own
family, among the friends whom they ought to love and esteem, let
children, with simple, unreserved vivacity, express the good opinion
they have of themselves. It is infinitely better that they should be
allowed this necessary expansion of self-complacency in the company of
their superiors, than that it should be repressed by the cold hand of
authority, and afterwards be displayed in the company of inferiors and
sycophants. We have endeavoured to distinguish between the proper and
improper use of praise as a motive in education: we have considered it
as a stimulus which, like all other excitements, is serviceable or
pernicious, according to the degree in which it is used, and the
circumstances in which it is applied.

Whilst we have thus been examining the general means of educating the
heart and the understanding, we have avoided entering minutely into
the technical methods of obtaining certain parts of knowledge. It was
essential, in the first place, to show, how the desire of knowledge
was to be excited; what acquirements are most desirable, and how they
are to be most easily obtained, are the next considerations. In the
chapter on Books--Classical Literature and Grammar--Arithmetic and
Geometry--Geography and Astronomy--Mechanics and Chemistry--we have
attempted to show, how a taste for literature may early be infused
into the minds of children, and how the rudiments of science, and some
general principles of knowledge, may be acquired, without disgusting
the pupil, or fatiguing him by unceasing application. We have, in
speaking of the choice of books for children, suggested the general
principles, by which a selection may be safely made; and by minute,
but we hope not invidious, criticism, we have illustrated our
principles so as to make them practically useful.

The examination of M. Condillac's Cours d'Etude was meant to
illustrate our own sentiments, more than to attack a particular
system. Far from intending to depreciate this author, we think most
highly of his abilities; but we thought it necessary to point out some
practical errours in his mode of instruction. Without examples from
real life, we should have wandered, as many others of far superior
abilities have already wandered, in the shadowy land of theory.

In our chapters on Grammar, Arithmetic, Mechanics, Chemistry, &c. all
that we have attempted has been to recall to preceptors the
difficulties which they once experienced, and to trace those e