an explanation of the subjects. Nay, they will
even ask questions that will puzzle the teacher to answer; and
although there is in some minds such a natural barrenness, that, like
the sands of Arabia, they are never to be cultivated or improved,
yet I can safely say, that I never knew a child who did not like the
pictures; and as soon as I had done explaining one, it was always,
"Please, sir, may we learn this?" "Please, teacher, may we learn
that?" In short, I find that I am generally tired before the children;
instead of having to apply any magisterial severity, they are
petitioning to learn; and this mode of teaching possesses an advantage
over every other, because it does not interfere with any religious
opinion, there being no body of Christians that I know, or ever heard
of, who would object to the facts recorded in the Bible, being thus
elucidated by pictures. Thus a ground-work may be laid, not only of
natural history, but of sacred history also; for the objects being
before the children's eyes, they can, in some degree, comprehend them,
and store them in their memories. Indeed, there is such attraction in
pictures, that you can scarcely pass a picture-shop in London, without
seeing a number of grown persons around the windows gazing at them.
When pictures were first introduced into the school, the children told
their parents; many of whom came and asked permission to see them; and
although the plates are very common, I observed a degree of attention
and reverence in the parents, scarcely to be expected, and especially
from those who could not read.

It is generally the case, that what we have always with us, becomes so
familiar, that we set little store by it; but on being deprived of it
for a time, we then set a greater value on it: and I have found this
to be the case with the children. If the pictures we make use of in
the schools be exposed all at once, and at all times, then there would
be such a multiplicity of objects before the eyes of the children,
that their attention would not be fixed by any of them; they would
look at them all, at first, with wonder and surprise, but in a short
time the pictures would cease to attract notice, and, consequently,
the children would think no more of them than they would of the paper
that covers the room. To prevent this, and to excite a desire for
information, it is always necessary to keep some behind, and to let
very few objects appear at one time. When the childre