a child, with very little trouble, would be put into the
full possession of the cause of many facts in natural philosophy,
exceedingly dissimilar in their appearance, but which are all mastered
with ease and intelligence by a knowledge of this law. When the
principle and its mode of working have been explained, the child is
provided with a key, by which he may, in the exercise of his own powers,
unlock one by one all the mysterious phenomena of the air and common
pump, the cupping-glass, the barometer, the old steam and fire engine,
the toy sucker and pop-gun, the walking of a fly on the ceiling, the
ascent of smoke in the chimney, the sipping of tea from a cup, the
sucking of a wound, and the true cause of the inspiration and expiration
of the air in breathing. To teach these singly, would obviously be
exceedingly troublesome to the teacher, and laborious for the child; but
when thus linked together, as similar effects from the same cause, they
are understood at once, and each of them helps to illustrate and explain
all the others. They are received without confusion, and are remembered
without difficulty. All this may in general be done even with children,
as we shall immediately prove, by the method recommended above, of
requiring, after the illustration of the principle, the lessons which it
is calculated to teach.

The results of this simple method of imitating Nature in one of the most
valuable of her processes, have been found remarkably uniform and
successful; and when it shall be regularly brought into operation in
connection with the other parts of the system, it promises to be still
more valuable and extensive. But even already, with all the
disadvantages of time, place, and persons, the importance and
efficiency of the exercise have been highly satisfactory. We shall
shortly advert to a few instances of its success, which have been
publicly exhibited and recorded.

The criminals in the jail of Edinburgh, after three weeks teaching, had
acquired a considerable degree of expertness in perceiving and drawing
lessons from the moral circumstances which they read from Scripture. In
the report of that experiment, the examinators say, "They gave a
distinct account, (from the book of Genesis,) of the prominent facts,
from Adam, down to the settlement in Goshen, and shewed by their
answers, that the circumstances were understood by them, in their proper
nature and bearings. From each peculiar circumstance, they dedu