tirely to depend upon his diligence in thinking for himself;--in
reiterating in his own mind the ideas which he hears, or reads, or which
are suggested to his mind by outward objects. This is still the same act
of the mind which we have described in the infant, with this very
important difference, however, that a large portion of his ideas is now
suggested by _words_, instead of _things_; but it is the ideas, and not
the words, that the mind lays hold of, and by which its powers are
cultivated. When this act therefore is successfully forced upon a child
in any of his school operations, the mind will be disciplined and
improved;--but wherever it is not produced, however plausible or
powerful the exercise may _appear_ to be, it will on scrutiny be found
to be totally worthless in education,--a mere mechanical operation, in
which, there being no mental exertion, there can be no mental culture.

In the adult, as well as in the young and the infant, the culture of the
mind is carried on in every case by the operation of the same
principle.--However various the means employed for this purpose may be,
they all depend for their success upon this kind of active
thought,--this reiteration of the _ideas_ suggested in the course of
reading, hearing, observation, or reasoning. A man may turn a wheel, or
point pins, or repeat words from infancy to old age, without his mind's
being in the least perceptible degree benefited by such operations;
while the mill-wright, the engineer, or the artist, whose employments
require varied and active thought, cannot pursue his employment for a
single day, without mental culture, and an acquisition of mental
strength.--The reason is, that in mere mechanical operations there is
nothing to induce this act of reiteration,--this active mental exercise
of which we are speaking. In the former case, the individual is left to
the train of thought in the mind, which appears to afford no mental
cultivation;--whereas, in the latter, the mind is, by the acts of
comparing, judging, trying, and deciding, which the nature of his
occupation renders necessary, constantly excited to active
thought,--that is, to the reiteration of the several ideas presented to
it.

These remarks may be thought by some to be exceedingly commonplace and
self-evident.--It may be so. If they be admitted, we ask no more.--Our
purpose at present is answered, if we have detected a principle in
education, by the operation of which the power