rs; but in writing upon
education, it is necessary to examine the utility of different modes
of instruction, without fear of offending _any class_ of men. We
acknowledge, that it is seldom found, that those who can communicate
their knowledge the best, _possess the most_, especially if this
knowledge be that of an artist or a linguist. Before any person is
properly qualified _to teach_, he must have the power of recollecting
exactly how _he learned_; he must go back step by step to the point at
which he began, and he must be able to conduct his pupil through the
same path without impatience or precipitation. He must not only have
acquired a knowledge of the process by which his own ideas and habits
were formed, but he must have extensive experience of the varieties of
the human mind. He must not suppose, that the operations of intellect
are carried on precisely in the same manner in all minds; he must not
imagine, that there is but one method of teaching, which will suit all
persons alike. The analogies which strike his own mind, the
arrangement of ideas, which to him appears the most perspicuous, to
his pupil may appear remote and confused. He must not attribute this
to his pupil's inattention, stupidity, or obstinacy; but he must
attribute it to the true causes; the different association of ideas in
different minds, the different habits of thinking, which arise from
their various tempers and previous education. He must be acquainted
with the habits of all tempers: the slow, the quick, the inventive,
the investigating; and he must adapt his instructions accordingly.
There is something more requisite: a master must not only know what he
professes to teach of his own peculiar art or science, but he ought to
know all its bearings and dependencies. He must be acquainted not only
with the local topography of his own district, but he must have the
whole map of human knowledge before him; and whilst he dwells most
upon his own province, he must yet be free from local prejudices, and
must consider himself as a citizen of the world. Children who study
geography in small separate maps, understand, perhaps, the view of
each country tolerably well; but we see them quite puzzled when they
are to connect these maps in their idea of the world. They do not know
the relative size or situation of England or France; they cannot find
London or Paris when they look for the first time upon the globe, and
every country seems to be turned upsi