he
Danube, the Rhine, and the Elbe; of Scotland, the Clyde and Tweed; of
Ireland, the Shannon, Barrow, Boyne, Suire, and Nore. The capital of
Ireland, Dublin, is built on a small river called the Liffey. The
principal rivers of Turkey are, the Danube and the Don; of Spain, the
Guidalquiver; of Portugal, the Tagus, on which the chief town, Lisbon,
is built; and of Saxony, the Iser. In the same manner the children may
receive instruction fitted for their tender understanding, concerning
the other parts of the globe, always keeping in mind that, unless they
are made to comprehend thoroughly what is given to them, it is quite
useless to attempt to give them the lessons at all. When giving
the lessons on African costumes, the teacher should explain in the
simplest manner, that the Egyptian Bey is the chief governor of a
country in Africa called Egypt; that Africa is one of the four great
parts into which our earth is divided; that the Nile is a great river
flowing through Egypt, which, at certain times of the year, overflows
its banks, and that this fertilizes the ground, and causes the corn to
grow, which, but for this, would be withered with the sun, because
but very little rain ever falls in Egypt; that the cause of the Nile
overflowing its banks is, the great rains which fall in the countries
from whence the Nile flows: that the Ashantee is an inhabitant of
another country of Africa, where the people are very ignorant, and do
not know as much as the little children of an infant school: that the
Algerine lives in a part of Africa called Algiers: the people there
are very wicked and cruel, and used at one time to take the ships of
every other country that they met on the seas, and make slaves of the
people they found in them; but they cannot do so now, because the
French have conquered them, and taken all their ships from them: that
the Bedouin Arabs are people who rove about from place to place,
amongst the great sandy deserts of Africa, and rob travellers who are
passing over those deserts: the teacher should explain that these
deserts are very large places, covered with sand, and the sun is so
hot that no tree or shrub, or grass, will grow there, and there is no
water to be had, so that travellers carry water in leathern bottles on
the backs of camels; that camels are large animals, much larger than a
horse, which are very useful in those warm countries, because they can
carry very heavy loads on their backs, and go a gr