words and things. All the early exercises in reading should tend to draw out the child's previous acquirements. The lessons should be progressive, and every sentence contained in them ought to possess a meaning complete and intelligible.

The writer is altogether opposed to the difficult task of alphabetical instruction, whether pursued on the irrational plan of our forefathers, or on the certainly more natural modes which have been recommended in primers of a later day. Neither plan is necessary, and both are devoid of interest to a child. Syllabic reading is also surrounded with difficulties; and though much laudable ingenuity has been expended in the development of methods founded on syllabic sounds, with a view to supersede the A B C, evidence is not wanting that even such introductions to words are unnecessary. Many writers for little learners have claimed the patronage of the public for their monosyllabic lessons. We have several reasons to oppose to their views. There is a certain degree of similarity in many of the words which tends to confuse the child. An immense number of particles obtrude themselves into lessons so constructed. The words are not words used by a child in ordinary conversation. There is an objectionable stiffness, a quaintness, a want of variety in such lessons, inducing monotony in a child's manner of reading.

A child's reading lessons ought to be on subjects of interest, and, while he is learning to read, on subjects with which he is in some degree familiar; so that he may not meet with many expressions which are strange to his ears, and with none that he is unable to pronounce after his teacher. The advance from simple to more difficult lessons ought not to be founded on the

length of the words, but on the complexity of the ideas which they convey. Of what consequence is the length of a word if a child can pronounce it, and if he is acquainted with the idea so represented? And how large a vocabulary has a child, even under ordinary circumstances, whose mind has been under this kind of culture for four or five years. Supposing a child to have been trained at home, or at an infant school, in some such manner as has been recommended-when reading is commenced as an art, a lesson containing ideas well known to the juvenile learner should be taken. Let the subject be a garden. After telling him that he is now to learn to read, we write, in his presence, an exercise something like the following:

"A flower-garden is beautiful. Flowers are pretty. Some flowers are sweet. A daffodil is yellow. Snowdrops are white. Roses are red-some roses are white. Violets are blue-they are very sweet. Leaves are green."

Two or three such sentences as the above will be enough for a first lesson. After a few repetitions, the pupil will point out every word required. The difference in the length of the words is an advantage. Words are arbitrary pictures; they express different ideas, and a child will naturally expect them to be not the same in their appearance. This dissimilarity will assist in their acquisition. And the perfect acquaintance which, on our plan, the child has with the ideas conveyed, and the pronunciation of the words which he hears repeated, leave him at liberty to devote both his eye and his mind to the form of each word. This is the one great end now to be accomplished. He has to remember the entire combinations-not the letters, nor the syllables

—but the words, so that he may recognize them at once whenever he sees them. To give facility and strength to this exercise, writing must accompany the reading of the words. The child transfers his reading lesson to his slate at first in any hand that he can, large or small. After a few lessons, his rude attempts at writing may be reduced to any size at the will of the teacher; a light round-hand is recommended for the first few months.

Something may here be said on the education of the eye. A plan which has been found very beneficial with young children, and which is equally suitable for the school-room or for the nursery, is as follows:-Let one of the walls be painted a dark slate colour, upon which objects may be drawn with chalk the size of life. Small pictures are not always recognized, while outlines of objects of their natural dimensions are at once perceived. Thus, also, the forms of the words composing any lesson may be written very distinctly, and imitated by the little learner, either upon the wall or by means of a slate and pencil. A painted surface is an enduring tablet for writing lessons upon, and for drawing any necessary illustrations connected with them; and thus the exercises of the pupil may be made to assume all the interest of oral and written language combined with delineation.

After a few lessons on a variety of subjects composed chiefly of short sentences, any book of general knowledge may be used in a similar manner, the teacher writing and pronouncing a sentence, examining the child upon the different words of which it consists, and occasionally leaving his pupil to write it upon the slate. During the writing operation, the teacher should not

only instruct the child in the use of the pencil, but he should also repeat the words of which the sentence is formed, and add explanations and examinations by questions, if the subject is beyond the child's previously acquired knowledge. Natural objects will furnish a fund of materials of which the teacher may avail himself in his selections of lessons. On these subjects every thing is tangible, and can be illustrated and made interesting. Geography is another subject capable of being rendered very intelligible to a young child, and the sooner some general ideas can be communicated upon this science, the better will the various reading-books that are put into his hands be understood. It will be in vain to attempt to teach geography without appropriate maps. The system of memoriter instruction is altogether wrong, being unfavourable to the expansion of the mind, and equally so to the cultivation of a taste for knowledge. In teaching geography, the simplest plan is to start from the point where the pupil stands, to mark his native town, the neighbouring villages and cities, then the country in which he resides; to add to this the neighbouring counties, then the more distant, until by degrees England is delineated, and the youthful student is prepared for comprehending the larger divisions of the globe, with its various features of land and water. After the first hundred words, the pupil will be much assisted by his own observation; he will analyse words, and be led to generalize so as to apply sounds already learned to similar formations that he may meet with. The pronunciation that he has acquired in his earlier years will be now of the greatest importance in enabling him to see at once the distinctions between sounds possessing some similarity. The writing exercise, which

accompanies his reading lessons till he reads without hesitation, will show him the difference in words of a somewhat similar form and sound, as now and how, noon and moon.

Under ordinary circumstances, in families and in private schools, about a quarter of a year will be found sufficient for the instruction of a child in reading, spelling, (acquired by copying the reading lessons,) and plain writing. Under favourable auspices, where the plan can be brought into full operation, a shorter period may suffice. The characteristics of the proposed method are: -the education of the ear and voice, by which a perfect pronunciation may be recognised and produced: the education of the eye, by means of which minute objects shall be discovered and discerned, preparatory to its being exercised on types and writing; and the preliminary education of the mind on a variety of subjects, by which it may be prepared to enter the wider fields of knowledge, as soon as the teacher has recourse to the assistance of books.

With respect to writing, perhaps a few additional remarks may be necessary. We are not advocates for large writing; experience by no means recommends it for young children. It is impossible for them to give the requisite thickness to the down-strokes of a largehand, and for this reason the middle-hand is preferred, commonly called round-hand. They may soon be taught the arts of penmanship, if necessary, but as the smaller hands are those of business and of ordinary use, the acquisition of a large hand occupies time which might be more profitably employed, unless fine writing be required. When the pupil has gone through a few of his first lessons, which have been copied from the writing of his teacher, the printed book containing his