er the tuition of Nature. For example, the various
articles and arts which he employs in hunting, are all regularly
classified in his mind, and retained upon his memory, as perfectly
distinct from those which he employs in fishing; and neither of these
classes of articles are ever confounded with his implements and weapons
of war. His hooks and lines, are as naturally classified in his mind
with his nets and his canoe, as his club or his tomahawk is with his
other weapons used in battle. It is by this means that Nature aids the
memory in the retention of knowledge, and keeps all the successive
accumulations of the individual at the command of the will. When
cultivated, as Nature designs that it should be, it forms an extensive
cabinet in the mind, where every department of knowledge has its
appropriate place; and which, when once systematically formed, can be
furnished at leisure. When a new idea is acquired, it is immediately put
in its place, and associated with others of the same kind; and when any
portion of the knowledge which we have accumulated is required, we know
at once the particular place where it is to be found.

The benefits of this principle in the above form are extensively felt
and acted upon in society, even where the principle itself is neither
observed nor known; for in the family, in the work shop, and in the
manufactory, it is of the last importance. It is upon this principle
that a clergyman, for the help of his own memory, as well as for
assisting the memory of his hearers, arranges the subject of his sermons
in a classified form;--his text is the root of the classification. This
he divides into heads, which form the first branch in this table; and
these again he sometimes sub-divides into particulars, which form a
second branch depending on the first, and all proceeding from the
root,--the original text. Similar, but more extensive, is the plan
adopted in the divisions and subdivisions of objects in the Sciences,
such as Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, &c. in all of which the existence of
this principle in Nature's educational process is acknowledged and
exemplified. In these sciences, the efficiency of the principle in
facilitating the reception of knowledge, and in assisting the memory in
retaining it, and in putting it to use, is universally acknowledged.

But there is another form in which the same principle appears, not so
obvious indeed, but it is one which is at least equally important in the