38 



pharyngeal.* Others are involuntary, and regulate our breathing, digestion, &c. 

 The sense of touch has 31 pairs of nerves, besides a few branches from the 

 brain. These 31 emanate from the spinal cord, one in each pair serving to give 

 motion to our muscular system, the other to convey information back to the 

 brain, chiefly regarding heat, cold, size, shape, and resistance of bodies, thus 

 correcting sometimes impressions made through the eye, but chiefly ministering 

 to our necessities and to the preservation of life. The Supreme Architect 

 seems, therefore, in His omniscience to have designed that we should use the 

 eye and the touch as the most important means of obtaining knowledge; and 

 next to those the ear. My own experience, after a daily practice of about twelve 

 years, or indeed (including four years' military instruction given in the manual 

 of arms and drill) of sixteen years, devoted to the best means of imparting in- 

 struction, fully justifies me, I think, in stating that 1 would sooner undertake to 

 impart, thoroughly, certain kinds of knowledge through the medium of the eye, 

 aided by short explanations, extending through one hour each day, for six 

 months, than by mere oral descriptions, given daily one hour for twelve months, 

 thus saving half the time. 



The following definition of a prism is very excellent, and very useful after 

 a child has seen one : " A prism is a solid, the ends of which are polygons, and 

 the side faces of which are parallelograms." But what idea would most children 

 have of a prism by simply having this repeated daily ten times, for ten succes- 

 sive days ? Not as clear a conception as from seeing it only once. And if the 

 definition, given for the first time, were a bad one, or defective, the idea would, 

 perhaps, be so confused that no subsequent good descriptions would serve to 

 clear the difficulty. 



What I earnestly contend for is, not the exclusion of any of the ordinary 

 modes of conveying information, but the preceding of them by ocular instruc- 

 tion. When the child requires exercise it should be taken out, and the eye be 

 educated by familiarizing the young mind wilh the names and properties of 

 the thousand interesting objects around us. This task would require too much 

 time for each parent to fulfil it, but the knowledge could be acquired by a whole 

 large class at a time, from nature, aided by the remarks of a thoroughly qualified 

 companion teacher; and that, too, in the early years of our lives, without mental 

 effort, but requiring at a later period hard intellectual labor. It is thus the 

 backwoodsman learns in early youth to know every tree of the forest. It is 

 thus the children of the Russian nobility learn three languages from three 

 nurses as easily as ours acquire one. It is thus that all of us become, \vithout 

 any effort, familiar with certain objects that constantly surround us, and might 

 as readily know the names and properties of five or even ten times as many 

 things around us, without labor, had we always had in youth some intelligent 

 companion or teacher to give us the information, in connexion with the objects, 

 just when we wanted it. 



If the above statements are facts, then it behooves us to educate the eye, to 

 familiarize the child, at an early age, with all the objects of interest that sur- 

 round us, until, as the mind expands, it gradually acquires an extended knovd- 

 ledge of the wounderful works of creation, and is thereby led to recognize and 

 adore the immutability and perfection of the laws by which the Deity governs 

 the universe, obedience to which will insure virtue and happiness. 



If we could, as a preliminary to this training in the agricultural college, have 

 pupils well grounded by State normal teachers, county, township, and district 

 schools, all taught on the same system, in useful facts, and giving attention to 

 the various keys to knowledge as means, not ends, husbanding all our educa- 



* The last enables us to taste with the back part of the tongue and palate. A few filaments 

 from the 12th pair of nerves (the hypoglossal) give motion to the tongue, serving, however 

 to modify speech, not contributing, apparently, to the discernment of quality in food. 



