OF THE BRA,* AND MIND. 243 



the professors, the methods, and the subjects taught 

 are quite on a par with those of Paris ; but that, 

 nevertheless, from the very early maturity of the 

 human being in that climate, the pupils are removed 

 from school so soon that the impression made on 

 their minds is speedily obliterated ; on which ac- 

 count, he adds, the only really educated and well- 

 informed men whom he met with are those who had 

 been sent to France very young, and retained there 

 till a later age and more thorough grounding had 

 been attained, after which the risk of losing their 

 acquirements was greatly diminished. 



The next rule to be observed in the cultivation 

 of the brain and mental faculties, is founded on that 

 law of our constitution, which directs each organ to 

 be exercised directly upon its own objects, and not 

 merely roused or addressed through the medium of 

 another organ. We have said, that when we wish, 

 for example, to teach the graceful and rapid evolu- 

 tions of fencing, we do not content ourselves with 

 merely giving directions, but our chief attention is 

 employed in making the muscles themselves go 

 through the evolutions, till, by frequent repetition 

 and correction, they acquire the requisite quickness 

 and precision of action ; or when we wish to teach 

 music, we do not merely address the understanding 

 and explain the qualities of sounds, but we train the 

 ear to their attentive discrimination, and the hand 

 to the reproduction of the motions which call them 

 into existence. We follow this plan, because the 

 laws of organization require direct practice, and we 

 feel instinctively that we can succeed only by obey 

 ing them. Now, the purely mental faculties, being 

 connected during life with material organs, are sub- 

 jected to precisely the same law; and therefore if 

 we wish to improve the reasoning powers, we must 

 exercise them regularly in tracing the causes and 

 relations of things. And, in like manner, if oar aim 



