64 THE NEW METHOD 



Mark the course of the young child under nature's 

 tuition. His first words are names of things of essen- 

 tial interest to him. Those words never could have 

 been learned if his senses had not taken cognizance 

 of the things, and conveyed an idea to his mind. 

 The observation of the thing gives rise to the idea, 

 and the word is the expression of the idea. The 

 word, then, is virtually created by the thing, and 

 from it derives its meaning and all its interest. 



In testing a child of two years we found that in a 

 single day she used over a hundred different words. 

 About three fourths of the words were names of things 

 she often saw ; and every thought she expressed was 

 suggested by those things. Another. test was with a 

 boy of five years. He could talk with equal fluency 

 in two languages ; but had never been taught in 

 either. He learned one in the family, the other in 

 the street. Is there any such progress as this in our 

 own or any other language in our schools ? If we 

 would have the child continue to learn language in 

 school as he does before he enters, we must adopt 

 nature's method, and furnish him with new ideas 

 by daily presenting new objects and phenomena. 

 Things before words is clearly the natural order with 

 early childhood ; is the law reversed the moment he 

 enters school ? 



But a clear idea of the object-method cannot be 



