adily before the mind, during
the whole of the succeeding mental operation. He has to consider the
lesson, or the conduct which he should pursue in these circumstances,
and then, by the association of his ideas, he must call up from the
whole of his accumulated knowledge, the precepts, the examples, the
warnings, and even the implications, which form his authority for
deciding on the conduct which he ought to pursue. These again must be
kept before the mind, while he is preparing, and giving in his own
language his conclusions to his teacher.

All this was very obvious in the several public experiments, where the
drawing of lessons, and the application of them by the pupils, were
introduced.--In the case of the adult prisoners in Edinburgh County
Jail, it was very observable; and the rolling of the eye, and the
unconscious movement of the head, as if deeply engaged in some mental
research when an application was required, were peculiarly pleasing and
obvious to all the spectators. The reason was, that they had to keep
before their mind, the circumstance, or statement involved in the
question asked, while they had, at the same time, to review the several
portions of their knowledge, chuse out the passage or example which was
calculated to direct them in the duty; and then, still keeping these
accumulated ideas present before the mind, they had to prepare and give
expression to their answers. The same thing had to be done, but to a
much greater extent, by the children in Aberdeen, in London, and in
Newry. But the most satisfactory evidence of the beneficial working of
this principle, in the drawing and applying of lessons, and by this
means in giving even to children a command of language, and a power of
extemporaneous speech which is but rarely attained even by adults, is to
be found in the Seventh Experiment in Leith. The writer feels more at
liberty in descanting upon the extraordinary results of that
investigation with the children, because he had no share in their
previous instruction; the peculiar merits of which belonged entirely to
their zealous and pious teacher. He was a plain unlettered man; and yet
he has trained hundreds of children in his Sunday school, whose
intellectual attainments, for their age and rank in life, the writer has
seldom known to be surpassed. There were exhibited by the children, from
the beginning of the experiment to the end, an amount of knowledge, a
degree of mental culture, a grasp of