often, the sole means by which the former is enabled to "set up" accurately in his mind the facts of the lesson required. The number and the closeness of these questions become, further, the expression and evidence of the interest which the pupil takes in the lesson. To the teacher who possesses the patient and sympathizing spirit of his office, these questionings come gratefully to his ear, even when they betray the "blank misgivings of a creature wandering in worlds not realized." It is then that he is most impressively reminded of the true nature of his work, as an intellectual guide and conductor. He is ever careful, therefore, to provoke, rather than repress, interrogation; and, even so to frame his own questions that they shall serve to call forth fresh inquiries from his pupils.

The appropriate discipline of the perceptive faculties, depending, as it does, on the frequent presentation of objects of sense, with a view to win attention, and secure exact observation, implies that the teacher resorts, on all occasions, to close questioning, as the suggestive process by which the pupil is induced to use his own perceptive power, to rely on the fidelity of his own observation, and thus to acquire a knowledge which is substantial and thorough-going. But, it is not less true that, in proportion to the pupil's interest in the efforts which he makes, and the progressive steps which he takes in every process, his very attainments will be suggesting and prompting further inquiries, for his future guidance. The spirit and intelligence, as well as the pleasure, therefore, with which he proceeds in his work, will depend, to a great extent, on the consciousness that he is not working in the dark.

Mode of Answering Questions.-The answer to the pupil's questions, however, the true teacher is well aware, is not always to come from the lips of the instructor. It is often left intentionally to be the fruit of the learner's further efforts and closer examination. To withhold an answer to the most eager question, is sometimes a truer kindness than to give it. The ripe and perfect fruit of knowledge must sometimes, like that of the tree, be patiently waited for, and wrought for.

Leading Questions.-The wise teacher, however, will know as well when to put the skillful leading question, which does not supersede, but rather calls forth the activity of the pupil's mind. The leading question, though unlawful at the bar, is, under the management of the prudent teacher, the very turning point, in some cases, which decides whether he is "apt to teach," as an intelligent guide to the results of actual knowledge and true discipline.

Direction and Information, as Didactic Processes Connected with the Exercise and Discipline of the Perceptive Faculties.-The answers

given by a judicious teacher to the questions of his pupils will often consist in references to the sources of information, rather than in direct replies. In the study of natural objects, it is peculiarly important that the pupil should see, and think, and judge, and discover, for himself. To such training in self-reliance and self-help, the exercise of the perceptive faculties on the details of form in animal, plant, and mineral, is preeminently adapted. The embarrassing complexity and intricacy, and the baffling abstruseness, and the perplexing obscurity, which sometimes characterize other subjects of investigation, and which call so loudly for the teacher's frequent aid to his pupil, do not exist here. The simplicity and the beauty of nature's products, invite and attract attention; and, every successive stage of examination leads unconsciously to another. The teacher has but to indicate and to prompt, and thus leave the mind the rich satisfaction of achieving its own progress. He is not tempted to fall into the besetting sin of instruction, that of anticipating, and assuming, and asserting, and so quenching the mind's healthful thirst by the lukewarm distillations of precept and rule, instead of leaving it to refresh itself by drinking at the cool, vivifying fountain-head of original observation.

An eminent naturalist once gave a very impressive lesson in the art of teaching to one who is himself, professionally, an instructor. The question proposed to the savant was, "How may we distinguish snakes which are venomous from those which are not?" "Come into my study," was the answer, "and I will place before you some of each kind; and, then, by examining, you can see for yourself." It is thus the true teacher proceeds with his pupils: it is thus he gives certainty to knowledge, and clearness and vigor to the mental faculties.

As a guide and director of the mind, the intelligent instructor points his pupils to the sources from which he himself obtained information, and thus admits them to the honor of partnership with him in investigation and accumulation. Teacher and student thus become allied by friendly participation in the same pursuits; and, a high, though unostentatious, moral effect is blended with the cultivation and enjoyment of intellect.

The teacher, however, who thus wisely throws his pupils, as far as practicable on their own resources, does not thereby preclude the ample furnishing of all needed information, which intelligent appreciation and successful application may require. He will, on the contrary, take pleasure in disclosing facts, in tracing analogies, and furnishing explanations, when these serve to give additional value and attraction to the theme of his instructions. He will thus contrive, at once, to satisfy and to stimulate the mind's natural craving for knowledge, and

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 Faculties. 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