e
completely successful. We shall endeavour to point this out by a few
familiar examples.

Let us for this purpose suppose, that one of the boys formerly mentioned
is accompanied by his teacher, instead of his companion, and is
approaching the soft ground which lies between them and the house.
Before they arrive at the spot, his teacher tells him, that the marsh
before them is so soft that even a child's foot would sink if he
attempted to tread upon it. The boy might hear, and perfectly understand
the truth, and yet he might not at the time think of the use to which it
ought to be put. But if the teacher shall immediately add, "What does
that teach you?"--his attention would instantly be called, not so much
to the truth itself, as to the uses which ought to be made of it, and
his answer in such a plain case would be ready, "We must not cross
there, but seek a road to the house by some other way." Now here the
fact was verbally communicated; and although the object was in sight,
and the use of the fact might in some measure have been anticipated so
as to suggest the answer, yet a little consideration will shew, that a
similar effect would have been produced by the question, had the parties
been in the house, or had the truth been derived from reading, and not
from the oral communication of the teacher.

It is the want of something like this in the acquisition of truth by
books, which renders that kind of knowledge in general of so little
practical benefit. The truths and facts learned while attending school,
are too often received as mere abstractions, without reference to their
uses, or to the personal application of those uses to the circumstances
of the child or his companions. Events daily occur in which the pupil's
knowledge might be of important service;--but the benefits to be derived
from it not having been taught, and the method of applying the facts
which he has acquired by reading not having been explained,--the
knowledge and its uses are seldom seen together, and the practical
benefit of the teaching is accordingly lost. This at once accounts for
the very remarkable circumstance, that children, and not unfrequently
adults also, derive far more benefit from the scanty knowledge which
they have gleaned by observation and experience, than from the many
thousands of highly useful facts which have again and again been pressed
upon their notice by reading and study. In almost every case Nature
prompts us, as we h