398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lightful and fructifying of all the intellectual energies is the power of 

 similarity and agreement, by which we rise from the individual to the 

 general, trace sameness in diversity, and master, instead of being mas- 

 tered by, the multiplicity of Nature. 



Much more would be necessary to exhaust the nature of the op- 

 position between exercises of memory and exercises of judgment. 

 Language and science approximately represent the contrast, although 

 language does not exclude judgment, and science demands memory. 

 But, in the one region, mere adhesion is in the ascendant, and, in tlie 

 other, the detection of similarity in diversity is the leading circum- 

 stance. There is thus a real transition, and change of strain, in pass- 

 ing from the one class of studies to the other; the only qualiiying cir- 

 cumstance is that in early years, routine adhesion plays the greatest 

 part being, in fact, easier than the other line of exertion, for reasons 

 that can be divined. 



We can now see what are the departments that constitute the most 

 effective transitions or diversions, whereby relief maybe gained at one 

 point, and acquirement pushed at some other. In the muscular ac- 

 quirements, we have several distinct regions the body generally, the 

 hand in particular, the voice (articulate), and the voice (musical). To 

 pass from one of these to the other is almost a total change. Then, 

 as to the sense engaged, we may alternate between the eye and the 

 ear, making another complete transition. Further, each of the sense- 

 organs has distinguishable susceptibilities, as color and form to the 

 eye, articulation and music to the ear. 



Another effective transition is from books or spoken teaching to 

 concrete objects as set forth in the sciences of observation and exper- 

 iment. The change is nearly the same as from an abstract subject 

 like mathematics to one of the concrete and experimental sciences, as 

 botany and chemistry. A still further change is from the world of 

 matter to the world of mind, but this is liable to assume false and de- 

 lusive appearances. 



It has been well remarked that arithmetic is an effective transition 

 from reading: and writing. The whole strain and attitude of the mind 

 are entirely different, when the pupil sets to perform sums after a read- 

 ing-lesson. The mathematical sciences are naturally deemed the 

 driest and hardest of occupations to the average mind ; yet there may 

 be occupations such as to make tliem an acceptable diversion. I have 

 known clergymen whose relaxation from clerical duty consisted in 

 algebraical and geometrical problems. 



The fine-art acquisitions introduce an agreeable variety, partly 

 by bringing distinctive organs into play, and partly by evoking a 

 pleasurable interest that enters little, if at all, into other studies. The 

 more genial part of moral training has a relationship to art. The 

 severer exercises are a painful necessity, and not an agreeable transi- 

 tion from anything. 



