generally the various means employed by Nature, in the acquisition of
knowledge by the young,--and then to attend more in detail to the mode
by which she applies the principles involved in each.

These general means appear to consist of four distinct principles,
which, for want of better definitions, we shall denominate
"Reiteration," "Individuation, or Abstraction," "Grouping, or
Association," and "Classification, or Analysing."[2]

The _first_ is the act of "Reiteration," of which we have already
spoken, as the chief instrument in cultivating the powers of the mind,
and without which, we shall also find, there can be no acquisition of
knowledge. The _second_ is the principle of "Individuation," by which
Nature communicates the knowledge of single ideas, or single objects, by
constraining the child to concentrate the powers of its mind upon one
object, or idea, till that object or idea is familiar, or, at least,
known. The _third_ is the common principle of "Grouping, or
Association," and appears to depend, in some degree, on the imaginative
powers, by which a child begins to associate objects or truths together,
after they have become individually familiar; so that any one of them,
when afterwards presented to the mind, enables the pupil at a glance, to
command all the others which were originally associated with it. The
_fourth_ is the principle of "Classification, or Analysing," by which
the mind distributes objects or truths according to their nature,--puts
every truth or idea, as it is received, into its proper place, and among
objects or ideas of a similar kind. This classification of objects is
not, as in the principle of grouping, regulated according to their
accidental relation to each other, by which the canary and the cage in
which it is confined would be classed together; but according to their
nature and character, by which the canary would be classified with
birds, and the cage among other articles of household furniture. All
knowledge, so far as we are aware, appears to be communicated and
retained for use, by means of these four principles; and we shall now
proceed to examine the mode in which each of them is employed by Nature
for that purpose.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Note A.

CHAP. IV.

_On Nature's Method of communicating Knowledge to the Young by the
Principle of Reiteration._

We have, in a former chapter, endeavoured to describe that particular
act of the mind which generally follows si