tion, however, must suffice. I
refer to the application of this principle to what may be called the
incidentals of teaching and training.

A child, for instance, should not only "spell out of book," as it is
called, but his attention should by some means be directed to the way in
which words are spelled. He should be accustomed to form, as it were, a
mental image of each word, to think of it as having a particular form
and appearance, so that his eye will detect instantly a wanting or an
excrescent letter, just as he sees a wen, a defective limb, or a
distorted feature on the person of an acquaintance. Only fire his young
ambition with the aim to spell well, and quicken his attention to the
way in which words are spelled, and every time he reads a book he
receives incidentally a lesson in spelling.

A child should have stated exercises and systematic instructions in the
art of reading. But quite as much improvement in this important and too
much neglected accomplishment may be gained by not allowing children at
any time to read in an improper manner. Every demonstration at the
blackboard, every text or hymn repeated from memory, every recitation in
arithmetic, grammar, or geography, every exercise of every kind in which
the voice is used and words are uttered, may be made an incidental
lesson in reading. By being never allowed to pronounce words
incorrectly, to utter them in a low or drawling manner, or to crowd and
overlap them, as it were, one upon the other, the ear becomes accustomed
to the correct sounds of the language, and immediately detects any
variation from its accustomed standard. By thus insisting, in every
vocal exercise, upon the full and correct pronunciation of the
elementary sounds of the language, more may be done to make good readers
and speakers than by all the pronouncing dictionaries and elocution
books in print.

Let a child by all means take lessons in writing. Let him learn plain
text, German text, round hand, running hand, back hand, and the
flourishes. But if he is to become rapidly master of that truly
beautiful and most useful accomplishment, let the teacher insist upon
his always attending to his manner of writing, and always writing as
well as he can. Whether he writes a composition, a sketch, a letter,
whenever for any purpose he puts pen to paper, let him be required to
form each letter distinctly, to write it gracefully, and to give to his
exercise a neat and elegant appearance. Tea