n all
these things, must be most mixed and multifarious; it could not be
_clear_, though that is a quality mainly to be sought. Is not the
intention rather, to develop _ideas_ of _the right, the acute,_ and _the
obtuse angle?_ Instances of this sort, which we can not understand
otherwise than as showing a loose way of thinking, are numerous. But
then, again, it is assumed that the lessons _develop_ all the ideas
successively discoursed about. Far otherwise, in fact. In many
instances, of course, a sharper, better idea of the object or quality
discussed will be elicited in the course of the lesson. This is, at
best, only a sort of quasi-development, individualizing an idea by
turning it on all sides, comparing with others, and sweeping away the
rubbish that partly obscured it. In others of the topics, the learner
has the ideas before we begin our developing operations. But the great
misfortune of the usage of the term here is, that _develop_ properly
implies to _unroll, uncover, or disclose_ something that is infolded,
complicate, or hidden away; but mark, something that is always THERE
before the developing begins, and that by it is only brought into light,
freedom, or activity! Thus, we may develop faculties, for they were
there before we began; but we simply can not develop _objective ideas_,
such as this book deals with, but must impart them, or rather, give the
mind the opportunity to get them. First, then, this term thus employed
is needlessly pretentious; secondly, it is totally misapplied. Would it
not help both teacher and pupil, then, if we were to leave this stilted
form of expression, and set forth the actual thing the lessons
undertake, by using such caption as for for example, _To give the idea,
of a triangle,_ or to insure, or _to furnish the idea of a curve?_ We
think the misnomer yet greater and worse, when we come to such captions
as 'To develop the idea of God, as a kind Father;' especially when the
amount of the development is this: 'Now, children, listen very
attentively to what I say, and I will _tell you_ about a Friend that
_you all have_, one who is kind to all of you, one who _loves you
better_ than your father or your mother does,' and so on. All this, and
what precedes and follows, is 'telling,' as the author acknowledges; of
course, then, it is not developing. How is the child here made to _find_
and _know_ that it has such a Friend?--that this Friend _is_ kind to
all?--that this Friend loves