tasked with lessons at an unusually early age,
while the healthy but more backward boy, who requires to be
stimulated, is kept at home in idleness, perhaps for two or three
years longer, merely on account of his backwardness. A double error is
here committed. The consequences to the intelligent boy are,
frequently, the permanent loss both of health and of his envied
superiority of intellect.

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814. How are such children usually managed? 815. What is the cause of
their early promise and subsequent disappointment? 816. What mode of
treatment should be adopted in educating precocious children? 817. How
should the dull or less active child be treated? What is the usual
course?

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818. In youth, too, much mischief is done by the long daily period of
attendance at school, and the continued application of the mind which
the ordinary system of education requires. The law of exercise--that
long-sustained action exhausts the vital powers of the organ--applies
as well to the brain as to the muscles. Hence the necessity of varying
the occupations of the young, and allowing frequent intervals of
exercise in the open air, instead of "enforcing the continued
confinement now so common."

_Observation._ It is no unusual occurrence, that on examination day,
the best scholars appear indifferently. This may be the result of
nervous exhaustion, produced by extra mental effort in preparing for
the final examination. It is advisable for such pupils to divert their
minds from close study for a few days previous to examination. During
this time, the student may indulge in physical recreation, social
intercourse, and a moderate amount of reading.

819. "In early and middle life, fever, an unusual degree of cerebral
disorder, is a common consequence of the excessive and continued
excitement of the brain. This unhappy result is brought on by severe
study, unremitted mental exertion, anxiety, and watching. Nervous
disease, from excessive mental labor and high mental excitement,
sometimes shows itself in another form.

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What are the consequences of the error? 818. What error prevails in
the present system of education? Why should youths be allowed frequent
intervals to exercise in the open air? Give observation. 819. What is
a frequent consequence of continued and excessive excitement of the
brain?

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820. "From the want of prope