1854] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 335 



The theory which I would present for your consideration 

 and critical examination, and which appears to me to be in 

 accordance with the results of experience, may be briefly ex- 

 pressed as follows : 



The several faculties of the human mind are not simul- 

 taneously developed, and in educating an individual we 

 ought to follow the order of nature, and to adapt the instruc- 

 tion to the age and mental stature of the pupil. If we 

 reverse this order, and attempt to cultivate faculties which 

 are not sufficiently matured, while we neglect to cultivate 

 those which are, we do the child an irreparable injury. 

 Memory, imitation, imagination, and the faculty of forming 

 mental habits exist in early life, while the judgment and 

 the reasoning powers are of slower growth. It is a fact 

 abundantly proved by observation that the mere child by 

 the principle which has been denominated sympathetic imi- 

 tation may acquire the power of expressing his desires and 

 emotions in correct and even beautiful language without 

 knowing or being able to comprehend the simplest princi- 

 ples of philology. He even seizes, as if by a kind of instinct, 

 upon abstract terms, and applies them with ease and correct- 

 ness; but as life advances the facility of verbal acquisition 

 declines, and with some it entirely disappears. Hence the 

 plan appears to me to be wise and in accordance with nature 

 which makes the acquisition of language an essential part 

 of early elemental education. The same child which ac- 

 quires almost without effort his vernacular tongue may by 

 a similar process be taught to speak the principal ancient 

 and modern languages. He may also acquire the art of the 

 accountant, and be taught by proper drilling to add long 

 columns of figures with rapidity and correctness without 

 being able to comprehend the simplest abstract principles of 

 number and magnitude. Moreover, it is well known that 

 the memory may be stored at a very early age with valuable 

 rules and precepts, which in future life may become the ma- 

 terials of reflection and the guiding principles of action; 

 that it may be furnished with heroic sentiments and poetic 

 illustrations, with "thoughts which breathe and words that 



