tories,
Islands, rivers, gulfs, or bays,
Isthmusses, peninsulas.

Q. What is a strait? A. A narrow part of the sea joining one great sea
to another. Q. What is an ocean? A. A very large sea. Q. What is a
gulf or bay? A. A part of the sea running a long way into the land.
Q. What is a continent? A. A very large tract of land. Q. What does a
continent contain? A. Nations and kingdoms, such as England. Q. What
more? A. Many cities and towns. Q. What more? A. Mountains. Q What are
mountains? A. Very high steep places. Q. What more does a continent
contain? A. Forests, hills, deserts, and valleys. Q. What is a forest?
A. Many large trees growing over a great deal of the land is a forest.
Q. What are hills? A. Parts of the ground which rise higher than the
rest. Q. What is a desert? A. A part of the earth where nothing will
grow, and which is covered with hot sand. Q. What is a valley? A. A
part of the earth which is lower than the rest, with hills at each
side. Q. Who made all that we have been speaking of? A. Almighty God.

I can remember the time when no national school in England possessed
a _map_. It was thought dangerous to teach geography, as in fact
anything but cramming the memory, and reading and writing. With regard
to the reading I will say nothing as to how much was understood,
explaining then, was out of the question. What a change have I lived
to see!

CHAPTER XV.

PICTURES AND CONVERSATION.

_Pictures--Religious instruction--Specimens of picture lessons
on Scripture and natural history--other means of religious
instruction--Effects of religious instruction--observation_.

* * * * *

"The parents of Dr. Doddridge brought him up in the early knowledge of
religion. Before he could read, his mother taught him the histories of
the Old and New Testament, by the assistance of some Dutch tiles in
the chimney of the room where they usually sat; and accompanied her
instructions with such wise and pious reflections, as make strong and
lasting impressions upon his heart"--_See his Life_.[A]

[Footnote A: This gave me the idea of introducing Scripture pictures
for the infants; and that they are successful can be vouched for by
hundreds of teachers besides myself.]

* * * * *

To give the children general information, it has been found advisable
to have recourse to pictures of natural history, such as of birds,
beasts, fishes, flowers, i