d goings 'through' of the 'Old English Reader,' and well do we
remember how the accidental omission of the full pause after 'shows' in
the quotation ending the piece entitled 'Excellency of the Holy
Scriptures,' caused a certain teacher to understand(!) and direct us to
read the whole sentence thus: 'Compared, indeed, with this, all other
moral and theological wisdom

'Loses, discountenanced, and like folly shows' BEATTIE.'

Now, it is true, the whole sentence, in its best state, would have shown
to our green understandings like enough to 'folly,' if we had once made
the effort to find meaning of any sort in it; nor can it be considered
the most profitable use of school time, thus to 'like folly show' to
unknit juvenile brains the abstract and high thought of mature and great
minds, who uttered them with no foolishness or frivolity in their
intentions! We see reasons to expect substantial advantages from Mr.
Willson's books; and we believe teachers will appreciate and use them.
We could wish they had not gone so far to mechanicalize the pupil's
enunciation; by too freely introducing throughout the points of
inflection; but it is safe to predict that most pupils will take up with
interest the simplified readings in science; that they will comprehend
and remember a useful portion of what they read; that the lessons will
afford both them and the teachers points of suggestion from which the
mind can profitably be led out to other knowledge and its connections;
and that they who go through the series can at least leave school with
some more distinct ideas as to what the fields of human knowledge are,
and what they embrace, than was ever possible under the _regime_ of
merely fine writing, of pathetic, poetic, and generally miscellaneous
selections.

The educational interest that grew up in our country between the years
1810 and 1828, about the year 1835 gave place to a stagnation that has
marked nearly the whole of the period intervening between the last-named
and the present date. In the year 1858, the _New-York Teacher_ was made
the first medium of some thoughts in substance agreeing with those set
forth in the earlier part of this paper, claiming the indispensableness
to true education of a more true and liberal _work_ on the part of the
learner's intellectual faculties, and of a more true and logical
_consecution_ than has yet been attained, and one corresponding to the
natural order of the intellectual operations,