nd obvious. It consists, not in
the acquisition of language so much, as in the use of language after it
has been gained. The pupil is for this purpose prompted by Nature to
think and to speak at the same moment;--mentally to prepare one
sentence, while he is giving utterance to its predecessor. That this is
not the result of instinct, but is altogether an acquisition made under
the tuition of Nature by the mental exertions of the infant himself, is
obvious from the fact, that he is at first incapable of it, and never
pronounces three, and very seldom two words consecutively without a
pause between each. This the child continues to do after he is perfectly
familiar with the meaning of many words, and after he can also pronounce
each of them individually. In giving utterance to the first words which
he uses, there is an evident suspension of the mind in regard to every
thing else. His whole attention appears to be concentrated upon the word
and its pronunciation. He cannot think of any thing else and pronounce
the word at the same time; and it is not till after long practice that
he can utter two, three, or more words in a sentence, without hesitation
and a decided pause between them. It is only by degrees that he acquires
the ability to utter a phrase, and at last a short sentence, without
interruption. Nature prompts the child to this exercise, which from the
first attempt, to the full flow of eloquence in the extemporaneous
debater, consists simply in commanding and managing one set of ideas in
the mind, at the moment the person is giving utterance to others. This
cannot be done by _the child_, but it is gradually acquired by _the
man_; and we shall see in its proper place, that this acquisition is
entirely the result of a mental exercise, such as we have here
described, and to which various circumstances in childhood and youth are
made directly subservient.

Here then we have the highway of education, marked off, and walled in by
Nature herself. That these four great departments in her educational
process will be much better defined, and their parts better understood,
when experience has given more ample opportunities for their
observation, cannot be doubted; and it is not improbable, that future
investigations will suggest a different arrangement of heads, and a
different modification of their parts also; but still, the great outline
of the whole, we think, is so distinctly marked, that, so far as they
go, there can