; neither can the mere routine of
verbal exercises either cultivate the mind or increase knowledge. These
are but the husks of education, which may tantalize and weaken, but
which can never satisfy the cravings of the young mind for information.
Their mental food must be of a perfectly different kind, consisting of
_ideas_, and not of _words_; and these ideas they must receive and
concoct by the active use of their own powers. The teacher must no doubt
select the food for his pupils, and prepare it for their reception, by
breaking it down into morsels, suited to their capacities. But this is
all. They must eat and digest it for themselves. The pupil must think
over in his own mind, and for himself, all that he is either to know or
remember. The ideas read or heard must be reiterated by
himself,--thought over again,--if he is ever to profit by them. Without
this, no care or pains on the part of the teacher, no exertion on the
part of the pupil, will be of any avail. All the knowledge that he seems
to acquire in any other way is repudiated by Nature; and however
plausible the exercise may appear, it will ultimately be found fruitless
and vain.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Note B.

[4] Note C.

[5] Note D.

CHAP. V.

_On the Acquisition of Knowledge by the Principle of Individuation._

Nature, as we have seen, has rendered it imperative that the act of
reiteration should be performed upon every idea before it can have an
entrance into the mind, or be retained by the memory; but as the
individual cannot reiterate, or think over, all the ideas suggested to
him by the innumerable objects of sensation with which he is surrounded,
it next becomes a matter of importance to ascertain the means employed
by Nature for enabling her pupils to receive and retain the greatest
number of ideas, so that they shall ever afterwards remain at the
command of the will. This she accomplishes by the operation of the three
other principles to which we have adverted; namely, "Individuation," or
"Abstraction," "Grouping," or "Association," and "Classification," or
"Analysis."--We shall in this chapter attend to the principle of
"Individuation," and endeavour to trace its nature and uses in the
acquisition of knowledge by the young.

The first thing in an infant that will be remarked by a close observer
of Nature is, that while adding to its knowledge by observation, it
always confines its attention to one thing at a time, till it has
examin