166 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



" ance whatever is derived from the understanding ; 

 " they are matters of mere memory, and if got at all, 

 "must be got by heart, and that thoroughly. With 

 " respect to spelling, you argue against yourself. You 

 " ' have known lads of tolerable capacity spell wretchedly ;' 

 " so have I, and men and women too, ^hundreds of them ; 

 " and what does that prove, but the total inefficiency of 

 * the mode by which they were pretended to be taught — 

 " the common mode of columns ? Did you ever know 

 "one who had been trained (not for half a year, but 

 " through his education) by writing from dictation, to 

 " spell wretchedly ? I have found in spelling that the 

 "great and most common difficulty consists in not 

 " knowing how to elect in words of every moment's use, 

 " which superficially sound alike but differ in import : ' as 

 " ' — has ; ' ' which — witch ; ' ' were — where ; ' ' weal — 

 "'wheel ;' 'air — are — hair — hare — hear — here — ear 

 " < — ere,' etc., etc. Now dictation, by showing the rela 

 "tion and connection of words, shows when one form 

 "should be adopted, and when another. I allow this 

 " knowledge is very commonly gained without dictation, 

 " but how is it gained ? Not by learning from a spelling 

 " book, in no single instance, but by what is equivalent 

 " to dictation, by observation in private reading, till the 

 " individual acquires a practised, an educated eye. That 

 " there may be an advantage in learning the definitions 

 " of words, I am not prepared to deny, but that is an 

 " exercise quite distinct from spelling." 

 He had the habit of teaching the elements of geography 

 by making his boys draw the pattern of a piece of the 

 carpet, then a ground-plan of the school-room, with all its 

 furniture, then the garden, with the relative portions of 

 house and road, until the notion of the principle on which 

 a map is made was insensibly gained, and then, and not 



