of induction and deduction, applied to the study of natural objects, under the guidance of mathematical and physical science. The materials on which the mind works in each of these great groups of subjects are undoubtedly wholly different; but its action is virtually the same in both-attention leading to discernment, discernment to fact or to truth.

The student who is thus trained in the true unity of his intellectual being, issues from the preparatory sphere of education well prepared to meet the exigences of actual life, whether these present themselves in the form of intelligent and prompt activity, or in that of rigid investigation and profound research.

NATURAL CONNECTION OF THE PERCEPTIVE AND THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES.

To enable his pupils to extend the exercise of attention into that of continued observation, is the great aim of the teacher, who works intelligently on the material of mind, with a view to elicit power of thought. As far as the discipline of the perceptive faculties extends, the end of culture is to create an observing mind; from which, in the beautifully perfect arrangements of the great Author of intelligence, spring, in succession, a reasoning and a reflecting mind. The latter, however, can never be obtained without due obedience to the Creator's law of succession, in the development of intellect. The materials of reason and reflection lie, to a great extent, though not exclusively, in the field of observation; and, a regard to the law of natural and healthy development, therefore, induces the teacher to look carefully to the first steps of his procedure in the processes of cultivation. Having used his best endeavors to vivify and invigorate the power of attention, by all appropriate means and appliances, he proceeds to the use of every genial method of confirming the tendency of the mind. to maintain that faculty in habitual action; to stamp on the intellect, as a characteristic trait, an inquisitive and appropriating spirit, which examines and searches into all things within its sphere, aggregates their riches to itself, and ever comes home laden with results for the exercise of powers and faculties yet greater than itself; and, to which it is ordained to minister. It is thus that the mind becomes the delighted and conscious agent in its own advancement.

PROCESSES BY WHICH THE HABIT OF OBSERVATION IS SECURED.

The frequent solicitation of attention, by the presentation of attractive objects, would, of itself, as we see in Nature's unaided training of the savage, provoke a tendency to observe and to inquire. But, the action of the intelligent teacher, in aid of Nature, and in obedience to her dictation, is founded on a law of moral certainty, derived from the study of the laws of mental action. Understanding and relying

on the susceptibility of the mind to the influence of the objects by which it is surrounded, and the perfect adaptation of these objects to that end; and, aided, no less effectually, by that inward thirst for knowledge, that burning desire to observe and understand, which actuates the young mind itself, the enlightened teacher knows he has but to attract attention to the object which he wishes to employ as a material in the fabric of knowledge. Attention gained, secures perception; if the object is properly selected, and skillfully handled.

The volatility of attention in the immature mind, which, if unguarded, tends to mental dissipation and superficial observation, the teacher counteracts by genial measures, adapted to arrest and fix this subtle element of mental power, and carry it successfully forward, from step to step in observation, till the end in view in investigation is attained. The successive steps of the mind's progress, under the guidance of a skillful instructor, in endeavoring to arrive at the result of true perception, exact observation, and complete knowledge, are suggestively indicated in the process of investigating the structure of any visible object, and naturally present themselves in the following order: examination, analysis, inspection; aided by interrogation, direction, and information, and extended successively to the more complex processes of comparison and classification.

Examination, as a Process in Intellectual Training.-In the absence of the prompting and directing power of genial culture, it is true, perhaps, that most of our race are permitted to fill the measure of their days without one definite or quickening thought of the objects by which they are surrounded for a life-time. The peasant boy, who, of all human beings, is the most favorably situated for the contemplation and intelligent study of nature, seldom experiences the friendly aid of a suggestive question, that might lead him to appreciate the elements of intellectual wealth, in which the field of his daily labor abounds. Education has given him the ability to compute his wages, to read, or to sign a receipt; and, thus to meet the humble demands of his animal subsistence. It may even have afforded him some formal instruction in grammar or geography. But, it has not even hinted to him that, in "herb, tree, fruit, flower, glistering with dew," there are wonders of skill, and beauty, and power, fitted to fill his soul with delight, and to exalt him to a higher intelligence; that, in the bud, as it opens in spring, in the expanded blossom of summer, in the tinted leaf of autumn, in the shell which he picks up from the sand of the brook, in the very pebble which he "turns with his share, and treads upon," there are offered to his mind whole volumes of the richest knowledge, which the study of a life-time cannot exhaust.

An eloquent American writer, speaking of the advancement of education, says: "The time may come when the teacher will take his pupil by the hand, and lead him by the running streams, and teach him all the principles of Science, as she comes from her Maker." The teacher is here rightfully represented as fulfilling, in his humble sphere of duty, the highest offices of philanthropy and of religion. Such is the teacher's noble and beneficent function, in favoring circumstances; yet, not less when, yielding to the exigencies of life, he is confined. within the walls of his school-room, but brings in Nature's apparatus from without, to give life, and meaning, and efficacy to his instructions, and win the young mind to the earnest and devoted study of the works of the Creator.

Intellectual Effects Resulting from the Examination of Objects.The zealous teacher, working with such light shed upon his labors, knows that, in presenting a product of Nature to the eye, he is presenting a germ of thought to the mind, which, under his skillful management, shall duly unfold, in leaf, and blossom, and ultimate fruit. He knows that, in the absence of a guiding suggestion, his young pupil may have looked a thousand times on that leaf, as a thing which did not concern him; on the shell, as only something queer; on the pebble, as an unintelligible intruder, perhaps, on his personal comfort; on the flower, as something pretty, that his sisters are fond of; on the fruit, as a sufficiently satisfactory morsel for his palate; and, that thus, in the great universal hall of learning, stored with library and apparatus, the orphaned mind may have sauntered away the precious hours of early life, without having been induced to study a single lesson, or engage in a single exercise. All this the teacher is well aware of; but, he knows, too, the hidden life and power that lie wrapped up in the little object with which, as a specimen from Nature's cabinet, he proceeds to magnetize the sentient intellects before him. He knows that, as surely as these susceptible beings are brought near enough to come within the range of action, they fall under the spell of its power, are charmed to rapt attention, and carried on, in wondering and delighted observation, till they are finally arrested by the grateful surprise of conscious knowledge, and advanced intelligence.

Is it a plant which forms the subject of the lesson he would give? He has but, by a striking question, to break the crust of habituation, which has blunted the perception of his pupils, and hinders their mental vision. He has but to ask them to describe its parts, in detail, as he holds it up before them, and he has gained the grand preliminary condition of effective perception,-attentive examination.

As

the description extends its ramifications, the weed, which had been a thousand times trodden under foot, without a thought of its nature or construction, becomes an eloquent expositor of Creative mechanism and life; its parts become organs and channels of vitality,—a wondrous laboratory of chemical elements and action; the individual object becomes a member of a family, each of whom has his life and his history, his birth, growth, maturity, and decay; leaving, as the moral of his story, the parting suggestive question, riveted in the wondering mind, "Am I not wonderfully made?"

One such result,-and the more common the object which secures it the better,-one such result is sufficient to ensure a repetition of itself, in a thousand other instances. The ice of indifference is broken; and the observer may now see clearly, through the transparant water, the many-formed beautiful pebbles on the sandy bed of the stream. The time and trouble of examination, it is now found, are amply repaid in the conscious pleasure of intelligent observation; and, they are no longer begrudged. The mind has now become desirous to observe, examine, and explore. It has already set out on a career which, were all educators intelligent agents, would be ceaseless to all to whose advancement it is their part to minister.

Example of a Successful Teacher.-A most striking exemplification, in this respect, of successful instruction, was often exhibited in the devoted labors of the late Josiah Holbrook, who, although the very extent of some of his plans for the advancement of popular education may have rendered their execution difficult for the endeavors of an individual, yet was uniformly successful in his attempts to introduce the study of natural objects, as a part of early education in all schools. Trusting to the power of attraction and development latent within a stone, picked up by the wayside, he would enter a school, with no other apparatus of instruction provided; and, holding up the familiar object, would succeed, by means of a few simple but skillfully-put questions, in creating an earnest desire in his young audience to be permitted to look more closely at the object. He would then hand it to them, and have it passed from one to another.

Having thus secured the preliminary advantage of earnest attention, his next step would be, by a few more brief questions, to lead his little class to a close and careful examination of the specimen submitted to their notice; and, to their surprise and delight, to enable them to see that the bit of granite in their hands,—although but one stone to the eye, at first sight,-actually contained portions of three different kinds of rock. He would then give his pupils an unpretending but thoroughly effective exercise in analysis, by inducing them to point out

distinctly each component element, apart, and to describe, at the moment of doing so, its points of difference from the others, by which the eye might recognize and the mind distinguish it.

Another stage, in the well-planned lessons of this true teacher, would lead to a yet closer inspection of the component elements in the object of observation, by the presentation of separate specimens of each, in comparison with the smaller portions of them perceptible in the stone. The transparency of the mica, its laminated form, its beauty to the eye, would all come up in turn, for due notice and remark; nor would its peculiar adaptation to several of the uses and conveniences of life be overlooked. The quartz element, with its beautiful crystalline aspect and forms, its value as a gem, its wide diffusion in the granular condition, its presence and its effects in the composition of rocks and soils,-all briefly exemplified and enumerated,— would form a copious subject of instruction and delight. The feldspar, too, with its creamy tint and block-like configuration, and its valuable uses in the hands of the potter and the dentist, would come in for its share of delighted attention and studious observation.

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Here was the true office of instruction faithfully exemplified. Here was genuine mental activity, on the part of the pupil; and, here were its natural effects,-vigorous, healthy expansion and development, together with the pure, natural, and salutary pleasure of intellectual exercise, more dear to the child than even his favorite play. Here, too, were effectually secured the moral influences of culture, docility, order, regularity, voluntary attention and application, gratitude to the instructor for personal favor and benefit consciously received, an earu est desire implanted for the true and enduring pleasures which spring from knowledge, and the first steps taken in the life-long pursuit of science. The teacher, having put himself into a true living relation to the mental constitution of his pupils, could, without delaying for formal calls to order or attention, proceed, at once, to the benign office of his vocation, as the guide of the young mind. By a wise preventive method, not by authority, rule, or penalty, he secured the devoted attention and good order of his pupils, and, not less, their own happiness, their sympathy with him, at the moment, and their habitual reverence for him, as the living source of knowledge.

After one lesson, such as has been described, the substantial and durable effect resulting from it was usually perceptible in the fact that, on the dismission of the school, the juvenile members of Mr. Holbrook's audience would be found resorting to whatever place they thought likely to furnish them with specimens such as he had exhibited in his lesson. This was almost universally the case when the