JAMES MITCHELL. 139 



In this manner the names of the objects most familiar to 

 him may be procured in the form of labels resembling paper- 

 folders. That he may receive a just idea of the positions of 

 the letters without future correction, the lower margins of the 

 labels may be distinguished by a slight ledge, and the words 

 always given him in the right position. The words should be 

 laid aside in shelves or pigeon holes, to which he has access. 

 All those beginning with the same letter should be contained 

 in a separate division. A more minute arrangement would 

 probably, in the first instance, be rather troublesome to him. 

 The advantages of the arrangement made ought rather to be 

 left for himself to discover, than industriously inculcated. 



The mode in which he should be taught the meaning of the 

 words consists in making him handle an object, and, at the 

 same time, the slip containing its name. This is easily done 

 with such words as coat, shoe, stocking, water, milk, bread, stone, 

 wall, tree, wood, and knife. 



If he is left entirely to himself in distinguishing the words, 

 his mind will fix on any circumstance that happens to occur to 

 him, such as their comparative length, or the form and situa- 

 tion of particular letters which strike his fancy. This sponta- 

 neous process would have the advantage of being free from any 

 proceeding unnecessarily dictatorial. But a little direction, 

 scarcely amounting to a greater degree of it than is implied in 

 giving him the words, may be employed, as conducive to regula- 

 rity. His finger, for example, may be guided along the first and 

 second letter of each word, in the direction in which the pen 

 moves in writing. It will not be necessary to turn his attention 

 so particularly to the succeeding letters, till such time as he is 

 to be made acquainted with a plurality of words coinciding in 

 the first two. He may be made, for example, to trace the h and 



S 2 the 



