e conclusions as Pestalozzi, though I have never read his works,
and for some years after my first efforts, did not know that such
a person existed. I mean, however, to give my views on teaching by
objects more fully in a work I hope soon to prepare, to be entitled
"The Infant Teacher in the Nursery and the School."

The utility of this mode of teaching must be obvious, for if the
children meet with any of those terms in a book which they are
reading, they _understand them immediately_, which would not be the
case unless they had seen the _object_. The most intellectual person
would not be able to call things by their _proper names_, much less
describe them, unless he had been taught, or heard some other person
call them by their right names; and we generally learn more by mixing
with society, than ever we could do at school: these sorts of lessons
persons can make themselves, and they will last for many years, and
help to lay a foundation for things of more importance.

I am convinced the day is not far distant when a museum will be
considered necessary to be attached to every first rate school for the
instruction of children.

Sight is the most direct inlet for knowledge. Whatever we have seen
makes a much stronger impression upon us. Perception is the first
power of mind which is brought into action, and the one made use
of with most ease and pleasure. For this reason object lessons are
indispensable in an infant school, consisting both of real substances
and of pictures. The first lesson in Paradise was of this kind, and we
ought therefore to draw instruction from it. "And out of the ground
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of
it."

CHAPTER XVII

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

_Exercise--Various positions--Exercise blended with
instruction--Arithmetical and geometrical amusements_.

* * * * *

"Would you make infants happy, give them variety, for novelty has
charms that our minds can hardly withstand."

* * * * *

As an Infant School may be regarded in the light of a combination of
the school and nursery, the _art of pleasing_, forms a prominent part
in the system; and as little children are very apt to be fretful, it
becomes expedient to divert as well as teach there. If children of