and he be required to elucidate and rehearse those
relating to one particular object, either placed before him, or, what is
better, one with which he is acquainted, but which at the time he does
not see, the eye and the mind will be engaged with his paper, and in
recollecting the particular qualities of the object, at the same time
that he is employed in communicating his recollections.

Another method for producing the same end, consists in the parent or
teacher repeating a sentence to the child, and requiring him to remember
it, and to spell the several words in their order. Here the child has to
remember the whole sentence, to observe the order of the several words,
to chuse them one after another as he advances, and to remember and
rehearse the letters of which each is composed. The mental exercise here
is exceedingly useful, besides the advantages of training children to
correct spelling. At the commencement of this exercise with a child, the
sentence must be short, and he may be permitted to repeat each word
after he has spelled it, which will help him to remember the word that
follows;--but as he advances, he may be made to spell the whole without
pronouncing the words; and the length of the sentence may be made to
correspond with his ability. Great care however should be taken by the
teacher that this exercise be correctly performed.

Many other methods for exercising the child's mind and oral powers at
the same moment, will be suggested by the ingenuity of teachers, and by
experience; and wherever a teacher hits upon one which he finds
efficient, and which works well with his children, it is to be hoped
that he will not deprive others of its benefit. Such communications in
education, like mercy, are twice blessed. But the exercise which, for
its simplicity and power, as well as for the extent of its application
to the business and arrangements of the school, appears to answer the
purpose best, and which embodies most extensively the stipulations
required for the successful imitation of Nature in this part of her
process, is that which has been termed the "Paraphrastic Exercise." The
exercise here alluded to has this important recommendation in its
practical working, that while it can be employed with the child who can
read no more than a sentence, it may be so modified and extended, as to
exercise the mental and oral powers of the best and cleverest of the
scholars to their full extent. It consists in making a