he part of others, to detach his mind from
the object, till it has surrendered the full amount of information which
the young enquirer is seeking. The boy with his new drum will attend to
nothing else if he can help it, as long as he has any thing to learn
concerning it, and the noises it is capable of producing.--And even when
he has tired himself with beating it, he is not satisfied till he has
explored its contents, to find out the cause which has created the
sounds. The girl with her doll, in the same way, will voluntarily think
of nothing else, as long as it can provide her with mental exercise;
that is, as long as it can add something new to her present stock of
knowledge. And it is here worthy of remark, that the apparent exception
in this case, arising from the greater length of time that a doll and a
few other similar toys will amuse a child, is in reality a striking
confirmation, and illustration of the principle of which we are
speaking.--Such toys amuse longer, because it is longer before the
variety of which they are capable is exhausted.--The doll is fondled,
and scolded, and cradled, and dressed, and undressed in so many
different ways, that the craving for new ideas continues for a long
period to be amply gratified;--but the effect would be quite different,
were the very same doll placed where it could only be looked at. Every
new movement with the toy is employed by Nature, for the cultivation of
the mental powers, by reiterating the ideas thus imparted, and on which
the imagination delights to dwell; and also in receiving a knowledge of
individual objects and ideas, which, when once known, are to form the
elements of future groupings, and of an endless variety of information.

It is here of importance to recollect, that almost all the information
received by children, is of a sensible kind. They can form little or no
idea of abstract truths. The mind and the memory must be stored with
sensible objects,--first individually, and then by grouping,--before the
child can arrive at a capacity for abstraction. Nature's first object,
therefore, is to store the memory and imagination of the young with the
names and images of things, which, as we have seen, are acquired
individually, and, when once known, are remembered for future use. But
those things which they have not yet seen, or felt, or heard, or tasted,
are totally beyond their conception, and cannot be of any service,
either in grouping, or classificatio