our venerated contemporary Humboldt, who, at an age rarely attained by modern man, withdraws, at intervals, from the onerous duties of a councilor of state, to record the acquisitions of a mind which, from early years, has been exploring the wonders of nature, and now, year after year, pours forth another and another book of the great epic of creation, to which he has so appropriately given the sublime title, "Cosmos."

The written life of this truly great man, however, only enables us to trace the progress of another watchful observer of nature, as, step by step, he observes, examines, compares, classifies, aggregates, and accumulates, till he stands before us an intellectual Atlas, upholding the sphere of human knowledge. Liberal education, favorable opportunities faithfully improved, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and devoted application to the acquisition of it, explain the wonder. Let us inquire then, for a moment, into the processes by which human culture achieves the miracle of such results.

(5.) THE APPROPRIATE EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES FOR THE EXERCISE, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISCIPLINE, OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES.

The law of progressive intellection.—Watching the successive steps of man's intellectual development, as he advances, consciously or unconsciously, in pliancy and power of mind, we see him first incited by an irrepressible principle of curiosity, stimulating him to watchful attention, close observation, and minute inspection, for the purpose of acquiring a satisfactory knowledge of things around him; that he may, in due season, be prepared to enter upon a new and higher cycle of his ceaseless progress, and from the materials of perception, feed the reflective faculties of judgment and reason, which lead to the higher goal of truth, where alone the cravings of intellect can find rest and satisfaction.

Provision of educational apparatus.—The first care of the watchful and intelligent teacher, as the guide and director of the intellect, is obviously, in compliance with the law of intellectual progress, as traced above, to make liberal provision of the palpable material of perception, by which the instinctive appetite of curiosity is at once fed and stimulated, attention awakened, observation secured, and knowledge attained. Objects abundant in number, and varied in character, form and aspect, but chiefly those furnished by nature, and, more particularly, those which occur most frequently within the range of the child's actual observation, are the true and appropriate apparatus of his education. To the examination and inspection of these his mind naturally tends; to the process of extracting knowl edge from these, his perceptive powers are expressly adapted; in such

occupation he takes delight; working on such material, he is inspired by the consciousness of progress and of perpetually augmenting vigor; and thus he becomes a willing and efficient, because an intelligent agent in his own development.

DISCIPLINE OF THE SENSES.-Sight; color.-Sensation, though the humblest form of mental action, being the first in the natural order of intellectual development, suggests to the parent and teacher the great importance of a due attention to the early cultivation of the senses, especially of those whose action is so distinctly intellectual in character and result as is that of sight and hearing. The proper organic training of the eye implies, what is too often overlooked, an attentive regard to color, as well as form; the former of these being very early developed, and evidently, in all normal cases, a source of peculiar delight in infancy, not less than of high æsthetic gratification in subsequent appreciation of beauty, both in nature and art. Long before the infant shows any distinctive recognition or appreciation of form, it manifests a keen perception and intense pleasure in the observation of all objects of brilliant color.

Under the management of the judicious mother, balls of the three grand primary colors of the painter,-blue, red, and yellow,-form an inexhaustible source of pleasure to the infant eye; while they give an unconscious exercise and discipline to the perceptive faculty, and prepare the way for the subsequent, definite, and intelligent recognition of the great lines of distinction drawn on the field of vision by the Hand which has blended color with light. Field or garden flowers, or even wayside weeds, placed within the range of the eye, serve a similar purpose. Subsequently, the principal intermediate gradations of color, as they occur in objects of nature or of art, in varied tints and hues, may be presented to the sight, in due succession, as a pleasing exercise for the faculties of childhood, in its progress. For this purpose, flowers, the prism, the tints and half tints of the clouds, the glow, or the hue of evening and morning skies, throughout the year; the ever-varying colors of autumn, from their fullest flush to their gradual waning and decay; all are admirable materials for the intellectual and æsthetic cultivation of the human being, along the suc cessive stages of his development. The mind early trained to a sense of the beauty of color, can hardly be withheld, in after years, from the profoundest application to the study of light, as "a feast of nectared sweets, where no crude surfeit reigns." Purity and perfection of taste in art, are another sure result of early cultivation, in this respect. How much intelligence, and how much intensity of pure and even sacred gratification, may thus be superadded to the sentiment

of reverential delight in the works of the Creator, it would be difficult for even the most skillful master of expression to say.

Form. The early cultivation of a discriminating perception of the distinctive characters of form, through a carefully conducted, progressive discipline on objects submitted to the eye, is one of the most purely intellectual processes to which the mind of childhood can be subjected. The cube, the sphere, the cylinder, the cone, the pyramid, when judiciously introduced among the playthings of early childhood, as was strikingly exemplified in the schools of Pestalozzi, become unconsciously, but most surely, a basis and standard in all the relations of form; and, under the guiding suggestions of the teacher, they tend to give the mind definiteness and certainty in its action, on whatever relates to geometrical details of figure in nature, art, or mechanism. The primary truths of solid, superficial, and linear geometry, are thus imbedded in the mind, identified with its action on all visible objects, and help to constitute the observer an intelligent spectator, through life, of the grand elemental forms of the universe.

Measure.-Convenience and utility, too, have their claims to urge in favor of an early discipline of the eye on all details of measurement. An exact appreciation of measure, for in-door purposes, should be laid in permanent inch, and half and quarter inch marks, on the school-room wall; and to these should be added those of the foot and the yard. A mile, with its subdivision into halves, and quarters, should be measured off, as a permanent standard for the young eye, as it approaches or leaves the threshold of the school-room. The acre and the rod, and all other details of land measure, should be made familiar to the eye of boyhood, by express measurement, in the nearest accessible field or square.

Number.-Veritable ideas of number belong, also, to the early discipline of the eye, and are greatly dependent on the actual presentation of objects, for this special purpose. We read, in the accounts of one English exploring voyage, that the inhabitants of one group of islands in the Pacific, had do definite ideas of any number over five; and experienced teachers are well aware that, in the case of pupils accustomed to depend on the mere verbal memory of the words which represent numbers, and unprovided with a firm basis of actual observation of palpable objects, and the personal knowledge which such experience gives, there is an obstinate difficulty in forming definite and distinct conceptions of numbers, which resembles, too nearly, the confusion and helplessness of mind felt by those unfortunate island

ers, in their attempts to transcend the limits of their terminal number, five.

Most of the early arithmetical operations of very young pupils, should consist in handling and counting visible objects, in enumerating marks, in grouping objects and marks, in numbers gradually progressive, from the smallest to the largest in amount; so as to secure expertness and promptness in the process of addition, in varied forms. Successive exercises should follow in multiplication, in subtraction, and division, all performed, day after day, on visible objects handled, and on marks expressly made for such purposes of training, before the purely mental processes of arithmetic are attempted on abstract numbers, even of the smallest groups. A prevalent error with teachers still continues to be that of merely exemplifying true teaching in such forms as have been mentioned, for a limited period, too limited to tell upon the habits of the mind. Long continued training alone, is adequate to the proper purposes of discipline, certainty and skill, namely, in forming combinations which must sometimes be both extensive and complicated. It is unreasonable to expect rapidity and expertness in the processes of mental arithmetic, without the preparatory discipline which results from the actual observation of the facts of number and combination, in objects presented to the senses. Such discipline alone, can yield that personal knowledge, and that conscious grasp of mind, which give clearness and certainty to the action of the intellect in arithmetical operations.

Natural objects: animated forms.-But it is not merely the contemplation of inanimate objects which the mind, in childhood, requires as a foundation for true perception and exact observation, or as a means of securing prompt and sustained attention. The liberal training of the senses, as a primary step in intellectual cultivation, extends the study of color, form, number, and sound, to the rich domain of animated nature, in the animal as well as the vegetable kingdom, and thus brings the vivid sympathy of the young heart with kindred life and motion to the aid of the opening intellect. From the pebble, the shell, the flower, and the leaf, the judicious mother and teacher will pass to the insect, the bird, the quadruped, and the fish; and as their individualities and diversities are successively enumerated and dwelt upon, the details of color, form, and number, arrest and fix the volatile attention of the child, and win him to habits of close, minute, and exact observation.

Analysis and classification, the two great master powers for the acquisition of knowledge, in whatever direction, are also thus called in to aid the progress of the young observer in his study of nature.

The tendency of the mind to observe, compare, examine, and classify whatever is submitted to its action, thus early encouraged and stimulated, becomes an habitual trait of the mental character, and tells, with powerful effect, on the intellectual progress of the individual, in the more abstract relations of language and of mathematics. It is a great error to suppose that, because of the intense pleasure which attends the study of natural objects, there is not a profound and rigorous discipline of mind attending the equally intense intellectual action which accompanies the pleasure. Analytic examination is one and the same process, whether it is directed to the component parts of a plant or of a word. Keen and penetrating attention, close, minute, and thoughtful observation, exhaustive analysis, systematic arrangement, and methodical classification, are equally indispensable in the one case as in the other. But in giving precedence to the study of the object, and postponing that of the word, we are obeying the ordination of the Creator, who has furnished the apparatus of the first stages of human development, in the natural objects which first solicit the attention of the child, by the attractions of beauty and pleasure.

Pictorial art.-Nor is it only by means of natural objects that the sense of sight contributes to the exercise and discipline of the perceptive intellect. Art, too, renders here a rich tribute to the resources of education. Models and pictures, and the humblest attempts to produce these, as repetitions of the mental impressions received from nature, give inexpressible delight to the susceptible and imitative spirit of childhood. Their effect is invaluable, in training the perceptive faculties to the keenest, closest, long-sustained action, without the sense of weariness or fatigue; and their inspiring and refreshing influence gives vivacity and force to the whole mind. The clear perception, fixed attention, watchful observation, and active exertion, which they both require and cherish, particularly when the child is permitted to attempt to produce imitative efforts of his own, in drawing or modelling, meet so successfully the craving of the young spirit for action and endeavor, that they become powerful aids to mental development. The working hand is thus brought to the aid of the active eye, as a test, at the same time, of its correctness of vision, which is proved by the degree of truthfulness in the delineation. This productive method of exercising the perceptive and executive faculties, yields to the child the peculiar delight of having achieved something palpable, as a proof of power, and is, meanwhile, Working in his mind the silent effect which is to appear, in due season, in the symmetry and gracefulness of his handwriting, and the neatness of whatever he attempts, whether in plan or execution.