ect, at present, is to discover the means employed by Nature for
accomplishing this preliminary object, that we may, by imitating her
plans, obtain the greatest amount of benefit.

In infancy, and during the early part of a child's life, each of the
thousands of objects and actions which are presented to its observation,
falls equally on the organs of sense, and each of them _might_, if the
child had pleased, have become objects of perception, as well as objects
of sensation. But it is evident, that till the mind occupy itself upon
one or more of these objects, there can be no mental exercise, and, of
course, no mental culture. On the contrary, if the mind shall single out
any one object from the mass that surrounds it,--shall entertain the
idea suggested by its impression on the organs of sense, and think of
it--that is, review it on the mind--there is then mental exercise, and,
in consequence, mental cultivation. From this obvious truth it
necessarily follows, that the cultivation of the mind does not depend
upon the multitude of objects presented to the observation of a child,
but only on those which it really does observe,--which it looks at, and
thinks upon, by an active voluntary exercise of its own powers. The
child, no doubt, _might_ have smelt every odour; it _might_ have
listened to every sound that entered the ear; and it _might_ have looked
upon every image that entered the eye; but we know that it did not. A
few of them only were thought of,--the ideas which they suggested were
alone "reiterated" by the mind,--and therefore they, and they alone,
tended to its cultivation.

As this act of the mind lies at the root of all mental improvement,
during every stage of the pupil's education, it becomes a matter of
considerable importance, that its nature, and mode of operation, should
be thoroughly understood.

Let us for this purpose suppose that a lighted candle is suddenly
presented before a young infant. He looks at it; he thinks of it; his
mind is employed with the flame of the candle in a manner quite
different from what it is upon any thing else in the room. All the other
images which enter the eye fail to make an impression upon the mind; but
this object which the child looks at,--observes,--does this; and
accordingly, while it is passive as to every thing else, the mind is
found to be actively engaged with the candle. He not only sees it, but
he looks at it. This, and similar "reiterations" of ideas by t