be little mistake; and by following them, we are most
likely to obtain a large amount of those benefits which education is
intended to secure.--To excel Nature is impossible; but by endeavouring
to imitate her, we may at least approach nearer to her perfections.

It is not enough, however, for us to perceive the great outlines of
Nature's operations in education; we must endeavour to follow her into
the details, and investigate the means which she employs for carrying
them into practical effect. We shall therefore take up the several
departments above enumerated in their order, and endeavour to trace the
laws which regulate her operations in each, for the purpose of assisting
the teacher in his attempts to imitate them.

CHAP. II.

_On the Method employed by Nature for cultivating the Powers of the
Mind._

The _first_ step in Nature's educational process, is the cultivation of
the powers of the mind; and, without entering into the recesses of
metaphysics, we would here only recall to the recollection of the
reader, that the mind, so far as we yet know, can be cultivated in no
other way than by voluntary exercise:--not by mere sensation, or
perception, nor by the involuntary flow of thought which is ever passing
through the mind; but by the active mental operation called
"thinking,"--the voluntary exertion of the powers of the mind upon the
idea presented to it, and which we have denominated "reiteration,"[1] as
perhaps best descriptive of that thinking of the presented idea "over
again," by which alone, as we shall see, the mind is cultivated, and
knowledge increased.

It is also here worthy of remark, that the cultivation of the powers of
her pupil's mind, as a preliminary to their acquiring and applying of
knowledge, appears to be a settled arrangement of Nature, and one which
must be rigidly followed by the teacher, wherever success is to be hoped
for. Analogy, in other departments of Nature's operations, proves its
necessity, and points out its wisdom; for she is never premature, and
never stimulates her pupils to any work, till they have been properly
prepared for accomplishing it. Hence the consistency and importance of
commencing the process of education, by expanding and cultivating the
powers of the mind, preparatory to the future exertions of the pupil;
and hence also the wisdom of requiring no more from the child, than the
state of his mental powers at the time are capable of performing. Our
obj