a former chapter, of three distinct parts, not one
of which can be left out if the effect is to be produced. There is
always, at the commencement of such an operation, the knowledge of some
fact; "Tom's foot has sunk." There is, secondly, an inference or lesson
drawn from this knowledge, "If I go forward, I also will sink." And
there is, thirdly, the practical application of that lesson, or
inference, to the child's present circumstances: "I will stand still, or
cross at another place."

It is this process, or one in every point similar, that takes place in
the mind, either of the young or the old, whenever they apply the facts
gleaned by observation or experience for the guidance of their conduct.
Now what we are at present in search of, is an exercise applicable to
_reading_, as well as to observation;--to the _school_, as well as to
the play ground or the parlour;--and to knowledge whose use may not be
required at the instant, as well as that to which we are driven by
necessity.

The desideratum here desired is to be found by the teacher in the
method, now very extensively known, of drawing lessons from useful
truths, and then applying them to the future probable circumstances of
the pupils. For example, when a child reads, or is told that Jacob was
punished by God for cheating his brother and telling a lie, the great
object of the parent or teacher is to render these truths
_practical_,--which the question, "What does that teach you?" never
fails to do. The child, as soon as he knows the design of his teacher in
communicating practical truths, and is asked the above question, will
tell him, that he ought never to cheat his neighbour, or tell a lie. The
application of these lessons, when thus established as a rule of duty
founded on Scripture, is as extensive as the circumstances in which they
may be required are various;--and the teacher has only to suppose such
a case, and to ask his pupil, if he were placed in these circumstances,
what he should do. The dullest of his children will at once perceive the
duty, and the source from which he derives confidence in performing it.

There is no difficulty, as we have seen, in drawing and applying
practical lessons in cases of urgency, where experience and the common
sense of the individual prompt him to it;--and this attempt to imitate
Nature in less urgent cases, and especially in hearing, or in the more
artificial operation of reading, has been found in experience to b