d, and critical. The
lesson was well taught; a map having been neatly drawn on the board, the
teacher required the most important places referred to in the lesson, to
be pointed out upon it. Teaching average 100.

Miss ---- gave the A class a lesson in Chemistry. She has improved very
much in teaching. She understood the subject which she taught, and had
given the lesson careful preparation. She requested one of the pupils to
look for the orthoepy of a word which occurred in the lesson. The lady
turned over the leaves of the dictionary in a very careless manner, then
took her seat, saying she could not find the word, although she must
have been conscious all the while that she was not searching for it in
the proper place. Miss ----, instead of sending the lady to look for
the word again, as she should have done, pronounced it herself. The
teacher should require prompt obedience on the part of pupils. Teaching
average 95.

Miss ---- gave the C class a lesson in Elocution. She is a very
energetic teacher, and manifests a deep interest in her pupils--hence,
her success. A visitor would have inferred from her manner, that she was
the permanent teacher, not a mere substitute for a passing hour.
Teaching average, 100.

XXVI.

ATTENTION AS A MENTAL FACULTY, AND AS A MEANS OF MENTAL CULTURE.

The illustrations which first led to a satisfactory elucidation of the
subject, were drawn from the eye. There are many facts in the history of
vision, which show that we may experience sensations and perceptions and
other intellectual operations, and may at the time be conscious of the
same, without giving them any attention, or, at least, without giving
them such a degree of attention as to have the slightest recollection of
them afterwards.

When, for instance, we read a printed book, the eye glances so rapidly
from sentence to sentence, that we can hardly persuade ourselves that we
actually see successively every letter. We certainly have no
recollection of having gone through such an innumerable train of
conscious acts as the theory necessarily implies. That such, however, is
the case, is proved by the fact, that if by accident any letter is
omitted, or transposed, or put upside down, the eye at once detects the
mistake. The fact is familiar to all. It can be accounted for only on
the supposition that, even in the rapid and cursory perusal of a book,
the eye actually passes from letter to letter, and gives to each a
di