2?0 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 



sessed of reasoning faculties which it is his office to discipline by re- 

 gular and judicious employment, The teacher's first duty then'is to 

 teach the children to think ; and this is not an easy thing, for it re- 

 quires much energy, tact, and vigilance, to keep alive, even for a short 

 time, the interests of large masses of boys, such as are sometimes to 

 be seen in active and happy employment under energetic and com- 

 petent schoolmasters. The infant-school system, when practised by 

 an intelligent and kind master, is admirably calculated to call forth 

 the energies and unfold the faculties of young children ; and there 

 are many parts of the plan which may be advantageously transferred 

 to schools for older children. But, let the details of the machinery be 

 what they may, one thing is imperative the children, however low 

 and uncultivated, must be treated as sentient beings ; and the master 

 must descend to the level of the youngest and most ignorant child, in 

 order to succeed in raising it towards his own level. In accordance 

 with what has been thus generally advanced, we recommend such les- 

 sons to be given to beginners as shall open their minds and awaken 

 their interest lessons on easy and familiar subjects, of a nature to ex- 

 ercise the senses and to lead to active thought, such lessons as Miss 

 Mayo's " Lessons on Objects/' or even easier (for the easier the better 

 at the outset), as the Useful Knowledge Society's " Exercises for the 

 Improvement of the Senses" such lessons as these, not however 

 passively communicated by the teacher from a book, but by means 

 of mental intercourse in the way of conversation between the master 

 and his pupil, continually illustrated by pictures of the objects dis- 

 coursed, or if possible by the objects themselves ; and we recommend 

 them to be given to children as either introductory to or in connection 

 with the necessarily dull process of learning to read, which process, by 

 the way, with a little management, might be made much less disagree- 

 able than children usually find it at present. To such easy lessons 

 others on general topics might succeed, that would continue the good 

 work of mental development and lead to the acquisition at once of 

 a well-disciplined mind, and of much sound knowledge lessons on 

 Geography and Arithmetic, of a nature calculated to fix the willing 

 attention of the scholars and at the same time to make them under- 

 stand the common-sense principles, and particularly of the latter, which 

 is scarcely ever taught as it should be, even in seminaries of higher 

 pretensions. Besides what has been suggested already, short read- 

 ings on the History of England would not be inappropriate to the in- 

 struction even of the most humble of our fellow-countrymen, what- 

 ever lessons a true history of the various events might give on the 

 character and conduct of its greatest politicians. 



Such is the course that has been proposed for the children of those 

 persons who wish at the cheapest rate, or who are not able sufficiently 

 to provide for their education not with the view of raising them 

 above their station, as the enemies of education would insinuate, but 

 in order to make them competent to perform their duties in the best 

 manner, and when they become parents to extend the same advan- 

 tages to their children. From what has been said it will be suffi- 

 ciently clear that intelligent masters are indispensable. No others 

 can carry these objects into execution ; and they must be trained also 



