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JAMES MITCHELL. 139 
In this manner the names of the objects most familiar to 
him may be procured in the form of labels resembling paper- 
folders. That he may receive a just idea of the positions of 
the letters without future correction, the lower margins of the 
labels may be distinguished by a slight ledge, and the words 
always given him in the right position. The words should be 
laid aside in shelves or pigeon-holes, to which he has access. 
All those beginning with the same letter should be contained 
ina separate division. A more minute arrangement would 
probably, in the first instance, be rather troublesome to him. 
The advantages of the arrangement made ought rather to be 
left for himself to discover, than industriously inculcated. 
- The mode in which he should be taught the meaning of the 
words consists in making him handle an object, and, at the 
same time, the slip containing its name. This is easily done 
with such words as coat, shoe, stocking, water, milk, bread, stone, 
wall, tree, wood, and knife. 
~  Ifhe is left entirely to himself in distinguishing the words, 
his mind will fix on any. circumstance that happens to occur to 
him, such as their comparative length, or the form and situa- 
tion of particular letters which strike his fancy. This sponta- 
neous process would have the advantage of being free from any 
proceeding unnecessarily dictatorial. But a little direction, 
scarcely amounting to a greater degree of it than is implied in 
giving him'the words, may be employed, as conducive to regula- 
_ rity. His finger, for example, may be guided along the first and 
second letter of each word, in the direction in which the pen 
moves in writing. It will not be necessary to turn his attention 
so particularly to the succeeding letters, till such time as he is 
to be made acquainted with a plurality of words coinciding in 
the first two. He may be made, for example, to trace the # and 
ct s2 the 
