obscure perhaps as the word itself conveys no definite thought, and serves rather to darken than illuminate the mind.

As a book of reference a dictionary is useful; although, it must be confessed that, even with the best, one often finds himself obliged to make his own explanation, in preference to any furnished by the lexicographer; and the teacher or the pupil who relies exclusively on his dictionary-without the exercise of much discretion-for the definition of whatever words he may find in the course of his studies, will not unfrequently fall into very awkward and absurd mistakes.

Experience and common sense must lend their aidthe former to teach us what is practicable; and the

latter, what is appropriate and useful. And the teacher. who has the improvement of his pupils and the great interests of education generally at heart, will not content himself with what he has already attained, but be perpetually striving to add to his stock-by however small degrees, and in however insignificant departments-whatever may make him more accomplished in his profession, and consequently more worthy of the charge entrusted to him.

VOL. II.

E

38

ON TEACHING BY PICTURES.

By G. LONG.

(From the Quarterly Journal of Education, No. XVI.)

We have had our attention directed to this subject by the following statement:

"I write as you desire, to give you some account of my little nephew, who is now just two years old. He is extremely fond of pictures, and has been in the habit of amusing himself with the wood-cuts in the 'Penny and Saturday Magazines,' and other books within his reach, occasionally asking about what he sees. For several months he has been able to name, and distinguish, by form, every animal, plant, statue, and portrait in the first volume of the Penny Magazine, every thing, in short, but some of the ruins, churches, and buildings, which he passes, saying he does not like them, probably because he does not understand what they are. I think he prefers the heads of celebrated persons, and the animals, to any others, occasionally making remarks (where he has received information) upon the character of the former, and without information on the action of the latter, such as "Dr. Johnson, very rude man; Isaac Newton, not Isaac Walton; Isaac Walton, a fisherman, &c." The last time I saw him, he showed me the engraving after one of the Cartoons, when he pointed out to me by name, first Christ, then Peter, (remarking that he was kneeling with the keys,) and then several other disciples, Matthew, John, James, and Judas; nor was he to be misled by my asking him about the last mentioned first, as he evidently knew and remembered their