390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



could yield anytliing within their comprehension. As an instance, 

 successive lessons on the cotton plant were given for three weeks. 



5. Their perceptions became almost unerring. At the Museum 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History, one day, Katherine ex- 

 claimed as we rapidly passed a case of minerals, " There's some 

 graphite.'' Turning and seeing whitish specimens, I said, " Oh, 

 no ; have you forgotten how graphite looks ? " The child insisted, 

 and we turned back to the case. Sure enough, on one shelf the 

 white rocks contained grains and threads of graphite, which fact 

 the child had gathered in one rapid glance. 



6. Memory became active and generally true. It was aimed to 

 pursue all things in order, with regard to natural relations and 

 associations ; beyond this the cultivation of memory was com- 

 mitted to the qualities of the ideas presented. The result seemed 

 to prove that memory is retentive in proportion to the activity 

 and concentration of the whole consciousness, and that this is pro- 

 portioned to the interest of the subject-matter. 



7. Imagination was vivid and healthy, producing clear repro- 

 duction, apt illustration, sometimes witty caricature, and occa- 

 sionally thought and expression delicate and lovely enough to be 

 worthy the envy of grown-up literati. 



8. There was a beginning made in the habits of independent 

 examination of any matter, of honestly expressing the results of 

 such examination, and stoutly maintaining one's own ideas until 

 convinced of error, and then of readiness to adopt and defend the 

 new, however opposed to the old. These habits lead to mental rec- 

 titude, robustness, and magnanimity, which qualities confer the 

 power of discriminating values : for pride of opinion gives blind- 

 ness ; the love of truth for its own sake, sight. 



9'. In waiting for Nature to answer questions — sometimes they 

 waited three weeks or more — and in continual contact with her 

 regularity and dependence on conditions, they gained their first 

 dim conceptions of what law means, and of the values of patience 

 and self-control, and of realities as opposed to shams. Finding in 

 Nature mysteries which the wisest have not explained, a half- 

 conscious reverence stole ujion them — the beginnings of true spir- 

 itual growth. 



At first the experiment called forth much criticism. At home 

 the children told about rocks and plants, and related stories from 

 history and literature, but said little about reading and writing. 

 Parents came to see, and universally condemned the method. One 

 mother said, " My daughter will study geology and literature 

 when the proper age comes ; I wish her now to learn reading and 

 writing, and have simple lessons in arithmetic and geography." 

 But she yielded to her child's entreaties, and allowed her to be 

 experimented upon. Later, this mother visited the department to 



