378 BRAIN WORK AND 



ing to the childish mind some concrete knowledge 

 in both geometry and mathematics. The chil- 

 dren who have made the squares of the theorem 

 of Pythagoras out of pieces of coloured card- 

 board, will not look at the theorem, when it 

 comes hi geometry, as on a mere instrument 

 of torture devised by the teachers ; and the less 

 so if they apply it as the carpenters do. Com- 

 plicated problems of arithmetic, which so much 

 harassed us hi our boyhood, are easily solved by 

 children seven and eight years old if they are 

 put in the shape of interesting puzzles. And if 

 the Kindergarten German teachers often make 

 of it a kind of barrack in which each movement 

 of the child is regulated beforehand has often 

 become a small prison for the little ones, the idea 

 which presided at its foundation is nevertheless 

 true. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine, 

 without having tried it, how many sound notions 

 of nature, habits of classification, and taste for 

 natural sciences can be conveyed to the children's 

 minds ; and, if a series of concentric courses 

 adapted to the various phases of development of 

 the human being were generally accepted in 

 education, the first series in all sciences, save 

 sociology, could be taught before the age of ten 

 or twelve, so as to give a general idea of the 

 universe, the earth and its inhabitants, the chief 

 physical, chemical, zoological, and botanical 



