this one course. Indeed, it is
hard to estimate the enormous benefit of enabling a man to commune with
the most exalted minds of all time, to read the most significant records
of all ages, to find that others have felt and seen and suffered as
himself, to extend his sympathy with his brother-man, his insight into
nature, his knowledge of the ways of God. Now the above is but a poor
description of what the humblest education offers.

Let us now consider the subject of "the school-room" more in detail.
And, the first remark I have to make, is, that we should perpetually
recal to mind the nature of our own thoughts, and sensations, at the
early periods of life in which those are whom we are trying to educate.
This will make us careful not to weary children with those things which
we long to impress most upon them. The repetition of words, whatever
they may contain, is often like the succession of waves in a receding
tide, which makes less of an inroad at each pulsation. It is different
when an idea, or state of feeling, is repeated by conduct of various
kinds: that is most impressive. If a child, for instance, is brought up
where there is a pervading idea of any kind, manifested as it will be in
many ways, the idea is introduced again and again without wearisomeness,
and the child imbibes it unconsciously. But mere maxims, embracing this
idea, would very likely have gained no additional influence with him from
being constantly repeated: that is, at the time; for, in after years, the
maxims may, perhaps, fasten upon his mind with a peculiar strength,
simply from their having been often repeated to him at an early period of
his life. But at present this repetition may be of immense disservice.
You cannot continue to produce the same effect by words, that you did on
first using them; and often you go on hammering about a thing until you
loosen what was fast in the first instance. It is well to keep such
reflections steadily in mind as regards religious instruction for the
young, and, especially, as regards religious services for them. Go back
to your own youth, and recollect how little command of attention you had
yourself, how volatile you were, how anxious to escape all tedium, how
weary of words, how apt to dislike routine. Then see whether you make
sufficient allowance for these feelings in dealing with the young; and
whether it might not be possible to give them the same holy precepts, to
communicate the same ex