s
and exactness of sight, then for hearing, and finally for the memory.
All through this process, by constant help and suggestion, the pupils
are brought to the natural concentration. With regard to the memory,
especial care should be taken, for the harm done by a mechanical
training of the memory can hardly be computed. Repose and the
consequent freedom of body and mind lead to an opening of all the
faculties for better use; if that is so, a teacher must be more than
ever alive to lead pupils to the spirit of all they are to learn, and
make the letter in every sense suggestive of the spirit. First, care
should be taken to give something worth memorizing; secondly, ideas
must be memorized before the words. A word is a symbol, and in so far
as we have the habit of regarding it as such, will each word we hear be
more and more suggestive to us. With this habit well cultivated, one
sees more in a single glance at a poem than many could see in several
readings. Yet the reader who sees the most may be unable to repeat the
poem word for word. In cultivating the memory, the training should be
first for the attention, then for the imagination and the power of
suggestive thought; and from the opening of these faculties a true
memory will grow. The mechanical power of repeating after once hearing
so many words is a thing in itself to be dreaded. Let the pupil first
see in mind a series of pictures as the poem or page is read, then
describe them in his own words, and if the words of the author are well
worth remembering the pupil should be led to them from the ideas. In
the same way a series of interesting or helpful thoughts can be learned.

Avoidance of mere mechanism cannot be too strongly insisted upon; for
exercise for attaining a wholesome, natural guidance of mind and body
cannot be successful unless it rouses in the mind an appreciation of
the laws of Nature which we are bound to obey. A conscious experience
of the results of such obedience is essential to growth.

XV.

ARTISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

ALTHOUGH so much time and care are given to the various means of
artistic expression, it is a singular fact that comparatively little
attention is given to the use of the very first instrument which should
be under command before any secondary instrument can be made perfectly
expressive.

An old artist who thanked his friend for admiring his pictures added:
"If you could only see the pictures in my brain. But--" pointin