make every step of progress the foothold and the impulse to yet another. He will still be careful, however, even when imparting direct information, to confine it within those limits which shall leave a wide and inviting field for the pupil's own investigations, and secure his personal interest in future explorations, which may subserve the important purposes of acquisition, as connected with attainments in the various departments of education, or with those advances in science which may form a large part of his own conscious happiness, and contribute, ultimately, to the general diffusion of knowledge.

Comparison, as a Disciplinary Exercise of the Perceptive Facul ties. The unity of the intellect, as a principle in the human constitution, forbids any attempt at literal or exhaustive analysis, in the study of its diversified character and modes of action. In educational relations, more particularly, all attempts at the analytic observation of mental phenomena, for purposes of intelligent and healthful culture, must ever be regarded as merely analogical presentations and figurative expositions. The successive stages of mental development and discipline, in like manner, are incapable of being cut apart and separated by any dividing line of demarcation. On the contrary, they naturally blend into one another, with a closeness of connection, and a delicacy of shading, which does not admit of precise distinctions, or marked discriminations.

When we group, therefore, the various modes in which intellect manifests itself in action, and designate one of these groups by the term "perceptive," and another by the term "reflective," we recognize a distinction, with regard to which, even a superficial observer of the mind's activity, would not venture to say that it is not founded on an actual difference. Still, we should find it extremely difficult to lay down a precise line of demarcation, and say with certainty, in every instance, here terminates the perceptive, and here commences the reflective action of intellect. Thus, in assigning its place to the master faculty of intelligence, we should feel no hesitation in ranking reason among the reflective faculties. But, when this noble power descends, as has been so happily expressed, to the humble office of "judging according to sense," it necessarily partakes of the character of the class of faculties with which it mingles in action. It constitutes, thus, an element and a condition in perception itself; as is verified by the consequences of its absence, in the intellectual action of the insane person, who distinctly enough perceives the form of his friend, but, in the inexplicable aberration of reason, salutes him as a foreign ambassador, come to do him the honor of a visit, in consideration of his worldrenowned skill in disentangling complicated questions in state policy.

Comparison combines, usually, an act of volition with the process of observation, directed to two or more objects, for the purpose of recognizing their unity or diversity of character; and, hence, is properly regarded as but the preliminary or introductory step to the act of judgment, which pronounces the case one of analogy or anomaly. It is not unusual, therefore, to class comparison as purely an act of judgment, or decisive reason; and, by its office, a reflective faculty. As a process of intellection, however, it obviously commences with the perceptive act of attentive observation; and, as a disciplinary and developing operation in mental culture, it falls under the special care of the educator, as an exercise in the early training and forming of intellectual habit.

Proper Rank of Comparison, as an Intellectual Process.-Regarded in connection with the study of natural objects, the act of comparison, is an exercise of the perceptive faculties, which, in the order of intelligence, is the immediate sequel to the processes of examination, analysis, and inspection. These, indeed, are but the legitimate preparatory stages for its wider mode of action, and higher offices in the sphere of intelligence. Yet, in its turn, it is but the humble ministration of intellect to the yet higher offices of classification, under the guidance of the master function of induction, which presides over all the varied forms of intellectual activity, connected with the observation and study of nature.

Intellectual Effects of the Discipline Resulting from the Exercise of Comparison.-Comparison, as a process of intelligence, commenced under the watchful eye of the teacher, on the objects of perception,-the only sure and firm ground of early mental development,―gives a certainty and a skill to the perceptive action of the mind, which tell, with sure effect, on all analogous operations of a more purely intellectual or even an abstract character, in later stages of education. The influence of the habit of careful and exact comparison, extends, with full effect, to the highest efforts of mature mind, in the most complicated and intricate relations of thought, in mathematics, in logic, and in language. Comparison, as the first step in the higher progress of the mind, when making its transition from the study of single objects to that of numbers, and grouping them, by their analogies, in classes, brings the intellect under the dominion of order, introduces it to the discipline of method, and ultimately rewards it by the recognition of law. Principle and rule then take charge of the intelligent mind; and, as "strong siding champions," beat down every barrier to its progress toward consummate knowledge.

Natural Objects peculiarly adapted to the purposes of Comparison, as a Disciplinary Exercise.-As means of discipline for the perceptive

faculties, in various modes of comparison, the materials for practice, furnished in the different departments of nature, are peculiarly adapted to the great ends of education. Their mutual resemblances and contrasts, the prominent features of their correspondent forms, seem to solicit comparison and classification, as destined results of man's mental adaptation to the scene in which he moves, and which so abounds in objects of attractive interest,-the germs of intelligence, enveloped in consummate beauty, that they may lead to the conscious delights of knowledge.

By the introductory discipline resulting from the humble exercise of carefully comparing objects and their characteristic parts, the young mind receives its preparation for the scientific intelligence and the conscious pleasure with which it subsequently enters on the wide range of action afforded by the inviting analogies revealed in the study of comparative physiology and anatomy, and in all investigations to which science conducts, wherever exact classification and consummate knowledge are dependent on attentive and faithful comparison, a condition equally indispensable, whether in collating the vestiges of past eras in the physical history of our globe, or those of language and of intellect, as revealed in the investigations of philology.

Classification, as an Exercise for the Discipline of the Perceptive Faculties. This form of intellectual action,-which, in its various aspects, may be said to constitute and to consummate human knowledge, in whatever department we contemplate,-is the immediate sequel of the preceding act of mind, in collating the objects of observation, or their peculiar features and characteristics. The resemblances which comparison recognizes in objects, become the leading titles and significant designations of groups and classes. Intellect is thus freed from the burden of the endless and unsatisfactory task of wandering from object to object, in detail, without any conscious thread of connection or guidance, and without any suggestion of a definite end in view, in its wearisome mode of action. By the aid of classification, the chaos of disconnected individualities is converted into an orderly creation, where everything, as of old, is seen to exist "after his kind." Knowledge thus becomes a series of aggregated accumulations, arranged and labelled to the intellectual eye; and, investigation is rendered a rational and inviting pursuit,-directed by definite aims, and leading to satisfactory results.

Benefits of Classification, as an Intellectual Exercise.-By the process of classification, man is enabled to trace the successive footsteps of the Creator in the outward world, to recognize the grand law of universal order, and yield obedience to its dictates in his modes of

mental action. The student of nature, pursuing his investigations in this spirit, is prepared, by successive illustrations of fact, to amplify his classifications into those wide inductions which are the glory of science, and which aid the intellect in accomplishing the vast generalizations for which its powers of comprehension and its ceaseless aspirations seem equally adapted.

The exercise of classification tends to create in the young mind the love of order and method. It is, in fact, a strictly logical discipline, resulting in the highest mental benefits, and preparing the heart for the influence of the most exalted moral principle. It belongs, however, as a process of mental culture, to a very early stage of intellectual progress, and begins appropriately with the first conscious steps of advancement in the observation and study of nature. The child, in Nature's great school, finds himself placed in a vast cabinet of specimens, which he takes a peculiar pleasure in examining, and from which, even when little aided by formal education, he draws, with delight, stores of personal knowledge, and the pure pleasure of the conscious activity which his spirit craves.

The objects of nature, as the results of a designing Mind, seem peculiarly adapted to the end of drawing forth the action of intellect and building up intellectual character in the human being. In no respect is this more true than with reference to the facilities furnished in the three great kingdoms of nature, for the purely intellectual processes of arranging and classifying the objects of observation. The young mind here finds itself placed in a sphere of order, in which every thing is arranged for the correspondent action of thought; in which every object invites to observation, and every group solicits a recognition of the principle of classification.

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Early Training in Classification.-Furnished with such an apparatus for the purposes of instruction, the teacher has but to point suggestively to the successive classes of objects most easily accessible to the young learner in the great classified receptacles of earth, air, and He has but to encourage his pupil to collect, compare, and classify the various forms of mineral, plant, and animal, which lie within the range of his daily walks; or, even to deposit, in any convenient and suitable receptacle, groups of leaves of similar form, and to define the shape or the feature which, in his distribution of them, is made the ground of classification. The learner thus obtains a measure and a record of his progress in knowledge; and, the knowledge which he acquires, possesses a true and substantial character, which, in turn, affects that of his mind, giving it a taste for solid acquirements and genuine pleasures.

CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.-The classification of the mental faculties under the designations of "perceptive," "expressive," and "reflective," was adopted in the preceding lecture of this series, as a convenient one for a survey of the human mind, with reference to the purposes of education. This classification, it was mentioned, could not be regarded as founded on lines of distinction which could be assumed as rigorously or literally exact; since its terms are properly but so many names for various states, acts, or operations of the mind,— itself one and the same in all.

Imperfect as such a classification must necessarily be, however, it enables us, by its distinctions, to trace more clearly and definitely the forms of mental action, and the power which the mind possesses of exerting itself in different modes; and it affords to the educator, when contemplating the intellectual capabilities of man with reference to the processes and effects of culture, the advantages of analysis and systematic examination, as aids to the prosecution of his inquiries.

Following the order of nature and of fact, when we trace the succession of action in the exercise of man's intellectual powers, as these are designated in the classification which we have adopted, we observe that, in the mature and deliberate use of the mental faculties, the habitual and normal succession is, (1.) Observation, (2.) Reflection, (3.) Expression. In the immature and susceptible condition of childhood and youth, however, the spontaneous activity and development of the communicative tendencies of the mind cause the action of the expressive faculties to precede that of the reflective; and to this law the order of education will properly correspond.

The perfect action and discipline of the power of expression, require, no doubt, all the aid derived from the maturity of reason and reflection, and, consequently, an advanced stage of intellectual culture. But, in the history of man's mental progress, under the guidance of natural laws, the educator perceives and recognizes in the young mind, an early necessity of utterance, or of expression in some form, as one of the divinely implanted instincts by which it is actuated, and