ning to which he subjects himself,
when he labours to acquire the capacity of understanding the words that
he _reads_, as readily as the words that he _hears_. Where the
inducements to this are sufficiently powerful, the ability is no doubt
_at last_ acquired;--but where these stimulants are awanting, the
difficulty of understanding by reading has by the previous habit become
so great, that reading is gradually disused, and at last forgotten.

Many are at a loss to account for this; but it is easily explained on
the above principles. To teach a child to read, before his mind is
capable of understanding, or of reiterating the ideas conveyed by the
words he is reading, is to train him to this habit of reading
mechanically;--that is, of reading without understanding. He gradually
acquires the habit of pronouncing the words which he traces with the
eye, while the mind is busily engaged upon something else; in the same
manner that a person acquires the habit of thinking, and even of
speaking, while knitting a stocking, or sewing a seam. This habit is
confirmed by constant practice; and then, the difficulty of getting off
the habit is all but insurmountable. This difficulty will be best
understood by the experience of those who have been during some time of
their life compelled to abandon a habit after it was thoroughly
confirmed;--or by those who will but try the difficulty of persevering
to do something with the left hand, which has hitherto been done with
the right. A very little consideration will shew, that when this habit
of reading mechanically has once been established, it will require, like
an improper mode of holding the pen in writing, ten-fold more labour and
self-denial to _remedy_ the evil, than it would have taken at first to
_prevent_ it, by learning to do the thing properly and perfectly.

Much therefore depends upon the early and persevering use of the
catechetical exercise for cultivating a child's mind, before beginning
to teach it the art of reading, or requiring it to make use of the
powers of the mind on subjects which these powers are as yet incapable
of comprehending. By proper _preliminary_ exercises, the powers of the
mind will be gradually expanded; ideas of every different kind, both
individually and in connection with each other, will become familiar;
the design of language in receiving and communicating truth will by
degrees be practically understood; and, by means of the catechetical
exercise,