at the same moment; to have
their minds busily occupied with some object or idea, while their powers
of speech are engaged in giving utterance to something else. For the
purpose of suggesting such an exercise, we shall again attend shortly to
the exhibition of the process, as we find it under the superintendence
of Nature.

An infant, as we formerly explained, can for a long period utter only
one or two words at a time,--not because it is unacquainted with more,
but because it has not yet acquired the power of thinking the second
word, while it is giving utterance to the first. It has to attain, by
steady practice, and by slow degrees, the ability of commanding the
thoughts, while uttering two, three, or more words consecutively,
without a pause. A child also, whose mind is engaged with its toys,
cannot for some time, during its early mental advances, attend to a
speaker; much less can it think of, and arrange an answer to a question,
while it continues its play. It has to stop, and think; it then gives
the information required; and after this it will perhaps resume its
play, but not sooner. When a child can speak and continue its
amusements, it is an evidence of considerable mental power; and as
Nature makes use of its play, for the purpose of increasing this
ability, the teacher, and especially the parents, ought to excite and
encourage every attempt at conversation while the pupil is so employed.
But our object at present is to arrive at one or more regular exercises
that shall embody the principle; exercises which may at all times be at
the command, and under the controul of the teacher and parent, and which
may form part of the daily useful arrangements of the school or the
family. The following are a few, among many, which we shall briefly
notice, before introducing one which promises to be still more
beneficial, and more generally applicable to the economy of literary
pursuits, and the arrangements of the academy.

One of the exercises which assists in attaining the end here in view, we
have already alluded to, as being successfully employed by Nature for
the purpose,--that is, the child's play. Any amusement which requires
thought or attention, is well calculated to answer this purpose,--and
if the child can be induced and trained to speak and play at the same
time, his thinking powers being occupied by the external use of his
toys, the end of the teacher will in so far be gained. Questions put to
a child at t