mind has had leisure to lay hold of them, or to concentrate its
powers upon the ideas they suggest. The labour of the teacher in that
case is not only lost, and the child harassed and irritated, but the
powers of the mind, instead of being brightened and strengthened, are
bewildered and mystified, and must therefore be weakened in a
corresponding degree.

The method to be adopted therefore for the imitation of Nature in the
working of this principle, will consist in bringing forward, for the
consideration of the child, every new letter, or word, or truth, or
object, _by itself_. When presented separately and alone, there is no
distraction of mind--no confusion of ideas; the child is allowed to
consider it well before learning it, so that he will know something of
its form or its nature, and will remember it again when it is either
presented to his notice alone, or when it is grouped with others. His
idea of the object or truth may be indistinct and faint at first, but it
is correct so far as it goes; and the ideas which he retains concerning
it, are obviously much more extensive, than if the mind at its first
presentation had been disturbed or bewildered by the addition of
something else.

His idea of the object or the truth, after being repeatedly considered,
may still be very inadequate, but it will now be distinct; and it is the
want of this precision in the pupil's mind that so frequently deceives
teachers, and confuses and obstructs the future advance of the scholars.
When a child hears, or reads a passage, the teacher, who understands it
himself, too often takes it for granted that the child as he proceeds is
reiterating the ideas as well as himself, and is of course master of the
subject. But this is not always the case; and wherever the child has not
succeeded in doing so, all that follows in that lesson is usually to the
child the cause of confusion and difficulty. He finds himself at a
stand; and however far he may in these circumstances be dragged
forward, he has not advanced a step, and he must at some future
period,--and the sooner the better,--return again to the same point, and
proceed anew under serious disadvantages.

In almost every stage of a child's education, the neglect of this
principle is seriously and painfully felt. It is the cause of acute
mental suffering to well affected and zealous pupils; and it is the
chief origin of all the heartlessness, and idleness, and apathy, which
are found to p