in external nature, which interests all children; for children are very differently gifted with respect to their sympathies with nature. But all are conscious of something within themselves which moves, thinks, and feels; and as a mere subject of curiosity, and of investigation, for the sake of knowledge, it may take place of all others. In order to investigate it, a great many things must be done, which are in themselves very agreeable. Mr. Alcott reads, and tells stories, calculated to excite various moral emotions. On these stories, he asks questions, in order to bring out from each, in words, the feelings which have been called forth. These feelings receive their name, and history, and place in the moral scale. Then books, and passages from books are read, calculated to exercise various intellectual faculties, such as Perception, Imagination, Judgement, Reason (both in apprehension and comprehension); and these various exercises of mind are discriminated and named. There can be no intellectual action more excellent than this, whether we consider the real exercise given to the mind, or its intrinsic interest to the children, and consequently the naturalness of the exercise. And its good influence with respect to preparing for the study of Science is literally incalculable. There is not a single thing that cannot be studied with comparative ease, by a child, who can be taught what faculties he must use, and how they are to be brought to bear on the subject, and what influence on those faculties the subject will have, after it is mastered..

But Mr. Alcott would not sequestrate children from Nature, even while this preparatory study of spirit is going

on.

He would be very thankful to throw all the precious influences of a country life, its rural employments, its healthful recreations, its beautiful scenery, around his scholars' minds. He thinks that the forms of nature, as furniture for the imagination, and an address to the sentiments of wonder and beauty and also as a delight to the eye, and as models for the pencil, cannot be too early presented, or too lovingly dwelt upon. In lieu of these circumstances, which of course cannot be procured in Boston, he reads to them of all in nature which is calculated to delight the imagination and heart. He surrounds them,

also, with statuary and pictures in his school-room; and he has drawing taught to all his scholars, hy a gentleman * who probably possesses the spirit of Art more completely than any instructor who has ever taught in this country.

And in the lessons on words, in the spelling, reading, and grammatical exercises, on which the intellectual benefits of Mr. Alcott's school are mainly based, if the spiritual part of language is dwelt on so much, both as a means and as an effect of the study of the Spirit within; yet the names of external objects as external, and the technical terms of art, are not necessarily excluded. A great deal of knowledge of things is conveyed in this way, and attention is more and more directed to this part of language, as scholars continue at the school, and need less and less exclusive conversation on the subjects appertaining to moral discipline.

The more scientific study of nature, also, Mr. Alcott thinks has its place in education, nor is he sure that he shall always exclude it from his school, although the age of his scholars, together with his views as to what ought to be taught first, throw natural science out of his course, excepting what is included in the study of Language, Geography, and Arithmetic, on the plans mentioned in the Record. Is it however, peculiar to his school, that attainments in the natural sciences are not made at the age of twelve? Will not most persons admit that, however difficult soulanalysis may be, it is still more difficult for children to seize Science, which is "nature without the matter; that the Laws of the Eternal Spirit displayed in external nature, are far more abstracted from their own consciousness, than are those emotions and moral laws, to which Mr. Alcott so often directs their attention? There is not a little illusion on this subject of science. If children learn the names of the stars; if they gather flowers into herbariums; and

*Mr. Francis Graeter: who has in contemplation to publish a work developing the whole art of drawing, especially from nature, in the same way as he has often done orally to such pupils as have received the most benefit from him; and more completely than he could do in a course of desultory lessons; -more completely than has ever been done in a book for learners. We trust no discouragement from publishers and booksellers will prevent or delay this great desideratum to all lovers of the pencil.

stones and minerals and shells and insects into cabinets; and witness some experiments in chemistry, it is supposed that they have studied the sciences. But all this is child's play; or, at best, only useful for the healthful bodily exercise, which is sometimes involved in making herbariums and cabinets. Astronomy does not consist of the heavenly bodies, but of their laws of motion, and relations to each other; nor chemistry of the earthly substances of which it treats, but of their laws of combination and means of analysis. In short, nothing need be said to prove that it is absurd to attempt to teach the sciences to children under twelve years old. They should be led to nature for the picturesque and for poetry, not for the purpose of scientific analysis and deduction. They should look upon its synthesis as sacred. The time will come when they may explore it, as God's means for aiding and completing the building up of their own Intellect; and it is a positive moral injury to them to study it while they are too young to understand this object. My readers may smile, and yet it is true, that in teaching Geometry I have been in the habit of so presenting it to the minds of my pupils, that fretting and passion when occasioned by the difficulty of mastering a demonstration of those laws by which the Creator constituted the universe, could easily be checked by a single word reminding them that it was the Creator's mind we were studying. Nothing can be more blessed than the influence of this view, when connected, as it should be, with benignant views of the Deity, as the all-cherishing, and all-animating Father of our Spirits. Mr. Alcott says,-Let children sketch from Nature, cultivate flowers, cherish animals, keep shells, and pretty stones, but not study natural Philosophy, Botany, Zoology, Conchology, Mineralogy, &c. &c. till after they have learnt those principles of arrangement, which are to be found within the soul and which are nearer and more easily apprehended than any natural science and is not this rational?

Also, if Mr. Alcott does not pretend to teach the natural sciences, he does what will ultimately prove of the highest service to Scientific Education, in giving his scholars the habit of weighing the meaning, and considering the comparative force of words. A long preparation of this kind

for the study of the Sciences, is fully made up by the case with which any science is mastered, through a previous knowledge of words. Time is wasted to an incalculable extent, in common education, and even in self-education, on account of our want of precision in the ideas we attach to words, which are too familiar to our ear, for us to realise that we do not clearly understand them. A great effort is made to remember lessons, and then they are forgotten. Perhaps those are the soonest forgotten, which it is the greatest effort to remember. But if the study is chosen with reference to the state of the mind, and the words of the lesson are perfectly understood, there need be no effort of mere memory. A clear and vivid conception, together with actual growth of mind, is remembered, involuntarily. Nothing is more common than to confound intellectual labour with fagging. Yet nothing can be more different than these. Bodily accomplishments, sleight of hand, &c. are attained by mere repetition, but intellectual accomplishment and acuteness are not attained by mere repetition of impression, though this is very commonly thought, but by a perfectly clear and vivid conception in the first place, dwelt upon so long that its most important relations may be developed, and not long enough to harass or weary the mind. Indeed, it is well known, that repetition of the same mental impressions, may destroy the memory altogether. The laws of bodily and mental discipline, are precisely the reverse of each other. I could deduce a thousand facts under my own observation, to confirm this view with respect to the true culture of memory. But I will merely state, in this place, that I have tested the advantage of a nice logical preparation for the study of the sciences, in my own school. Convinced that children were not benefitted, by committing to memory text-books of natural science, or even by witnessing experiments, until they had previously looked upon the creation with the poetical and religious eye which regards every fact as an exponent of Spiritual truth, I steadily opposed their studying them, making the sole exception of Geometry, which is not so much a science of external nature, as a contemplation of the Intellect. I found their knowledge of the intellectual habit of abstraction made the theory of geometry easy to them, while their understanding

of words enabled them to master the particular demonstrations, rapidly and completely. It was a favorite study with a whole school of thirty-five scholars, minds never subjected to the slightest artificial stimulus, not even what might arise from my keeping a weekly record, or changing their places in a class. All became expert in geometrical reasoning. Even the slowest of all, a child formed intellectually, as well as bodily, for the early death she met; and whom I never could carry farther in grammar, than to separate the names of sensible objects from other words, nor deeper in natural history than to remember the facts that addressed her social affections; did go through the plane Geometry with pleasure, and do all the problems with success, though not without long and faithful labour. When, at about thirteen years of age, these children were set to the study of natural philosophy; even without the advantage of an apparatus for experiments, and with no means of verification but geometrical demonstration; they made a progress which more than answered my own expectations, and has astonished every experienced person who has heard the details. It would be perfectly safe, and perhaps even better, were language taught as it should be, that the natural sciences, together with history, should not come among school studies, but be deferred to the period of life immediately succeeding the school period. Drawing, language, arithmetic, geography and geometry, indeed whatever can be more easily acquired by the assistance of others, should be school studies. These would train the mind to a maturity, which makes books of natural science, and of political history, easily understood, and acquired. It is very easy for a prepared mind to learn, or at least to reason without an instructor, upon facts, which no mere industry could apprehend in relation to each other. And it is to form this prepared mind that Mr. Alcott aims.

For it is not for moral education only, that self-analysis and the study of the "truth of our nature " in Jesus Christ is desirable. It is no less beneficial to the intellectual education. The soul itself, when looked on as an object, becomes a subject of scientific classification, in its faculties and operations; and the consideration of the true principles and conduct of life, is most favorable to the develop