60 THE NEW METHOD 



be possible that he thought Milford alone was unable 

 to take care of her own interests ? 



The general system to which I have given my 

 mind for nearly eighteen years, and which we have 

 gradually adopted in Milford, as far as circumstances 

 would allow, is the only professional or studied sys- 

 tem in the world. To be carried on successfully it 

 involves much knowledge of all the things with which 

 the teacher deals, including all the sciences to be 

 learned, and the being that is to learn them. Hence 

 it will be seen that its methods cannot be caught up 

 and put into practice by any one, at pleasure, but 

 that they must first be learned. This cannot be done 

 in a day nor a year ; the whole scholastic course is 

 the appropriate time, and is none too long ; for it 

 involves all that knowledge which constitutes the 

 best general education for all places and circum- 

 stances in life. 



By object lessons we mean the learning of science 

 by actual inspection of the object of study, instead of 

 learning a written description or listening to oral 

 description. It requires very little penetration to 

 see which is the best method. Can we make botanists 

 without plants, astronomers without stars, mineralo- 

 gists without minerals and philosophers without see- 

 ing the objects and phenomena of the world ? The 



