THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



3. Thoughts are able to excite each other, if they are con- 

 nected together as cause and effect, or as premises and conclu- 

 sion. This is termed philosophical association, and is the most 

 effective and valuable. 



4. Or if they stand in a relation of contrast. 



The memory of words has been too much cultivated in the 

 operations of teachers, but it is not without its value. Every- 

 thing in the nature of formulao, definitions, propositions of 

 Euclid, hymns, passages of Scripture, etc., should be committed 

 to memory exactly as they stand ; but the practice of making a 

 student learn a book of grammar or geography from beginning 

 to end by rote, as is often done even now, is most pernicious, 

 and destructive to all true mental development. Tho memory 

 of ideas should be sedulously encouraged, according to the laws 

 just laid down. 



Abstraction, generalisation, and conception are three most 

 important faculties of the mind, but our limited space will 

 permit us to do little more than define them. Abstraction is 

 the power which we possess of fixing the attention on some 

 one quality or part of an object, and allowing the rest to 

 drop out of notice. Thus a person, when a lion is present 

 before his eyes or mind, might neglect to think of any other 

 qualities in it except the teeth and claws, he would then 

 perform an act of abstraction ; but if he were to observe the 

 same features in several animals, abstracting the points of 

 agreement, and neglecting the differences, he would perform an 

 act of generalisation. Were he to consider all these animals as 

 one group or class, and give the name " carnivorous " to them, 

 as subsisting on flesh, he would use a concept or " general 

 term," and the faculty of forming such terms is called con- 

 ception. All common nouns are of this nature, and the power 

 to form them ia indispensable to the higher operations of the 

 mind. 



Judgment is the mental faculty which enables us to compare 

 two ideas together, and to declare that they agree or disagree 

 with each other. And here we shall perceive the force of what 

 has been said before, on the importance of observing well, so 

 as to obtain clear, distinct, and adequate perceptions. If we 

 fail to use our senses carefully, and thus receive obscure and 

 insufficient ideas of things, our judgments will be erroneous, 

 and the conduct based on them inconsistent with truth. Many 

 years since, a labourer and his son, returning home after their 

 day'a labour was done, and passing down the New Walk, in 

 Leicester, picked up several pieces of a white root, which they 

 judged to bo celery ; they took it home, made it a part of their 

 supper, retired to rest, and in a few hours were dead : had they 

 used their senses in making a careful examination, they would 

 have discovered, before it was too late, that what they believed 

 to be wholesome food was a poisonous root. Inaccurate and 

 negligent habits of observation, prejudice, pride, passion, and a 

 thousand other sinister influences, mislead and obscure the 

 judgment, and lead men astray ; and it should be the continual 

 care of the watchful educator to guard his pupils against evils 

 such as these. 



Reasoning is the mental faculty which has to do with 

 arguments ; the following is an instance : Animals which 

 breathe by means of lungs, have red blood, and suckle their young, 

 are. mammals ; the whale possesses these characteristics ; there- 

 fore the whale is a mammal. Reasoning is the highest quality 

 of the mind, and to it all other mental faculties are subsidiary. 



The emotions or feelings constitute the third great division 

 of the mental powers. Among them are the love of appro- 

 bation, anger, terror, imitation, sympathy, self-love, the aesthetic 

 emotions, the social affections, the moral feelings, and the 

 religious emotions. We have space here for only a few words 

 on the moral and religious emotions, but we hope to recur to 

 the whole subject of this paper in those which aro to follow. 

 The religious emotions of veneration, hope, and wonder lead 

 us to love and revere the Creator of heaven and earth, the 

 preserver of our being, the " Father of lights and giver of every 

 good and perfect gift." " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 

 with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 

 strength," is an inspired utterance which appeals to these feel- 

 ings implanted within us, and addressed to no other being but 

 man, because none but; he is so fashioned and endowed as to 

 understand it. We hope for his loving guidance and his help, 

 because He promised it to those who ask it ; and we wonder 

 at his infinite attributes as they are exhibited in the universe 



which He has created, and the revelation which He has vouch- 

 safed. " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and " Do 

 ye unto others as ye would that they should do unto you ' ' 

 appeal in like manner to our moral feelings of conscien- 

 tiousness and benevolence ; and it is only as wo live and act in 

 accordance with the inspired direction that we can hope that 

 our lives will bo passed in usefulness and true happiness. 



The will is the last mental faculty which we have to notice. 

 It is this which controls our feelings and thoughts, and dictates 

 our words and actions, when we are free to speak and act for 

 ourselves. One great object of the teacher's solicitude should 

 be to supply suitable and noble motives for the guidance and 

 government of the will. Fear, selfishness, and revenge furnish 

 an ignoble motive power, leading only to misery and ruin ; while 

 considerations drawn from a sense of duty, justice, and right, 

 with the blessing of God iipon them all, will crown our life with 

 loving-kindness and our death with peace. 



LESSONS IN GERMAN. LV. 



35. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. 



(1.) In German, as in English, the degrees of comparison are 

 commonly expressed by means of the suffixes cr and efl ; thus 



Positive. Comparative. Superlative. 



SSitb, wild ; tuiltcr, wilder ; tinttcft, wildest. 



Seft, firm ; fefter, firmer ; feftcft, firmest. 



36 EUPHONIC CHANGES. 



(1.) When the positive does not end in b, t, ft, 8, $, fdj), or J, 

 the e of the superlative suffix (efi) is omitted ; as : 



tftar, clear; f later, clearer ; Harft, clearest. 



9Jctn, pure ; rctner, purer; retnft, purest. 



<SctH>n, fine ; fctyoner, finer ; fcfyonfl, finest. 



(2.) When the positive ends in e, the c of the comparative 

 and superlative suffixes (er, eft) is dropped ; as : 



SBcife, wise ; tceifer, wiser ; hKtfcft, wisest. 



2)h~tte, weary ; muter, more weary ; mittcft, most weary. 



(3.) When the positive ends in ct, en, or er, there would bo two 

 c's close together ; in the comparative the first is omitted ; ia 

 the superlative, the second ; as : 



6tcl, noble ; ekler, nobler ; efcclft, noblest. 



JTrocf en, dry ; trccf ner, drier ; traf enfl, driest. 



arf cr, brave ; tapfrcr, braver ; tapferfl, bravest. 



(4.) When the positive is a monosyllable, the vowel (if it be 

 capable of it) commonly takes the Umlaut in the comparative 

 and superlative ; as : 



2llt, old ; 

 rot', coarse ; 

 JZtug, wise ; 



fttter, older ; 

 gvober, coarser ; 

 fluger, wiser ; 



alteft, older. 

 gri'Sft, coarsest. 

 Huo.fl, wisest. 



(5.) Exceptions. From this last rule, however, must be ex- 

 cepted all those adjectives containing the diphthong au ; as : 

 Saut (loud), lauter, lautefi ; rauf> (rough), raufyer, raufyefl. So, also, 

 the following : 



JtnaV'P, tight. 

 8af)m, lame. 

 Sap, weary. 

 2c>8, loose. 

 2ftatt, tired, 

 iftacft, naked. 

 $latt, flat. 

 5tum)\ clumsy. 

 9tol), raw. 

 JRunt, round. 

 acfyt, slow. 

 anft, gentle. 



att, satisfied. 

 djlaff, loose. 

 @d;lanf, slender. 

 @d;toff, rugged. 

 Starr, stiff. 

 @totj, proud. 

 traff, stiff, tight, 

 @tumm, dumb. 

 (Stumpf, blunt. 

 Zott, mad. 

 aSofl, fulL 

 3a^m, tame. 



37. DECLENSION OP COMPARATIVES AND SUPER- 

 LATIVES. 



(1.) Comparatives and superlatives are subject to the same 

 laws of declension that regulate adjectives in the positive. Thus, 

 after adding to fd;ijn, fair, the suffix (cr), we get the comparative 

 form fd;6ner, fairer ; which ia inflected in the three following 

 ways : 



SSunt, variegated, 

 gate, flat. 

 Safyl, pale, 

 galfc, fallow. 

 g(acf>, flat. 

 5ru1), glad. 

 @crat>e, straight. 

 latt, smooth. 

 $ol)f, hollow, 

 ^olfc, amiable. 

 Jtafyt, bald, 

 stingy. 



