not spoken of the abbe Gaultier's
method of teaching geography, as we have only been able to obtain
accounts of it from the public papers, and from reviews; we are,
however, disposed to think favourably beforehand, of any mode which
unites amusement with instruction. We cannot forbear recommending, in
the strongest manner, a few pages of Rollin in his "Thoughts upon
Education,"[14] which we think contain an excellent specimen of the
manner in which a well informed preceptor might lead his pupils a
geographical, historical, botanical, and physiological tour upon the
artificial globe.

We conclude this chapter of hints, by repeating what we have before
asserted, that though technical assistance may be of ready use to
those who are really acquainted with that knowledge to which it
refers, it never can supply the place of accurate information.

The causes of the rise and fall of empires, the progress of human
knowledge, and the great discoveries of superior minds, are the real
links which connect the chain of political knowledge.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] V. Gray's Memoria Technica, and the Critic.

[13] Instead of

William the conqueror long did reign, And William his son by an arrow
was slain.

Read,

William the Con_sau_ long did reign, And Ruf_koi_ his son by an arrow
was slain.

And so on from Gray's Memoria Technica to the end of the chapter.

[14] Page 24.

CHAPTER XV.

ON ARITHMETIC.

The man who is ignorant that two and two make four, is stigmatized
with the character of hopeless stupidity; except, as Swift has
remarked, in the arithmetic of the customs, where two and two do not
always make the same sum.

We must not judge of the understanding of a child by this test, for
many children of quick abilities do not immediately assent to this
proposition when it is first laid before them. "Two and two make
four," says the tutor. "Well, child, why do you stare so?"

The child stares because the word _make_ is in this sentence used in a
sense which is quite new to him; he knows what it is to make a bow,
and to make a noise, but how this active verb is applicable in the
present case, where there is no agent to perform the action, he cannot
clearly comprehend. "Two and two _are_ four," is more intelligible;
but even this assertion, the child, for want of a distinct notion of
the sense in which the word _are_ is used, does not understand. "Two
and two _are called_ four," is, perhaps, the most accurate