he thing so
named be properly defined, he thought it safest to apply the term he
best understood, and which, in his opinion, most correctly describes the
act itself.

The same thing may be said of the terms, "Individuation," "Grouping,"
and "Classification," which may perhaps be nothing more than
"Abstraction," "Combination," and "Generalization." His misconception of
those latter terms, and of what is included in them, may have led him to
think that the mental operations which he has perceived in the young are
different. If so, there can be little harm in using the terms here
adopted; but if, on the contrary, they do really include more, it would
have been hurtful to use a term which had been previously defined, and
which did not include the whole that was intended.

Note B, p. 56.--It may be a question, but one certainly of little
practical consequence, whether we ought to place the principle of
"Individuation," or this of "Reiteration," first in order. The child, no
doubt, fixes upon the individual object before he can reiterate it; but
it is still this act of reiteration that first impresses the idea on the
mind, and constitutes it a part of his knowledge.

Note C, p. 58.--It may be proper here to explain once for all, that it
is not the intention of the Author, as indeed he has not the ability, to
define scientifically the mental processes which he thinks he has
observed in the young. His object is simply to point them out, so that
they may be successfully imitated by the teacher in the exercises of the
school.

Note D, p. 60.--The fact, that children who learn to repeat words
without understanding them, do sometimes acquire the meaning of them
afterwards, is no valid objection to the accuracy of this statement.
Repeated experiments, in various forms, and with different persons, have
established the important fact, that when children at any future period
master the ideas contained in the words which they had previously
committed to memory, it is not _because_ of that exercise, but _in spite
of it_. They have attained them by another, and a perfectly different
process. It is generally by reading the words from the memory,--thinking
them over,--and in that way searching for, and reiterating the ideas
they contain. This is much more difficult than when the person reads for
the first time the same words from a book; and it has this serious
disadvantage, that it has to be read from the memory _every time_ the