child either reads, or repeats as the answer
to a question, the words, "Jesus died for sinners."--At this point in
the former mode of using a catechism, the exercise of the pupil stopped;
and the parent or teacher understanding the meaning of the sentence, and
clearly perceiving the ideas himself, usually took it for granted that
the child also did so, or at least at some future time would do so. This
was mere conjecture; and he had no means of ascertaining its certainty,
however important. It is at this point that the catechetical exercise
commences its operations. When the child has repeated the words, or when
the teacher for the first time announces them, the mind of the child may
be in a state very unfavourable to its improvement; but as soon as the
teacher asks him a question founded upon one or more of the ideas which
the announcement contains, and which he must answer without farther
help, the state of his mind is instantly and materially changed.
Hitherto he may have been altogether passive on the subject;--nay, his
mind while reading or repeating the words, may have been busily engaged
on something else, or altogether occupied with his companions or his
play;--but as soon as the teacher asks him "Who died?" there is an
instant withdrawal of the mind from every thing else, and an exclusive
concentration of its powers upon the ideas in the announcement. He must
think,--and he must think in a certain way, and upon the specific ideas
presented to him by the teacher,--before it is possible for him to
return an answer. It is on this account that this exercise is so
effective an instrument in cultivating the powers of the mind;--and it
is to the long series of exercises which take place in this operation,
that we are now calling the attention of the reader, that he may
perceive how closely this exercise follows in the line prescribed by
Nature, in creating occasions for the successive reiteration of
different ideas suggested by one question.

When, in pursuing the catechetical exercise, a question is asked from an
announcement, there is first a call upon the attention, and an exercise
of mind upon the _question_ asked, the words of which must be translated
by the pupil into their proper ideas, which accordingly he must both
perceive and understand. He has then to revert to the _ideas_ (not the
words) contained in the original announcement, the words of which are
perhaps still ringing in his ears; and these he must also