taking down all that is
spoken, except what arises from the imperfection of the mechanical part
of the process,--his manual dexterity. All these collateral advantages
will accrue to the pupils by the use of this exercise; and this latter
one will be greatly promoted in a school by a piece of history, an
anecdote, or a paragraph of any kind, which none of the pupils know,
being read slowly for only a few minutes, while the whole of the pupils
who can write are required to take notes at the time, and to stop and
give them in, as soon as the reading is finished.[28]

It is also here worthy of remark,--and it is perhaps another proof of
the efficiency of the several exercises before enumerated as imitations
of Nature,--that they all, more or less, embody a portion of this
principle of double duty performed by the mind. In each of them, when
properly conducted, the pupil is compelled to speak, and to think at the
same moment. Not a little of their efficiency and value indeed, may be
attributed to this circumstance. In the catechetical exercise, for
example, it is not difficult to trace its operation. For in the attempt
of the child to answer a question previously put to him, the teacher
will be at no loss to perceive the mind gradually acquiring an ability
to think of the original question and of the ideas contained in the
subject from which he has selected his answer, at the very moment he is
giving it utterance. And a knowledge of the fact should excite teachers
in general, so to employ this exercise as to produce this effect.--The
analytical exercise also, in its whole extent, calls into operation the
working of this principle, whether employed synthetically or
analytically. When children are employed with the analytical exercise
proper,--as in tracing a practical lesson backwards to the subject or
circumstance from which it has been drawn, and in attaching that
circumstance to the story or class of truths to which it belongs; or
when, as in the "Analysis of Prayer," a text of Scripture has to be
classified according to its nature, among the several parts into which
prayer is divided;--in all these cases, there is this same double
operation of the mind, searching and comparing one set of ideas, while
the pupil is employed in giving expression to others.

The exhibition of the principle will be easily traced, from what took
place in the experiment in London, where the report states, that "the
third class were next examin