168 Kotice of '^Plans/or the Instruction and 



actions witheut hastily coercing them. — the spectacle of a 

 machine working its numerous parts without hurry or con- 

 fusion ; — these appear to us to be circumstances more than 

 commonly favourable for placing the pupil in a siate of body 

 and mind to receive the lessons of the master with profit. 

 We have also facilities for inducing the perception of time j 

 the pupil is constantly witnessing the measured movements 

 of others, and is trying to act in concert with them. To 

 learn to march he finds indispensible to his comfort. The 

 motive to exertion thus obtained, his daily practice, and the 

 effect of example soon overcome any natural inaptitude for 

 making the acquisitions. 



*' Every stammerer, the reader will have observed, can 

 sing ; at least the defect of stammering offers no bar to his 

 being a singer, if he is in possession of the usual qualifica- 

 tions of voice and ear. The ear, we are convinced from 

 experience, may in almost all cases be educated to a sufficient 

 degree of accuracy for our purpose, and the voice is a mat- 

 ter of little importance to us, as our pupil would not learn to 

 sing with the view of exercising the art, but simply to quali- 

 fy him for learning to speak. 



" In extreme cases, then, we would have the pupil taught 

 to siag. From singing, let him pass to recitative, which so 

 nearly approaches to speaking, that the Siennese, we are told, 

 actually practice an intonation, which may be considered a 

 species of it, in common conversation. 



" The next step is for the pupil, accompanied by his mas- 

 ter, to march along the room, and repeat a few verses cho- 

 sen for the simplicity of their rhythmus, the speakers mark- 

 ing the accented syllables by the tread of the foot. After- 

 wards verse of more difficulty may be adopted ; than mea- 

 sured prose, as Barbauld's Hymns, Dodsley's Economy of 

 Human Life, or (to go at once to the models from which 

 these are imitated,) our translation of the Psalms, the book 

 of Job, and the Prophecies. From these we would proceed 

 to extracts from didactic works, and, lastly, to narrative and 

 dialogue. 



" In going through this course, the teacher gradually ceas- 

 es to accompany his pupil, either in marching or speaking, 

 until at length he directs the boy himself to stand still. Re- 

 citative may be sometimes changed for reading, and instead 

 of the sing-song tone almost inseperable from the plan in 



