more than half a score of geometrical figures, with less effort on
the part of the teacher than would be required to teach the child the
names of the same number of letters. These exercises, then, may well
precede the learning of the alphabet, or, at least, proceed
simultaneously with it. By this means the child's interest in the school
is increased; his senses are cultivated; he is enabled better to fix his
attention; he progresses more rapidly and thoroughly in his juvenile
studies, and at the same time lays the foundation for future excellence
in penmanship and drawing, and other useful arts.

The child may also be taught to discriminate the varieties of green in
leaves and other things; of yellow, red, and blue, in flowers and
paints; and to distinguish not only the shades of all the colors, but
their respective proportions in mixtures of two or more. Many persons,
for want of such early culture, have grown to years without the ability
of distinguishing between colors, as others have who have neglected the
culture of the ear without the ability of distinguishing between tunes.

Drawing, whether of maps, the shape of objects, or of landscapes, is
admirably adapted to discipline the sight. Children should be encouraged
carefully to survey and accurately to describe the prominent points of a
landscape, both in nature and in picture. Let them point out the
elevations and depressions; the mowing, the pasture, the wood, and the
tillage land; the trees, the houses, and the streams. Listen to their
accounts of their plays, walks, and journeys, and of any events of which
they have been witnesses. In these and all other exercises of the sight,
children should be encouraged to be strictly accurate; and whenever it
is practicable, the judgment they pronounce and the descriptions they
give should, if erroneous, be corrected by the truth. Children can not
fail to be interested in such exercises; and even where they have been
careless and inaccurate observers, they will soon become more watchful
and exact.

It is by the benign influences of education only that the senses can be
improved. And still their culture has been entirely neglected by perhaps
the majority of parents and teachers, who in other respects have
manifested a commendable degree of interest in this subject. That by
judicious culture the senses may be educated to activity and accuracy,
and be made to send larger and purer streams of knowledge to the soul,
has bee