the acquisition of
knowledge.--The importance of this department of a child's education has
uniformly been acknowledged;--so much so, indeed, that it has too
frequently absorbed the whole attention of the Teacher, as if the
possession of knowledge were the whole of education.--That this is a
mistake we shall afterwards see; because the value of knowledge must
always be in proportion to the use we can make of it; but it is equally
true, that as we cannot use knowledge till we have acquired it, its
acquisition as a preliminary step is of the greatest importance. Our
intention is at present, to enquire into the means employed by Nature,
for enabling her pupils to acquire, to retain, and to classify their
knowledge; so that, by ascertaining and imitating her methods, we may in
some degree share in her success.

For some time during the early years of childhood Nature is the chief,
or the only Teacher; and the contrast between her success at that time,
and the success of the parent or teacher who succeeds her, is very
remarkable, and deserves consideration.

When we examine this process in the case of infants, we see Nature
acting without interference, and therefore with undeviating success.
Within a few months after the child has attained some degree of
consciousness, we find that Nature, under every disadvantage of body and
mind, has succeeded in communicating to the infant an amount of
knowledge, which, when examined in detail appears very wonderful.--The
child has been taught to know his relations and friends; he has acquired
the ability to use his limbs, and muscles, and organs, and the knowledge
how to do so in a hundred different ways. He has become familiar with
the form, the colour, the texture, and the names of hundreds of articles
of dress, of furniture, of food, and of amusement, not only without
fatigue, but in the exercise of the purest delight, and with increasing
energy. He has begun to contrast objects, and to compare them; and this
capacity he evinces by an undeviating accuracy in choosing those things
which please him, and in rejecting those things which he dislikes. But
above all, the infant, along with all this substantial knowledge, has
been taught to understand a language, and even to speak it. The fact of
all this having been accomplished by a child of only two or three years
of age, is so common, that the mysterious principles which it involves,
are too generally overlooked. We thoughtlessly allow t