ot 
XXXII Appendix. 
of learning, etc., and so work that will prove a healthy stimulus to one, will 
exhaust and over-tax the other. If a child has had his intellect carefully 
and slowly unfolded, he will be in a very different position at six or seven 
years of age to one whose mental faculties have been uncultivated up to 
that time; the memory may be exercized with safety, and the gift of imita- 
tion, so strong in childhood, made use of from an early age. The mind, 
like the body, is amenable to proper management, and when this is gradual, 
and not premature or forced, the power of learning will be made easy in 
proportion. The process of pressure must be carried on with a full appre- 
ciation of what the child can do with pleasure, and must not cause weariness, 
our object being to make the acquirement of knowledge pleasureable rather 
than painful. We may generally take it for granted that the rise of an 
appetite for any kind of information implies that the unfolding mind has 
become fit to assimilate it, and needs it for purposes of growth; and that, 
on the other hand, the disgust felt towards such information is a sign either 
that it is prematurely presented, or that it is presented in an unwholesome 
form. 
In this, as in all systems, the more we can find out and follow nature’s 
plan of working the more likely are we to be successful. We should endea- 
vour to conform education to the natural process of mental evolution, for 
there is undoubtedly a certain sequence in which the faculties spontaneously 
develope, and a certain kind of knowledge which each requires during its 
development; and it should be our constant endeavour to ascertain this 
sequence, and supply the knowledge necessary for each period. It has been 
truly said, ** The method of nature is the archetype of all methods:” and if this 
be studied and carried into practice in putting pressure upon children, we 
may before long find that subjects which a short time ago were distasteful 
are now becoming pleasant, or, if not actually pleasant, yet undertaken with 
much more cheerfulness than they would have been had we pressed them 
upon a child, at a time when nature seemed to cry out against them. A 
time, of course, comes when uninteresting work must be faced and done, 
and by no means can we make it otherwise than uninteresting. Now it is 
that great care is necessary. We must try and measure carefully the child’s 
power to support the strain of forced attention ; the time spent in this unin- 
teresting work should not be long without allowing either a certain amount 
of rest or change of occupation ; for if it is continued after the child gets 
weary of it, no more will be learned, and, if this continues for any length of 
time, the health of the child will suffer and his mental powers become 
impaired. 
Dr. Richardson, in speaking of education at this period, says :— 
“ Another error consists in failing to allow for difference of mental 
