etrical song--Anecdotes--Size--Song
measure--Observations_.

* * * * *

"Geometry is eminently serviceable to improve and strengthen the
intellectual faculties."--_Jones_.

* * * * *

Among the novel features of the Infant School System, that of
geometrical lessons is the most peculiar. How it happened that a mode
of instruction so evidently calculated for the infant mind was so long
overlooked, I cannot imagine; and it is still more surprising that,
having been once thought of, there should be any doubt as to its
utility. Certain it is that the various forms of bodies is one of the
first items of natural education, and we cannot err when treading in
the steps of Nature. It is undeniable that geometrical knowledge is of
great service in many of the mechanic arts, and, therefore, proper
to be taught children who are likely to be employed in some of those
arts; but, independently of this, we cannot adopt a better method of
exciting and strengthening their powers of observation. I have seen a
thousand instances, moreover, in the conduct of the children, which
have assured me, that it is a very pleasing as well as useful branch
of instruction. The children, being taught the first elements of form,
and the terms used to express the various figures of bodies, find in
its application to objects around them an inexhaustible source of
amusement. Streets, houses, rooms, fields, ponds, plates, dishes,
tables; in short, every thing they see calls for observation, and
affords an opportunity for the application of their geometrical
knowledge. Let it not, then, be said that it is beyond their capacity,
for it is the simplest and most comprehensible to them of all
knowledge;--let it not be said that it is useless, since its
application to the useful arts is great and indisputable; nor is it to
be asserted that it is unpleasing to them, since it has been shewn to
add greatly to their happiness.

It is essential in this, as in every other branch of education,
to begin with the first principles, and proceed _slowly_ to their
application, and the complicated forms arising therefrom. The next
thing is to promote that application of which we have before spoken,
to the various objects around them. It is this, and this alone, which
forms the distinction between a school lesson and practical knowledge;
and so far will the children be found from being averse from this
exertio