1507 
 
 tion of tVie senses. 
 
 Southern Branch 
 of the 
 
 University of California 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Form L 1 
 
 LB 
 1507 
 G89'
 
 /f/^ 
 
 i
 
 MANUALS FOR T EACH ERS.-J\^o. 1. 
 
 THE 
 
 CULTIVATION 
 
 / H ^•«HjT)iTE NORMAL %ud 
 
 OF THE 
 
 , Lo« Angeles, Cai. 
 
 SENSES. 
 
 ItbZ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 ELDREDGE & BROTHER, 
 
 17 North Seventh Street.
 
 Copyright 1879. 
 
 Manuals for Teachers. 
 
 -^»o»<c 
 
 These Manuals were originally published in Eng- 
 land, having been prepared at the request of the 
 Literature Committee of the National Educational 
 Society, by men distinguished at their several Univer- 
 sities, and possessed of large experience as teachers. 
 They have been carefully revised and adapted to the 
 ■wants of American teachers, and It Is hoped ivlll 
 prove a valuable addition to the literature of the art 
 and science of teaching. The Series comprises the 
 follo7vlng volumes : 
 
 1. The Cultivation of the Senses. 
 
 2. The Cultivation of the Mennory. 
 
 3. On the Use of Words. 
 
 4. On Discipline. 
 
 5. On Class Teaching.
 
 son 
 
 STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Iftt Affgeks, Cat. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. — Introduction 5 
 
 II.— The vSenses 13 
 
 III. — How THE Child gets his First Ideas . . 36 
 
 IV. — How the Child Perceives .... 44 
 
 V. — How the Child forms Conceptions . -51 
 
 VI. — How SHALL WE CULTIVATE THE ChILD'S SkNSES. 57 
 
 VII. — Object Lessons 67 
 
 VIII. — On the Special Value of the Thysical 
 Sciences as Instruments for Cultivating 
 
 the Senses . > 74 
 
 IX. — Lessons on Color and Forms ... 78 
 
 X. — The Senses in Rela-tion to the Ordinary 
 
 Subjects of School Instruction . . 82 
 
 111
 
 ■ blessed is he that Helfeth the Little Ones ; 
 He shall have ^eace in his days." 
 
 IV
 
 =^^ 
 
 THE 
 
 Cultivation of the Senses. 
 
 -»oX»<e>o- 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HERE is a new-born infant lying in its cradle. 
 The physical mechanism of its body is com- 
 plete in all its parts and already in motion. It has 
 organs of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. It 
 has nerves to convey the impressions made on those 
 organs to its brain, and other nerves to direct its 
 movements. But as yet, so far as knowledge of the 
 external world is concerned, its mind is a perfect 
 blank, like this sheet of paper was before it was 
 printed on. Impressions are made upon its senses ; 
 images are formed on the retina of its open eyes ; 
 sounds are conveyed to its ears ; bodies are in con- 
 tact with its skin; odors reach its nostrils; flavors 
 affect its tongue; but none of the impressions thus
 
 6 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 made are identified, and consequently are not known. 
 And as it has no knowledge, so it has no will. Its 
 movements are involuntary. 
 
 Here is the same child now grown into a man. He 
 has the same organs of mind and body, no more and 
 no less, as when he lay a helpless infant in the cradle ; 
 yet his senses are now so acute that he can perceive 
 the slightest differences between the impressions made 
 upon them ; he recognizes the objects by which he is 
 surrounded; he is familiar with their qualities, their 
 parts, their composition, and the laws to which they 
 are subject ; his mind is stored with a wide variety 
 of ideas, some simple and some complex ; he is able 
 to summon up these ideas at his will, and to combine 
 them into new groups; and he can express his knowl- 
 edge and the results of his mental operations in lan- 
 guage. He is familiar with events that happened thou- 
 sands of years ago, and with scenes and objects that 
 he has never beheld. He is able to reason from what 
 he has observed and from what he has learned through 
 the observations of others. He can devise or employ 
 means to attain what might seem the most unattainable 
 ends. He is, for instance, able to ascertain in his own 
 study the composition of the sun ; he can send a mes- 
 sage that shall fly with instantaneous rapidity to the 
 ends of the earth ; he can control and utilize what 
 might seem to be some of the most unmanageable 
 forces of nature. Simultaneously with this acquisition
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 of knowledge, he has gained the power of directing 
 his conduct under the guidance of his reason ; he 
 has formed habits by which his various bodily and 
 mental operations are performed with ease and regu- 
 larity; his conduct has come largely under the in- 
 fluence of desires and affections ; he has a sense of 
 duty and responsibility ; he has acquired a knowledge 
 of a world beyond the range of his senses, and of 
 the unseen Creator and Ruler of the universe, whom 
 he worships and obeys, and with whom he holds con- 
 stant communion. 
 
 The purpose of this little treatise will be to trace, 
 in a simple way, the various ways by which the more 
 important of these marvellous changes have been 
 wrought, and to ascertain, in particular, the laws of 
 mental development, with a view to their practical 
 application in education. The teacher has not 
 merely to communicate appropriate knowledge to 
 his pupils, he has to educate them, that is, to bring 
 out their latent powers : and all his teaching must be 
 regulated l>y what children are. He cannot impart^ 
 any new faculties to them, or alter the order in which 
 their faculties are naturally developed. Even the 
 knowledge which he communicates to them they can 
 only grasp and assimilate in accordance with the im- 
 mutable laws of the hum.an mind. A little reflection 
 will show the teacher that education does not stand 
 alone in this respect, but that all human operations
 
 8 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 are similarly limited by law. The potter may seem 
 to be able to give what shape he likes to the vessel 
 which he is making, but even he is limited in the 
 exercise of his will by the nature of the material in 
 which he works. He cannot deal with clay as 
 though it were wood or marble. He must have re- 
 gard to the conditions of its plasticity, to its power 
 of supporting its own weight while it is still soft 
 and plastic, and to the effects which the heat of the 
 furnace will have upon it. So the teacher may 
 seem to be able to mould a child as he wills, but, as 
 a matter of fact, he can mould it only in accordance 
 with the laws of its being. He cannot give it a new 
 nature. He can only utilize laws that already exist, 
 and any violation or disregard of those laws is sure to 
 be defeated and punished. He might as well try to 
 make a rope out of sand, or carry water in a sieve, or 
 keep an unsupported stone from falling, as try to de- 
 feat successfully the laws of a child's being. All such 
 endeavors are doomed, from the nature of the case, 
 to utter failure, and, in the case of education, must 
 be productive of disastrous consequences. Many a 
 child is ruined for life, and many children are robbed 
 even of life itself, by the errors of parents and teachers 
 that originate in ignorance of the laws of child-life. 
 
 Value of some knowledge of human physiology 
 and mental science to the teacher. — It is clear.
 
 INTR OD UCTION. 9 
 
 therefore, that the teacher sliould know something of 
 the physical and mental laws of the child he is going 
 to educate, not only that he may avoid running coun- 
 ter to nature, or to God's intention as seen in natural 
 laws, but that he may have the momentum of nature 
 on his side. Systems and methods of education are 
 perfect in exact proportion as they utilize natural 
 laws; and it is the study of these laws which can 
 alone create a science of education. 
 
 The teacher who disregards scientific principles 
 must either blindly follow the practice of others, 
 reproducing their methods, whether good or bad, 
 without discrimination, or stumble along from one 
 blunder to another, until, at last, he chances on some 
 method that proves to be successful because it happens 
 to fall in with natural laws. When he ceases to rea- 
 son upon the grounds of his practice, he degrades 
 his profession into a mere mechanical craft. Educa- 
 tion demands intelligence from the teacher at every 
 stage of its conduct) intelligent observation of the 
 facts of child-life, intelligent generalizations from 
 them, intelligent consideration of the relative value 
 of various kinds of knowledge, intelligent applica- 
 tion of principles, and intelligent investigation of 
 the causes of failure or success. 
 
 Education an Inductive Science. — Now the first 
 wish of a young teaclier, alive to the importance of
 
 lO CULTIVATJON OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Studying the science of education, will probably be 
 to procure a book in which the principles of the 
 science of education are clearly set forth; but, while 
 such a book may be of vast service to him, in show- 
 ing him the kinds of facts which he should observe, 
 and the conclusions which have been drawn from 
 tlieni by writers who have paid special attention to 
 the subject, nothing can compensate for the absence of 
 original observation and reflection. Education is 
 an inductive science, and the student of it must ob- 
 serve for himself and reflect for himself before he 
 can attain to a thorough comprehension of its prin- 
 ciples, or make a profitable application of them in 
 his daily work. Just as the would-be botanist must 
 not content himself with reading other people's 
 descriptions of plants, or with the examination of 
 diagrams and cut-and-dried specimens, but must go 
 out into the woods and fields and lanes and observe 
 plants for himself, as they live and grow, so must the 
 teacher, who would be conversant with the science 
 of education, make himself thoroughly familiar, at 
 the first hand, with the facts of child-life. He must 
 watch children when they are left to themselves ; he 
 must note the ways in which they amuse themselves, 
 remembering that play is to them their most earnest 
 occupation ; he must observe their primitive instincts, 
 and how those instincts are naturally gratified ; he 
 must pay special heed to the ways in which they,
 
 INTR OD UC TION. II 
 
 consciously or unconsciously, became acquainted 
 with the facts of the world around them ; to their 
 first endeavors at speech, as refl,^cting the operations 
 that are passing through their minds; to their ques- 
 tions ; to the order in which their faculties develop; 
 and to the motives which exert the most powerful 
 and healthy influence upon their conduct. He need 
 not go far to find fitting objects for his study. Any 
 little child into whose confidence he can, by love 
 and sympathy, insinuate himself, will afford him 
 infinite room for observation and reflection, which 
 he will be able to turn to profitable account. When 
 no other mind is at hand, let him observe and in- 
 terrogate his own. Let him ask himself the means 
 by which he came by this idea or that ; how he 
 remembers this, and why he has forgotten that ; 
 what faculties he employs in one operation, and 
 what in another ; why, in his own studies, one 
 method of learning succeeds and anotlier does not, 
 and so on. 
 
 He will find that though this subject may seem hard 
 and dry in a book, it is fraught with interest when the 
 mind is kept constantly in contact with living facts. 
 He will find, too, that though he may not see at once 
 the practical application of the truths which he in this 
 way acquires, they will gradually affect his teaching. 
 In order to obtain the command over Nature, he will 
 obey her. He may not discover any new method of
 
 12 
 
 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 teaching, although there is much more yet to be done 
 than most people imagine to bring our systems of 
 teaching into accord with natural laws; but he will 
 inevitably teach more intelligently, whether he pur- 
 sues judiciously selected old methods or strikes out 
 paths of his own, for the simple reason that he knows 
 what he is doing, and why he is doing it.
 
 Chapter 1 1. 
 
 THE SENSES. 
 
 ALL our knowledge of the world around us is de- 
 rived, in the first place, from the evidence of 
 our senses, which have been happily named "the five 
 gateways of knowledge," and it is with the cultiva- 
 tion of the senses that education must begin. '•' The 
 famous town of Man-soul," says John Bunyan, "had 
 five gates, in at which to come and out at which to 
 go, and these were made likewise answerable to the 
 walls, — to wit, impregnable, and such as never could 
 be opened nor forced but by the will or leave of those 
 within. The names of the gates were these : Ear- 
 gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose -gate, and Feel-gate." 
 Let us, before we proceed any further, examine 
 these gateways ; and here it may be remarked that we 
 shall learn a great deal of the way in which a child 
 gets its ideas by observing how we adults get our 
 own.
 
 14 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Taste. — The sense of taste enables us to distinguish 
 one kind of food from another, and to ascertain, to 
 some extent, whether the food we eat will agree with 
 us or not. Its organ is the tongue, which has distrib- 
 uted over its upper surface little projections connected 
 by nerves with the brain. The most sensitive parts 
 of the tongue are its base, sides, and tip. 
 
 Ideas derived through the Sense of Taste.— Tastes 
 may be classified 
 
 1. With regard to the stomach, as palatable and 
 unpalatable. 
 
 2. With regard to the taste proper, as sweet or bit- 
 ter. 
 
 3. With regard to certain effects which they have 
 on the nerves of touch, as acid, alkaline, saline, as- 
 tringent, biting. 
 
 4. With regard to certain classes of objects with 
 which they are commonly associated, as watery, vi- 
 nous, spicy, chalybeate. 
 
 Nearly every article of food has a distinct flavor 
 which enables us to recognize it, if it be familiar 
 to us; or to detect its presence, if it be unfamiliar 
 to us, by the taste alone. Solids do not readily 
 yield their flavor until they are moistened, and the 
 tongue itself loses its sensibility when it is dry and 
 parched. 
 
 It is not known how flavor affects the nerves of the
 
 THE SENSES. 15 
 
 tongue ; but it is probable that it is through some 
 chemical action. 
 
 Tl)e sense of taste may be highly cultivated, as we 
 see in the case of persons whose business it is to taste 
 wines and teas. An inexperienced person would find 
 some difficulty in distinguishing one sherry from 
 another, but a wine-taster will not only distinguish 
 them, he will tell you, perhaps, the precise district 
 from which they came, and the very year in which 
 they were made. 
 
 But the sense of taste cannot be made much use of 
 in formal education. " Helpless, selfish and exacting, 
 the dependent of the other senses, and the servant of 
 the body rather than of the soul, it links us more with 
 the lower animals than with higher existences, and has 
 no elements of ethereality about it." 
 
 Smell. — The sense of smell enables us to discrimi- 
 nate the air taken into the lungs, just as the tongue, 
 which has been called "the stomach begun," enables 
 us to discriminate the food taken into the stomach. 
 Its organ is the nose, which is lined with a soft, moist, 
 velvety membrane, connected by nerves known as the 
 olfactory nerves (from Latin, olfacio, to smell), and 
 by branches of another nerve known as the fifth. It 
 is on the former that odors proper 2iC\. \ on the latter 
 act pungent vapors such as hartshorn, strong acids, 
 etc.
 
 1 6 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Ideas derived through the Sense of Smell.— Odors 
 may be classified 
 
 1. With regard to the lungs, as fresh, close, exhil- 
 arating, stifling. 
 
 2. With regard to the smell proper, as sweet, offen- 
 sive, nasty. 
 
 3. With regard to tlie nerves of touch, as pungent, 
 acrid, etc. 
 
 4. With regard to certain objects and processes 
 with which they are most commonly associated, as 
 fishy, briny, spicy, cheesy, musty, etc. 
 
 The mode in which the organ of smell acts is un- 
 known. All we can say is that the air brings the 
 volatile odorous matter into contact with the various 
 branches of the nerves of smell, and that in some 
 way or other these nerves convey the impression to 
 the brain. 
 
 The sense of smell is more highly developed in 
 many of the lower animals than in man ; but even in 
 man it is capable of a high degree of cultivation, as 
 we may see in the case of persons whose business it is 
 to distinguish nice differences of odor. The tobacco- 
 dealer, the botanist, the wine-dealer, and the perfume- 
 maker can detect differences of odor which ordinary 
 people could not perceive. 
 
 The sensations of smell are very marked whilst they 
 last, but they are, comparatively speaking, rare and 
 transient. The odors which produce them are all of
 
 THE SENSES. 1/ 
 
 a gaseous or volatile nature, and, for the most part, 
 quickly pass away. 
 
 Touch. — The organ of touch is the skin, which 
 contains under the cuticle little projections called 
 papillcE, connected by nerves with the brain. These 
 papillcB are spread over the whole surface of the skin, 
 but are most numerous on the tips of the fingers, the 
 palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet. The 
 sense of touch operates hj pressure or simple contact. 
 
 Ideas derived through the Sense of Touch. — The 
 sense of touch enables us to ascertain tlie form, sur- 
 face, and temperature, and, in combination with 
 muscular feeling, the resistance, weight and pressure, 
 of bodies submitted to it. Sensations of touch may 
 be classified 
 
 1. With regard to the pleasure or pain which ac- 
 companies them, as agreeable, disagreeable. 
 
 2. With regard to the peculiar feelings produced 
 by different temperatures, as hot, cold, lukewarm, 
 chilly. 
 
 3. With regard to various peculiar sensations of 
 the skin produced by the action of external bodies, 
 as chafing, pricking, fretting, tickling. 
 
 4. With regard to singularity or plurality of points 
 of contact. 
 
 5. With regard to pressure, as heavy, light. 
 
 2* B
 
 1 8 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 6. With regard to resistance, as hard,^soft, firm, 
 yielding, solid, liquid, elastic, plastic. 
 
 7. With regard to surface, as rough, smooth, wavy, 
 dimpled, pitted. 
 
 8. With regard to extension,* as straight, curved, 
 crooked, square, oblong, triangle,^ cube, pyramid, 
 sphere, etc. 
 
 Some of these ideas are of such vast importance in 
 mental development, that it may be worth while to 
 examine into them a little more closely. 
 
 Plurality of Points of Contact. — A distinctive 
 feature in the sense of touch, as compared with taste 
 and smell, is the consciousness which may accompany 
 it of a plurality of points; or of an extended surface 
 in the object submitted to it. A taste or an odor 
 presents itself to us as a whole and undivided sensa- 
 tion, although it is really not so, the separate sensa- 
 tions occurring so closely together that we are not 
 conscious of their separation ; but touch may afford 
 us a manifold sensation. Smell a rose and the sensa- 
 tion is single ; place your hand on the bristle side of 
 a hair-brush, and you are conscious of a multiplicity 
 of separate points. You experience the same sensa- 
 
 * Extension is that property of matter in virtue of which it 
 occupies space. It relates to the qualities of dimension, viz. : 
 length, breadth, and thiclcness ; and may be classified as linear, 
 superficial, and cubical.
 
 THE SENSES. 1 9 
 
 tion, in a less degree, when you place your hand on a 
 smooth surface. 
 
 This simultaneous consciousness of a plurality of 
 points helps to give us ideas of extension, form, and 
 surface. Feel a body that can be covered by the 
 hand, or, still better, by the finger, and you can tell 
 fairly well by touch alone what is its shape, and what 
 is the character of its surface ; you can tell whether 
 it is round, or square, or oval ; and whether the 
 points on its surface are many or few, sharp or blunt. 
 These discoveries are, of course, facilitated by mov- 
 ing the hand over and around the bodies examined ; 
 but here muscular feeling comes to the assistance of 
 touch. We judge of the outline and surface partly 
 by the resistances we experience in passing our hands 
 over them. 
 
 Pressure, Resistance, and Weight. — When a weight 
 rests upon any portion of the skin, we are conscious 
 of a compression of the part of the body affected by 
 it. If the part of the body be unsupported, we are 
 further conscious of an expenditure of muscular 
 energy. For instance, if a weight be placed on your 
 outstretched hand when it rests upon the table, you 
 are conscious of a pressure proportionate to the 
 weight ; if your hand be not supported, you are fur- 
 ther conscious of an effort expended in sustaining 
 the weight. The degree of pressure, and the amount
 
 20 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 of energy expended, enabled us to roughly estimate 
 weights. " Weber found that the tips of the fingers 
 [the hand being supported] could discriminate be- 
 tween 20 ounces and 19.2 ounces, and the forearm 
 20 ounces from 18.7 ounces." An ordinary person 
 can discriminate with the unsupported arm between 
 39 and 40 ounces. 
 
 But we are mainly indebted for our ideas of press- 
 ure, resistance, and weight, to the consciousness that 
 accompanies muscular effort. That consciousness 
 informs us 
 
 1. Of the degree of the effort. 
 
 2. Of the time during which it lasts, in the case 
 of muscular movements. 
 
 3. Of the space through which the effort is made. 
 
 4. Of the speed vi\i\\ which it is made. 
 
 Extension. — When we move our hand over an ob- 
 ject, we are conscious 
 
 1. Of a plurality and a succession of points in the 
 object. 
 
 2. Of the expenditure of a certain amount of mus- 
 cular energy in passing from point to point. This 
 plurality and continuity of sensations of touch, to- 
 gether with simultaneous muscular efforts and visual 
 impressions, help to give us our ideas of extension 
 and form. 
 
 A blind child might have distinct ideas of exten-
 
 THE SENSES. 21 
 
 sion. By passing its finger along the edge of a ruler, 
 it might get the idea of linear extension, or of a con- 
 tinuous succession of points in a line. By extending 
 its hand over the surface of a slate it might get the 
 idea of superficial extension, or of the continuous 
 succession of points presented by the same body in 
 two different directions. By extending the hand over 
 the sides and back of a book it might get an idea of 
 cubical extension. The flexibility of the fingers, en- 
 abling the hand to close around a body, and the pos- 
 session of two hands, enabling us to touch two sides 
 of a body simultaneously, greatly facilitate the ac- 
 quisition of ideas of cubical extension. 
 
 Form, Size, Situation, Distance and Direction are 
 
 only various modes of extension. 
 
 Ideas of Form may be derived from noting 
 
 1. The succession of points presented to the touch 
 in following the outline of an object. 
 
 2. The muscular efforts simultaneously required to 
 direct the hand. 
 
 The Size of an object cannot be precisely determined 
 by the sense of touch, A hole in a tooth, that would 
 be scarcely perceptible to the finger, seems a consid- 
 erable cavity when touched by the tip of the tongue. 
 The points of a pair of compasses, when drawn over 
 the skin, will seem to widen or contract according as 
 they are drawn respectively over the more or less
 
 22 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 sensitive parts of the skin. Ideas of size may be 
 obtained by noting the muscular effort required in 
 passing the hand around the bodies examined, and 
 comparing it with the times occupied in the process. 
 
 Ideas of Distance may be obtained from the amount 
 of muscular effort required in 
 
 1. Passing the hand from one extremity of the dis- 
 tance measured to the other. 
 
 2. In going from the one point to the other. 
 
 3. In directing the eye from one point to the other. 
 
 Ideas of Direction and Situation, or of place rela- 
 tively to ourselves and to other things, may be derived 
 from noting the particular muscular efforts needed to 
 pass from one point to another. For instance, I am 
 conscious of employing one set of muscles in passing 
 my hand from my body to this page, and of another 
 set in passing from the top of this page to the bottom. 
 
 It might seem to the young student that the origin 
 of some of these ideas might be more easily accounted 
 for by referring them to sight rather than touch ; but, 
 as we shall see hereafter, many properties of things 
 which we seem to see directly with the eye, we really 
 learn hy a comparison of the impressions made by sight 
 and touch. It will, of course, be remembered that a 
 child often employs different senses simultaneously 
 on the same object, and is in this way enabled to 
 compare and combine the impressions made by them. 
 For instance, it sees a ball at the same time that it
 
 THE SENSES. 23 
 
 feels it, and gradually associates the distribution of 
 light and shadow on its surface with the sphericity 
 perceived by touch, until at last it seems to see di- 
 rectly the sphericity itself. As a matter of fact, we 
 do not immediately see what is called tangible form, 
 or cubical extension ; we see only linear and super- 
 ficial extension, and reason as to the actual form of 
 a body from the distribution of light on its surface. 
 The sense of touch may be highly cultivated. The 
 blind man reads by passing his fingers over the char- 
 acters of an embossed page; the miller tests the fine- 
 ness of his flour with his thumb ; the physician follows 
 the nicest variations of a patient's pulse with his fin- 
 gers. Professor Upham mentions the case of a blind 
 girl, in Hartford Asylum, who, when the baskets of 
 linen were brought from the laundress, was able to 
 select her own articles without hesitation, no matter 
 how widely they were mixed up with those of other 
 people. 
 
 Hearing. — The organ of hearing is the ear, a com- 
 plex instrument, of which the so-called ear is but the 
 outer porch. Its mode of action is as follows : — 
 When material bodies are struck or otherwise vio- 
 lently disturbed, they are thrown into a state of 
 vibration. This vibration is communicated to the 
 surrounding air, the vibrations of which ultimately 
 enter the outer ear, and strike upon the membrane
 
 24 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 called the tympanum. The vibrations of the tym- 
 panum are communicated to a series of bones extend- 
 ing to another membrane, viz., that of the labyrinth 
 or internal ear, and are then transmitted, by the con- 
 sequent compressions of a liquid inside the labyrinth, 
 to the auditory nerve. 
 
 Ideas derived through the Sense of Hearing. — 
 
 Sounds may be classified with reference to 
 
 1. The pleasure or pain they afford, as pleasant, 
 sweet, harsh, jarring, discordant, melodious, harmo- 
 nious, etc. 
 
 2. Their intensity, as loud, soft, waning, waxing, 
 etc. 
 
 3. Their pitch, as high, low, shrill, etc. 
 
 4. Their occurrence in time, as sudden, long, 
 intermittent, sustained, irregular, fitful, rhythmical, 
 etc. 
 
 5. Their distinctness, as clear, impure, muffled, etc. 
 
 6. Their purity, as true, false, sharp, flat. 
 
 7. Their articulateness, as distinct, indistinct. 
 
 8. With regard to various objects with which cer- 
 tain acoustic peculiarities are familiarly associated, as 
 metallic, wooden, hollow, solid, liquid, brassy, tinny, 
 etc. 
 
 It is worth noticing that large numbers of words 
 referring to sounds are imitative, or have been coined 
 to imitate the sounds; thus, crash, dash, splash, bump,
 
 THE SENSES. 2$ 
 
 bang, crack, roar, mew, jingle, jangle, jar, thud (the 
 sound produced by a heavy body falling from a great 
 height to the ground), whiz, cluck, quack, ping (the 
 sound of a rifle-ball passing though the air), whir, 
 buzz, hum, hush, patter, etc. Words of this class, 
 not being arbitrary coinages, are among the earliest 
 children learn, and are often coined by them. 
 
 The Distance of a known sound is inferred from 
 its intensity as compared with its known intensities 
 for known distances. The distance of unknown 
 sounds can only be roughly calculated by compar- 
 ison with known sounds to which they bear some 
 likeness. In neither case is the distance heard. It 
 is inferred. 
 
 The Direction of a sound is inferred from the 
 varying intensity of the sound as presented to our 
 two ears, or according as we have to turn our head to 
 right or left, up or down, to hear it more distinctly. 
 
 The sense of hearing is more susceptible of educa- 
 tion than that of sight, and it can be developed more 
 quickly. Infants at a very early stage delight in 
 melodious and rhythmical sounds, as we may see 
 from the pleasure which they take in the lullabies of 
 their mothers and nurses, in nursery rhymes, in the 
 measured sound of marching, and in all forms of 
 music. It is the opinion of the highest musical 
 authorities that every child could be taught to sing 
 and to enjoy music, if taken in hand at a sufficiently 
 3
 
 26 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 early stage. To what a high degree of cultivation 
 the ear may be brouglit may be seen in the case of 
 the conductor of an orchestra, who, with hundreds 
 of performers before him, can not only detect any 
 false note, but single out the part in which it occurs. 
 Not less marvellous is the rapidity with which infants 
 learn to analyze and reproduce the marvellous intri- 
 cacies of articulate speech. Of all the senses hearing 
 is the sense " which most readily and most largely 
 lends itself to the impassioned, emotional, or, as we 
 otherwise name it, poetical or gesthetical feeling." 
 
 Sight. — The organ of sight is the eye, which has 
 been described as " a compound optical lens in com- 
 munication with a sensitive surface." The mode of 
 its action is as follows: — The rays of light proceed- 
 ing from any object that is looked at are so refracted 
 on entering the pupil of the eye as to form an inverted 
 image of the object on the retina. The object, in 
 order to be seen, must be at or beyond a certain dis- 
 tance from the eye. If it be within the distance, the 
 rays will converge behind the retina, instead of upon 
 it. The eye has a power of adjustment by which it 
 is enabled to adapt itself to the varying distances of 
 objects. The two eyes are made to converge for 
 near objects, and a different image is formed on the 
 retina of each, the two images being unconsciously 
 mentally compounded. Thus, if I hold a book on
 
 THE SEXSES. 27 
 
 the tips of my fingers at a distance of about five or 
 six inches from my nose, and look at it alternately 
 with my right and left eye, it seems to shift its posi- 
 tion to the left and right alternately. When I look 
 at it with both my eyes, it assumes an intermediate 
 position, and presents an appearance different from 
 that which is beheld by either eye when the other is 
 closed. 
 
 In looking at distant objects, the eyes preserve 
 their parallelism. The muscular efforts involved in 
 these various adjustments is of assistance in determin- 
 ing the distance of objects that are looked at. We 
 are also largely assisted in estimating the distance of 
 objects by the degrees of distinctness of their outlines 
 and colors, compared with certain standards for known 
 objects. We do not see the distance ; we infer it. 
 
 Ideas derived from the Sense of Sight. — The ob- 
 jects of sight may be classified with regard 
 
 1. To the sensations, or the peculiar feelings which 
 accompany them, as soothing, blinding, dazzling, etc. 
 
 2. To light, as luminous, dark, shadowy, dappled, 
 flecked, etc. 
 
 3. To color, as of red, blue, yellow, etc. 
 
 4. To lustre, as bright, dull, brilliant, dead, glit- 
 tering. 
 
 5. To movements, as stationary, dancing, steady, 
 moving, undulating, unsteady, etc.
 
 28 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 6. To visible form, as straight, zigzag, curvilinear, 
 square, oblong, triangular, circular, oval, etc. 
 
 7. To size, as large, small, vast, enormous, infini- 
 tesimal. 
 
 8. To distance, as near, remote, distant. 
 
 9. To situation, as east, west, north, south. 
 
 10. To typical objects with which peculiar visual 
 impressions are familiarly associated, as solid, liquid, 
 icy, glassy, golden, silvery, emerald, steely, coppery, 
 slaty, fishy, etc. 
 
 Color is not an essential quality of bodies, as solid- 
 ity and extension are, but a secondary quality,* like 
 temperature, smell, and taste. It is produced by the 
 
 *The qualities of material olijects are divided into primary 
 and secondary. The primary qualities are such that we cannot 
 conceive bodies to exist without them. .Such are extension and 
 solidity. They exist outside the mind, and might continue to 
 exist even if there were no sentient beings to perceive them. 
 The secondary qualities of material objects are such as are not 
 essential, and yet have the power of producing sensations in a 
 sentient being. Such are color, taste, smell, temperature, etc. 
 The young student should notice that words denoting these 
 qualities are used in two senses, viz. : 
 
 1. To denote the quality in the object producing sensation. 
 
 2. To denote the sensations produced by the quality. Thus 
 heat may denote 
 
 1. A quality in fire, or 
 
 2. The effect which such quality has upon a sentient being.
 
 THE SENSES. 29 
 
 action of certain qualities of objects upon the eye, 
 and the effect varies with the eye acted upon. Some 
 persons, like the celebrated Dalton, are insensible to 
 certain differences of color. 
 
 Movement. — We are rendered visually conscious 
 of the movement of an object by the muscular effort 
 required to follow it, as when we follow the flight of 
 a bird, and by noting its varying distance from ob- 
 jects that are stationary. 
 
 Superficial Form. — We perceive superficial form 
 visually by a simultaneous or continuous consciousness 
 of the visible points which, in their continuity, make 
 up its surface, and also, if the object looked at be 
 large, by the muscular efforts which accompany the 
 process of following its outline. The movements of 
 the eyeball are much more frequent than is commonly 
 believed. Read with one eye and feel the sympa- 
 thetic movement of the closed eye, by putting the 
 finger on the lid, and you will be conscious of the 
 constant shifting of the eye in reading along even a 
 short line of print. Similarly, in looking at a land- 
 scape, we do not see the whole of it at once, but shift 
 the vision from point to point. We are dimly con- 
 scious of the whole ; we see distinctly only a part at 
 a time. 
 
 3*
 
 30 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Solid Form. — We visually perceive solid form partly 
 by combining the consciousness of muscular effort 
 required to follow with the eye its three dimensions, 
 with certain remembered coincidences of muscular 
 efforts and tactile sensations, and partly by associ- 
 ating the distribution of light on the surfaces of the 
 object with past tactile sensations produced by the 
 same object, or by similar objects. The light, for 
 instance, on a cube is unequally distributed. The 
 top may be in a bright light, the front in a light less 
 intense, and the third visible side in a deep shadow. 
 If we pass the hand over the cube, we notice the 
 coincidence of the various lights on the three visible 
 planes with the altered directions of the hand. It 
 is by associating the modes in which the light is dis- 
 tributed over objects with past tactile and visual ex- 
 periences that we recognize the form of solid objects 
 represented on a flat picture. We, as it were, inter- 
 pret the visual impressions by remembered tactile 
 impressions. The eye is easily deceived by repre- 
 sentations of solid form, and would be entirely de- 
 ceived if the representation were perfect. Even in 
 a room with a comparatively low ceiling, the sham- 
 painted cornice looks so like an actual projection 
 as to be scarcely distinguishable from one. The 
 poet Young had a sham scat painted in his garden, 
 which visitors used to walk up to before they dis- 
 covered the cheat. It bore the appropriate motto,
 
 THE SENSES. 3 1 
 
 ^^Invisibilia non decipiunt.'" (The invisible does not 
 deceive.) 
 
 Persons who have suffered from congenital cataract, 
 and have had the cataract removed, see objects, at 
 first, as though they were perfectly 7?^//, like a picture, 
 and it is only by slow degrees that they learn to asso- 
 ciate the new visual impressions with the old tactile 
 ones. A boy who had been blind from birth, and 
 acquired sight by an operation performed on him 
 when he was twelve years of age, was well acquainted 
 with a dog and cat which he used to play with, but 
 he could not distinguish which was which, when he 
 first saw them, without taking them up and feeling 
 them. 
 
 The sight may be highly cultivated. The sailor 
 can see a distant ship lung before the inexperienced 
 landsman. The artist can perceive slight differences 
 of form and color, and light and direction, which the 
 untaught eye cannot. " The Escjuimaux can discover 
 a white fox amidst the white snow; the American 
 backwoodsman will fire a rifle-ball so as to strike a 
 nut out of the mouth of a squirrel without hurting it ; 
 Indian boys hold their hands up as marks to each 
 other, certain that the unerring arrow will be shot 
 between the spread-out fingers; the astronomer can 
 see a star in the sky, where to others the blue expanse 
 is unbroken ; the shepherd can distinguish the face 
 of every sheep in his flock ; the mosaic worker can
 
 32 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 detect distinctions of colors where others can see 
 none." The visual perception of children at first 
 is very imperfect, as we may see from their early 
 attempts at writing and drawing. They will, for 
 instance, often make an S thus 2, and will fail to per- 
 ceive the inaccuracy even when it is pointed out to 
 them. And even later in life, there are many per- 
 sons who cannot strike a nail on the head or draw 
 a straight line, or tell whether a line is vertical, or 
 horizontal or not, or whether the lines of a building 
 seen in perspective go up or down, or dispose the 
 ornaments on a mantelpiece with some approach to 
 symmetry. This partial blindness (for such it may 
 be considered) might in all cases be cured by judi- 
 ciously devised exercises. 
 
 Organic Sensations. — In addition to the sensations 
 of taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight, we have 
 another class of sensations connected with our mus- 
 cular system, our fiervons system, our circulation and 
 nutrition, our respiration, our feelings of Iieat and 
 cold, and with the alimentary canal. Such are the 
 pains occasioned by over-straining or otherwise injur- 
 ing the muscles; the pain of fatigue, the pleasure of 
 repose ; the exhilaration produced by the action on 
 the nerves of stimulants, the depression tliat follows 
 nervous excitement ; hunger and thirst ; the discom- 
 fort that arises from long continuance in any one
 
 THE SENSES. 33 
 
 posture ; the freshness that accompanies the breath- 
 ing of pure air; the sense of suffocation that arises 
 from the want of air, from asthma, and from certain 
 gases ; sensations produced by heat and cold acting 
 on the circulation and respiration ; relish, disgust, etc. 
 
 Definition of Sensation — We are now in a posi- 
 tion to define sensation. A sensation is the impres- 
 sion made on the mind by the action of some external 
 object on a part of the body, or by the action of one 
 part of the body on another part. 
 
 Sensations are to be distinguished from muscular 
 feelings, which 'are produced by the consciousness of 
 the possession of energy, or by the expenditure of 
 energy in work done ; and also from the emotions, 
 which, though they may be excited by external agen- 
 cies, are not^ produced by contact between external 
 objects and the sensitive surface of the body. 
 
 Each Sense has its own Function, — The senses 
 have distinct provinces assigned to them, though in 
 some cases the impressions made on different senses 
 may lead to the same conclusion. Thus, I may feel 
 that a ring is round by passing my finger round it, 
 or I may see that it is round. But the sensation 
 which I derive through my touch bears no resemblance 
 to the sensation derived through my sight. Hence 
 no skill on the part of the teacher, and no amount 
 
 C
 
 34 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 of illustration or description, can convey to a child 
 lacking in a sense any notion of the sensations con- 
 veyed by that sense. No description, for instance, 
 could make a blind child understand what was meant 
 by red, or a deaf child what was meant by music. A 
 blind man on being asked what red was, is reported 
 to have replied that it was something like the sound 
 of a trumpet ! 
 
 Each sense must be independently exercised before 
 any notion can be formed of its proper sensations. 
 The gateways of the mind open only to their own 
 particular class of acts, and are rigidly closed to all 
 others. Still less can mere words convey notions of 
 new sensations.* 
 
 Comparison of Services rendered by the Senses. — 
 It is to be noted that the senses vary very considerably 
 
 * Teachers sometimes overlook this fact, and imagine that 
 because words describing sensations can reach the mind, notions 
 of the sensations must reach it also. Words can revive the idea 
 of a past sensation, but they cannot impart the idea of an en- 
 tirely new sensation. Real knowledge must be acquired, either 
 directly or indirectly, through the exercise of the senses which 
 are affected by the objects of knowledge. We must see what 
 can lie learnt by sight only ; we must touch what can be learnt 
 by touch only, and so on. Teachers often take their knowledge 
 to the wrong gateway, and sometimes disregard the gateways 
 altogether. They might as well try to give a child an idea of a 
 picture by getting him to smell it.
 
 THE SENSES. 35 
 
 in the extent to which they contribute to furnish the 
 mind with ideas. Thus taste and smell, although they 
 are sources of much pleasure and pain, and render in- 
 valuable services to us, as door-keepers to the stomach 
 and lungs, are restricted to a small class of objects, 
 and the permanent impressions which they leave on 
 the mind are comparatively feeble. Large numbers 
 of objects with which we are familiar through our other 
 senses we never dream of tasting, and a still larger 
 number have no odor which we are capable of smell- 
 ing. Again, though we can recall with ease the pain 
 or pleasure which accompanied past sensations of taste 
 and smell, it is only with difficulty we recall the sen- 
 sations themselves, when the objects which produced 
 them are no longer present. Thus I can vividly recall 
 the form and color and surface and parts of a rose ; 
 but I have considerable difficulty in recalling its fra- 
 grance, although I could immediately identify the 
 odor if it were presented to me. 
 
 Sight, touch, and hearing are the senses to which 
 we are indebted for the larger number of our ideas ; 
 and the ideas which originate with them are the most 
 vividly stamped upon the mind. Hence they are 
 sometimes called the intellectual senses. It is with 
 these education is mainly concerned. 
 
 "^ 
 
 iK'i^^r
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 HOW THE CHILD GETS HIS FIRST IDEAS. 
 
 WE will now return to the infant whom we left 
 lying in the cradle, and inquire how the im- 
 pressions made upon his senses will convey notions to 
 his mind. 
 
 At present he knows nothing. His senses receive 
 various impressions of light, warmth, color, sound, 
 taste, resistance, etc., but he does not as yet distin- 
 guish them, and, of course, cannot identify them. 
 All you can say of his present condition of mind is, 
 that it is possessed by a diversified consciousness. 
 The first exercise of his mind will occur when he be- 
 comes conscious of some change of feeling, such as 
 would be produced by the striking of a clock, or by 
 the sudden bringing of a bright light into a darkened 
 room. 
 
 The Consciousness of TJnlikeness between diiFer- 
 ent Sensations. — A continuous impression made upon 
 
 36
 
 i<» Kngeks, Cal 
 HOW THE CHILD GETS HIS FIRST IDEAS. 37 
 
 the infant's senses would not be noticed, for there 
 would be nothing to direct attention to it. If, for 
 instance, the heat or light of the room in which he 
 lives never varied, he would not notice them. He 
 would first notice the sensation of heat on some 
 change of temperature, as from heat to cold, or from 
 cold to heat. He would first notice the sensation of 
 light on some transition from light to darkness, or 
 from darkness to light. 
 
 "The first dawn of intelligence consists in change of 
 feeling, by which differences begin to be recognized. 
 Mind commences in this perception of differences; 
 it cannot be said that we know anything of itself, 
 but only the differences between it and other things." 
 
 The Consciousness of Likeness between different 
 Sensations. — When the child has a second experience 
 of the same sensation he will be conscious of some 
 resemblance between the two. This consciousness 
 of likeness will be deepened with each repetition, so 
 long as his attention is drawn to the likeness. The 
 impression made by the sound of the clock-stroke 
 will grow familiar to his mind. The impression made 
 by the light of the candle will come to be recognized 
 at each recurrence of it. In this way, through the 
 simultaneous perception of differences and resem- 
 blances between the impressions made upon his 
 senses, he will gradually come to distinguish the 
 4
 
 38 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 impressions made upon different senses from the im- 
 pressions made upon the same sense. He will mentally- 
 separate sight from sounds, and one sight or sound 
 from another, and so on. 
 
 Repetition Essential to the Formation of clear 
 Ideas and to their Retention. — Before an idea can 
 become clear, and be permanently retained by the 
 mind, it must be repeated. The first time the child 
 hears a voice break the silence he will notice the dif- 
 ference between his present and previous state of 
 feeling; but as soon as the sound has died away he 
 will have but a very imperfect recollection of the 
 sound, because there is nothing to link on to it, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, the contrast with the previous stillness. 
 The second time tlie voice is heard he will, with more 
 or less certainty, recognize it. If we could imagine 
 him gifted with the power of speech he would say, 
 "This is like what I felt before." Each time the 
 voice is heard anew, the consciousness of likeness 
 and unlikeness will be repeated, and the impres- 
 sion produced by the voice upon the mind will be 
 deepened, until at last it will be permanent. The 
 child will know it. He will be able to recall it even 
 when the voice is not heard. 
 
 Association of Ideas. — Mere repetition may suffice 
 to fix an idea in the mind, but the association of sen-
 
 HOW THE CHILD GETS HIS FIRST IDEAS. 39 
 
 sations with pleasures and pains, the association of 
 impressions made on the same sense, the association 
 of impressions made on different senses, and many- 
 other associations contriljute still more powerfully 
 to produce this result. The repetition, as it were, 
 engraves the idea more and more deeply in the mind ; 
 the associations keep constantly directing our atten- 
 tion to the original record, and bringing it into 
 consciousness. In this way each idea serves to 
 render more vivid and more easily remembered each 
 associated idea. Just as the repetition of ideas leads 
 to the permanent retention of ideas, so the associa- 
 tion of ideas serves to revive and brighten them by 
 bringing them into conscious remembrance. It mul- 
 tiplies the occasions on which old ideas are brought 
 under review. What is called remembering is merely 
 the directing our consciousness to some present record 
 in the brain of an old impression. We do not recall 
 the actual original impression, but bring under review 
 what remains of it, the link by which this is done 
 being some impression or train of impressions so asso- 
 ciated with the old impression as to be capable of re- 
 viving it. 
 
 The Brain the Instrument of the Mind. — How 
 
 ideas are lodged in the mind we do not know. All 
 we can say is that the brain is the instrument of the 
 mind; that no sensation can be conveyed to it with-
 
 40 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 out in some way or other physically affecting it ; that 
 similar sensations are likely to affect it in the same 
 way and in the same part ; that different sensations 
 are likely to affect it in different ways and in different 
 parts ; and that a series of sensations are likely to 
 produce in it a corresponding series of effects linked 
 together as their causes were. Of this we are abso- 
 lutely sure, that the brain, like every other material 
 object, is a permanent record of every force that acts 
 upon it. Nature records in the altered constitution 
 of things everything that happens to them. Every 
 operation of the mind, like every action of the body, 
 is accompanied by physical changes, and these are 
 the permanent register of both. There is really no 
 greater difficulty in understanding how the mind 
 is conscious of the permanent results of an old im- 
 pression on the brain, than of the immediate results 
 of a present impression. 
 
 It does not follow from this that the brain is the 
 mind 5 what is said is that every mental operation is 
 performed through the brain, and is accompanied by 
 some permanent modification of the brain. Again, 
 we must not imagine that the impressions left upon 
 the nervous matter of the brain bear any resemblance 
 to the objects which, acting upon the senses, originally 
 produced them. An effect does not necessarily re- 
 semble its cause. The image formed upon the retina 
 of the eye is an exact representation of the object
 
 HOW THE CHILD GETS HIS EIRST IDEAS. 4 1 
 
 producing it, except that the image is inverted, but 
 the sensation conveyed to the mind is not a visible 
 impression resembling the image upon the retina. 
 The slightest consideration of this fact would remove 
 the difificulty which some people find in understanding 
 how it is we see bodies erect when their images on 
 the retina are inverted. The real difificulty lies in 
 understanding how the physical impression is con- 
 verted into the mental, not in the correction of the 
 retinal inversion. We have no knowledge whatever 
 of the nature of the changes produced in the brain 
 by sense-impressions ; though we are absolutely cer- 
 tain that there must be changes produced in it of 
 some kind or other. 
 
 Conditions under which Sensations give rise to 
 Ideas. — It will be gathered from what has been stated 
 that the conditions under which sense-impressions are 
 converted into knowledge, are 
 
 1. The perception of unlikencss between different 
 sensations. 
 
 2. The perception of likeness between different sen- 
 sations. 
 
 3. The repetition of sensations. 
 
 Simple as this analysis may be, it applies to all our 
 ideas that are derived through our senses, indeed, 
 the perception of likeness and unlikeness lies at the 
 bottom of <?// our mental acquisitions. 
 4*
 
 42 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 "Whatever the object of thought, to know in what 
 respect it differs from all other things, and in what 
 respect it resembles them, is to know all about it — 
 is to exhaust the action of the intellect upon it. The 
 way the child gets its early knowledge is the way all 
 real knowledge is obtained. When it discovers the 
 likeness between sugar, cake, and certain fruits, that 
 is, when it integrates them in thought as sweet, it is 
 making just such an induction as Newton made in 
 discovering the law of gravitation, which was but to 
 discover the likeness among celestial and terrestrial 
 motions. And as with physical objects, so also with 
 human actions. The child may run round the house, 
 and play with its toys; it must not break things, or 
 play with the fire. Here, again, are relations of like- 
 ness and unlikeness forming a basis of moral classifi- 
 cation. The judge on the bench is constantly doing 
 the same thing; that is, tracing out the likeness of 
 given actions and classing them as right and wrong." 
 
 The young teacher will do well to constantly bear 
 in mind this fundamental law of the human mind. 
 No matter what the subject of his lesson may be, he 
 will find that it mainly turns upon the perception of 
 points of difference and agreement ; and that his suc- 
 cess as a teacher will largely depend upon his skill and 
 persistence in setting forth these points. Very fre- 
 quently he will have to show that under a superficial 
 identity there are points of difference, and that under
 
 HO IV THE CHILD GETS HIS FIRST IDEAS. 43 
 
 what might seem, at first, the widest possible diver- 
 gences, there is an essential agreement. He will also 
 have to take cognizance of the very different degrees 
 of ability to recognize points of agreement and dif- 
 ference which children possess. Some children are 
 quick to detect resemblances; others to detect differ- 
 ences. As a rule, they are more alive to differences than 
 to resemblances. In teaching the alphabet, the letters 
 that give most trouble are those which nearly resemble 
 each other, as, b and d, c and <?, / and q, 7i and //. 
 
 There is scarcely a subject of school instruction 
 which does not allow the teacher to utilize associations 
 of resemblance and difference. Thus, in geography, 
 the teacher might compare the eastern and western 
 hemispheres, the torrid and frigid zones, the land and 
 the ocean, the eastern and western shores of the At- 
 lantic Ocean, Philadelphia and New York, London and 
 Paris, Ceylon and Madagascar, the exports of Penn- 
 sylvania and Louisiana ; in history he might com- 
 pare the Roman Livasion and the Saxon Invasion, 
 life in the United States in the seventeenth and nine- 
 teenth centuries, Washington and Jefferson, Clay and 
 Webster; in physical science he might compare mag- 
 netic and electric polarity, acids and alkalies, reflection 
 and refraction, light and heat, fog and dew, chlorine 
 and sulphur, etc. 
 
 The sharper the contrast, or the more strongly 
 marked the unity under seeming diversity, the deeper 
 the impression made on the mind.
 
 Chapter IV, 
 
 HOW THE CHILD PERCEIVES. 
 
 SENSATION has been defined as the mental im- 
 pression which is produced by the action of ex- 
 ternal objects on some part of the body. At first the 
 mind is not conscious of the existence of the objects 
 by which these sensations are produced; it feels the 
 effect, but does not perceive the cause. The mind 
 of a new-born child is entirely ignorant, not only of 
 the world around it, but that there is a world external 
 to it. It is completely isolated. It has sensations, 
 but the sensations are not connected with the external 
 objects which [produce tliem. '-'To it the inward 
 world is everything; the outward world 1s nothing." 
 The recognition of the quality in an object which 
 produces a sensation is what is termed perception. 
 By degrees the infant learns to refer its sensations 
 to the objects producing them, and thus acquires a 
 knowledge of a world external to himself. This per- 
 ception of outwardness grows as the mind becomes 
 
 44
 
 HO IV THE CHILD PERCEIVES. 45 
 
 capable of associating certain sensations with the 
 presence of certain objects, and the cessation of those 
 sensations with the absence of the objects. When the 
 infant first hears the clock tick he does not know 
 whence the tick proceeds. He is only conscious of 
 a sound. By degrees he finds from which side the 
 sound proceeds ; then from what object ; then under 
 what conditions of the object, and so on. 
 
 Perception subsequent to Sensation. — It is impor- 
 tant to observe that the mind is immediately conscious 
 of sensations only, and that the perception of the 
 external objects which produce them is a subsequent 
 act. The direction of a ray of light leads the mind 
 to perceive the object whence it proceeds; the side 
 on which a sound is best heard leads it to perceive 
 the source whence it proceeds; the power we possess 
 of referring sensations of touch to the particular part 
 of the body affected, directs the mind to the object 
 in contact with it : the pleasures and pains connected 
 with taste and smell are still more directly associated 
 with the objects producing them. 
 
 All Perceptions based on Experience. — Most of 
 our perceptions are acquired so early, and are at last 
 repeated so rapidly, as to seem intuitive ; but various 
 experiments appear to prove conclusively that they 
 are all inferences from experience. Dr. Carpenter
 
 46 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 tells of a child who, at the age of three years, had 
 been cured by an operation for congenital cataract, 
 that, " though he clearly recognized the direction 
 of a candle or other bright object, he was unable as 
 an infant to apprehend its distance; so that when 
 told to lay hold of a watch, he grasped at it just like 
 a young child lying in its cradle. It was very grad- 
 ually that he came to use his sight for the guidance 
 of his movements; and when going about the house 
 at which he was staying, with which he had famil- 
 iarized himself before the operation, he generally 
 shut his eyes, as if puzzled rather than aided by them. 
 When he returned home to his father's house and 
 farmyard, his parents remarked that he was for .some 
 time obviously puzzled by his sight, shutting his eyes 
 as he went about in his old way ; though whenever 
 he went to a new place, he was obviously aided by it. 
 But it was several months before he came to trust 
 to it for his guidance, as other children of his age 
 would do." 
 
 The various steps which are taken in arriving at a 
 knowledge of an external object would appear to be 
 
 1. The consciousness of a sensation. 
 
 2. The reference of the sensation to some external 
 cause. 
 
 3. The formation of an idea of the object, or 
 quality in the object, by which the sensation is 
 believed to be produced.
 
 HO IV THE CHILD PERCEIVES. 47 
 
 Simple and Complex Ideas. — Our ideas of exter- 
 nal objects are simple or compound according as one 
 or more sensations is referred to them. Thus, our 
 ideas of colors, tastes, and smells are for the most 
 part simple. Our ideas of bodies perceived to affect 
 our senses in a variety of ways, are compound. It is 
 obvious that the ideas which different people have of 
 the same object are not necessarily co-extensive ; one 
 person may perceive in an object only one quality ; 
 another two; another three, and so on. A child's 
 idea of an orange is compounded of the simple 
 ideas of its color, form, size, roughness, odor, taste, 
 parts, etc. A botanist's, chemist's or artist's idea 
 of it would be much more extensive. 
 
 Ideas derived from Reflection. — In addition to 
 our ideas of external objects we have ideas of our 
 own mental operations and states. These are derived 
 from directing our consciousness to the mind's own 
 condition. I not only perceive a rose, but I am con- 
 scious that I perceive it. I not only feel pain, but 
 I am conscious that I feel it. We, as it were, per- 
 ceive ourselves thinking, reasoning, feeling, loving, 
 hating, envying, and so on. So that the inmost re- 
 cesses of our nature have a character of outwardness 
 stamped upon them when considered with reference 
 to the mysterious " I " which they unfold.
 
 48 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 Attention Indispensable to Perception. — Atten- 
 tion is as necessary to perception as to sensation. 
 Indeed, it is the indispensable condition of all con- 
 scious mental operations. We often speak of i)er- 
 sons possessing "a good eye," or "a good ear," 
 as having "an eye for nature," or "an eye for 
 color," and so on; as though the faculties so de- 
 scribed were purely original gifts of nature. To a 
 large extent they undoubtedly are original \ but to a 
 still larger extent they are the result of paying care- 
 ful and sustained attention to a particular class of 
 objects. One person gives a cursory glance at an 
 object and carries away a very meagre and imperfect 
 impression of it. Another looks at it carefully and 
 frequently, and exhausts the sensations which it is 
 capable of affording. The mechanical apparatus 
 of the eye may have been originally as good in the 
 former case as the latter, and may be still as good 
 for the observation of another class of objects ; the 
 main difference is not in the eye, but in the mind 
 behind it. The unobservant man looks, but does not 
 see ; the observant man looks till he does see. 
 
 Effect of Expectation on Perception. — There is 
 also a reactionary influence exerted by the mind on 
 the senses which should be noted. When once the 
 mind has experienced a sensation and perceived its 
 cause, an expectation is created that the sensation
 
 BO IV THE CHILD PERCEIVES. 49 
 
 will be reproduced when the object is again presented 
 to the sense that has been affected by it. We look 
 for the old sensation and the cause to which we have 
 assigned it. Thus the eye to a large extent sees, the 
 ear hears, the nose smells, the tongue tastes, and the 
 skin feels, what they bring with them the power to 
 see, and hear, and smell, and taste, and feel. We 
 bring our past experiences to bear on our present 
 sensations. 
 
 Of the dull, unobservant individual, the poet says: 
 
 "A primrose by a river's brim 
 A yellow primrose was to liim, 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 A naturalist would see in the primrose an illustration 
 of hundreds of truths taught him by his previous 
 studies. A poet would see in it forms of beauty as- 
 sociated with an infinite variety of pleasurable ideas. 
 
 Observing Faculties strengthened with Exercise. — 
 
 The observing faculties, like all our other faculties, 
 are sharpened with exercise, the physical organs in- 
 volved in their exercise having a power of gi owing 
 to the special work upon which they are engaged. 
 This power is strongest in childhood. The rational 
 faculty not having been yet developed highly, almost 
 the whole attention is concentrated upon the sensa- 
 tions and the objects producing them. The absence 
 5 D
 
 50 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 of reflection gives us opportunities to observe. Hence, 
 in cliildhood, the mind should be mainly exercised 
 in gaining a knowledge of the external world through 
 the employment of its senses, and in learning to de- 
 scribe its sense-impressions, this knowledge being not 
 only that best suited to the stage of development 
 which it has reached, but the foundation of all other 
 knowledge. Even the "invisible chings" of God are 
 understood by " the things that are made."
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 HOW THE CHILD FORMS CONCEPTIONS. 
 
 THUS far we have endeavored to account for the 
 acquisition of our ideas of particular sensations, 
 and of objects as causing those sensations. We have 
 now to inquire how we come by those conceptions 
 which have no external objects precisely correspond- 
 ing to them, and which are designated by general 
 names, or, as they are called in grammar, by common 
 nouns.* A child knows, we will suppose, the oak- 
 tree in front of the house and the apple-tree at the 
 
 * This may require a moment's explanation. There is a city 
 corresponding to the proper noun Philadelphia ; there is nothing 
 precisely corresponding to the term tree. There are individual 
 trees, but there is no tree which is neither more nor less than 
 what I mean by tlie word tree. This tree is an oak-tree ; that 
 is a pine tree, and so on; but what I am thinking of is not one 
 or the other, jjut simply of the ideas covered by the common 
 noun tree. 
 
 51
 
 52 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 back of the house ; but, as yet, he knows them only 
 as individual trees. He does not perceive under their 
 wide diversity of appearance certain points in com- 
 mon. By and by he will see that they both have 
 trunks, branches, leaves, bark, roots, etc., and he will 
 form from them a conception of a tree as distinguished 
 from an oak-tree, or an apple-tree, or any other tree 
 with which he may become acquainted. 
 
 How we form Conceptions. — It is clear that this 
 conception is arrived at by a process of generaliza- 
 tion. The points of difference which separate trees 
 from other objects, and the points of agreement which 
 unite all trees, form together the conception of a tree. 
 A conception is thus a purely mental combination of 
 ideas derived from a number of objects having some- 
 thing in common, but having no external object 
 precisely corresponding to it. When I look at an 
 oak-tree I perceive its form, size, color, foliage, 
 roots, etc., and I carry away with me an image more 
 or less exact of that particular oak-tree ; but I have 
 a conception of an oak-tree which is quite distinct 
 from my notion of any oak-tree in particular, though it 
 agrees in some respects with my notions of each in- 
 dividual oak-tree with which I am acquainted. To 
 perceive a particular tree, the tree must be before me ; 
 to form a conception of a tree, I need not have a tree 
 before me. It is enough for me to combine out of
 
 HOW THE CHILD FORMS CONCEPTIONS. 53 
 
 my past perceptions those characters which I have 
 found all trees to possess in common. 
 
 Conceptions vary with our Generalizations. — Our 
 
 conceptions of things vary with the extent of our 
 perception of points of agreement and difference be- 
 tween them. Thus, if I note only the fact that a 
 number of objects have trunks, branches, leaves and 
 roots, I may combine these characters into a concep- 
 tion of a tree ; if I further note the particular char- 
 acters of their trunks, branches, leaves, etc., I may 
 form conceptions of groups or classes of trees, one 
 possessing one set of characters in common, and 
 another possessing another set, as of oak-trees, pine- 
 trees, etc. ; if I note the characters of oak-trees more 
 closely, I may form conceptions of groups or classes 
 of oak-trees, one possessing one set of characters in 
 common, and another another, as of the common 
 oak, the rock oak, the black oak, etc. 
 
 What is wanted in a Conception. — Conceptions 
 should be clear and distinct, so that we may know 
 precisely what notions are combined to form them, 
 and thereby be able to determine whether an indi- 
 vidual belongs to a class or not. The vividness of 
 our conceptions largely depends upon the vividness 
 of our perceptions; the distinctness of our concep- 
 
 5*
 
 54 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 tions depends upon the extent to which our discrimi- 
 nations are carried. 
 
 The value of conceptions is most clearly perceived 
 in connection with language and classification. If 
 things were not classified, we should be obliged to 
 name them individually; whereas, by grouping them, 
 a few names become applicable to any number of 
 individuals included in the groups. It is needless to 
 insist upon the value of classification as a means of 
 discovery ; the conception of a class, formed from 
 the perception of a {&\i common characters, will 
 often lead to the discovery of other characters which 
 had not been perceived. Again, it is mainly by con- 
 ception that we are enabled to acquire any knowledge 
 of facts beyond the range of our personal experience, 
 I have never seen Niagara ; but when I am told that 
 it is a waterfall, I can form some idea of it, because 
 I have seen other waterfalls, and have a conception 
 of what constitutes a waterfall. 
 
 Difference between Conception and Imagination. 
 
 — Strictly speaking, we do not form conceptions of 
 things, but only of classes. But in common dis- 
 course people often speak of having conceptions of 
 individual things. It would be more correct to speak 
 of imagining a thing which has not been subjected 
 to our senses. To imagine is to combine the mental 
 images that have been supplied by perception into
 
 HOW THE CHILD FORMS CONCEPTIONS. 55 
 
 new wholes. Thus I have an image of a brick, and 
 another image of a house, and by combining the two 
 I may imagine a brick house. In teaching history 
 and geography we have constantly to appeal to the 
 imagination to realize events and scenes beyond the 
 range of our own sensible experiences. In such cases 
 it is obvious that the image formed cannot be clearer 
 than the ideas out of which it is compounded, and 
 that clear perception is, therefore, indispensable to a 
 vivid imagination. 
 
 Close Connection between distinct Conceptions and 
 Language. — The teacher will do well, in teaching 
 the application of any common name, to indicate 
 precisely the points of agreement which integrate the 
 class of objects included under the name, and the 
 points of difference which separate the class from 
 other classes. He should also be particularly careful 
 to be consistent and accurate in his own employment 
 of language, remembering that it is mainly by induc- 
 tion from the language of their seniors, that children 
 learn the application of words. Distinctness of con- 
 ception is largely aided by precision of language, 
 just as precision of language is largely aided by dis- 
 tinct conception. Our own language will be precise 
 in proportion as our conceptions are distinct \ the 
 conceptions of our pupils will be distinct in propor- 
 tion to the accuracy and consistency of the language
 
 56 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 which they are accustomed to hear. Children should 
 often be interrogated for the purpose of ascertaining 
 whether the words they hear and employ cover dis- 
 tinct conceptions in their minds.* 
 
 * The following story shows that it is not children only who 
 need to verify their conceptions: — A clergyman, in conversa- 
 tion with an old lady, one of his parishioners, had occasion to 
 suspect, from some remarks she dropped, that she had very hazy 
 views of the Pharisees. This led him to say, " May I venture 
 to ask whether you precisely know who the Pharisees were?" 
 " Oh, yes," she said ; " they were a small race of creatures, not 
 absolutely wicked, but mischievous." By some odd jumble she 
 had mixed them up with the fairies.
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 HOW SHALL WE CULTIVATE THE CHILD'S 
 
 SENSES? 
 
 THE mind, as we have seen, derives its first notions 
 of the external world from the exercise of its 
 senses. "From the hour of birth, through all the 
 waking moments, there pour in through the eye, ever- 
 varying impressions of light and color, from the dim- 
 ness of twilight to the utmost solar refulgence, which 
 are reproduced as a highly diversified luminous con- 
 sciousness. Impressions of sound, of all qualities 
 and intensities, loud and faint, shrill and dull, harsh 
 and musical, in endless succession, enter the ear, and 
 give rise to a varied auditory consciousness. Ever- 
 changing contrasts of touch acquaint the mind with 
 hard things and soft, light and heavy, rough and 
 smooth, round and angular, brittle and flexible, and 
 are wrought into a knowledge of things within reach. 
 And so, also, with the senses of taste and smell. 
 This multitude of contrasted impressions, represent- 
 
 57
 
 58 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 ing the endless diversity of the surrounding world, 
 has been organized into a connected and coherent 
 body of knowledge. 
 
 "After two or three years, the face that was at first 
 blank becomes bright with the light of numberless 
 recognitions. The child knows all the common ob- 
 jects of the house, the garden, and the street, and it 
 not only knows them apart, but it has extended its 
 discrimination of likeness and difference to a great 
 many of their characters. It has found out about 
 differences of torm, size, color, weight, transparency, 
 plasticity, toughness, brittleness, fluidity, warmth, 
 taste, and various other properties of the solid and 
 liquid substances of which it has had experience. It 
 has noted peculiarities among animals and plants, and 
 the distinctions, traits, and habits of persons. 
 
 "Besides this, it has learned to associate names 
 with its ideas : it has acquired a language. The num- 
 ber of words it uses to express things, and actions, 
 and qualities, degrees and relations among these things 
 and actions, shows the extent to which its discrimina- 
 tions have been carried ; groups of ideas are integrated 
 into trains of thought, and words into corresponding 
 trains of sentences, to communicate them." 
 
 Nature to be our Guide.— When a child goes to 
 school, the first duty of the teacher is to continue the 
 method of education which has been pursued by
 
 HO IV TO CULTIVATE THE CHILD'S SENSES. 59 
 
 nature : to increase tlie acuteness of the senses by 
 suitable exercises, to direct tliem to appropriate ob- 
 jects, to extend the discriminations of likeness and 
 unlikeness in which its present knowledge consists, 
 and to supply words as they are wanted, to designate 
 the notions and conceptions which the mind gradually 
 accumulates. 
 
 Now Nature's education begins with life, and her 
 school is the school of experience. She teaches noth- 
 ing but what the child will need to know, and all her 
 lessons are regulated by the degree of development 
 which he has reached and the practical use to which 
 her lessons are to be applied. She is in no hurry.* 
 
 * Darwin says of one of his children that he was not al)Ie, 
 even at one hundred and twenty-four days old, to easily recog- 
 nize whence a sound proceeded. His power of vision was devel- 
 oped much earlier. His eyes were fixed on a candle as early as 
 the ninth day, and up to the forty fifth day nothing else seemed 
 thus to fix them. On the fortyninlh day his attention was at- 
 tracted by a bright colored tassel. He could not follow well 
 with his eye a swinging object at seven and one-half months 
 old. He could move his hands to his mouth before he was forty 
 days old. When between eighty and ninety days old he drew 
 all sorts of objects into his mouth. When one hundred and 
 thirty two days old he often failed to grasp objects brought 
 within his reach. Tiedemann, who made similar observations, 
 says that one of his infants on the day after his l>irth moved his 
 eyes in all directions, not at random, but as if they sought ob- 
 jects, and directed themselves by preference to things in move-
 
 6o CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 She does not cram. She associates pleasures and 
 pains with the sensations to which she wishes to di- 
 rect attention. She repeats her lessons day after day 
 with unwearying patience and with infinite variety of 
 illustration and exercise. She leaves time for her 
 lessons to be thoroughly assimilated and put in prac- 
 tice. She links on new knowledge to old. She 
 converts every sense into an avenue for conveying 
 new ideas, and every instinct into an instrument for 
 stimulating the infant to exercise his senses. She 
 never wearies her pupil. As soon as he is tired of 
 examining one thing she directs him to another, and 
 when he is tired of examining everything, she sends 
 him to sleep. She turns everything to account for 
 
 ment. When he was thirteen days old he showed some traces 
 of acquired ideas, and evidently took notice of the gestures of 
 those who spoke to him. Their words stopped his tears. When 
 eighteen days old he showed signs of the association of ideas. 
 Thus, if he cried, and was phiced on one of his sides in the 
 position of suckhng, or if he felt a warm hand upon his face, he 
 would become silent, and seek his mother's bosom. At thirty- 
 eight days old the playing of a piano gave him evident pleasure. 
 The order and rapidity with which the faculties of children de- 
 velop vary very considerably. M . Taine says of one of his infants 
 that when less than three m.onths old she would, on hearing her 
 grandmother's voice, turn her head to the side from which it 
 came. Mr. Darwin's child, as we have seen, could not tell well 
 the direction from which a sound came when he was one hun- 
 dred and twenty-four days old.
 
 HOW TO CULTIVATE THE CHILD'S SENSES. 6 1 
 
 the purpose of instructing and educating him, and 
 teaches him invaluable lessons while he seems to be 
 only sucking a coral, or pulling a flower to pieces, or 
 rolling a ball, or smoothing a cat. Examine her pupil 
 at the age of three, and you will find that he has learnt 
 the leading elementary truths of Physics without at- 
 tending the lectures of any learned professor; that 
 he has some acquaintance with Botany, and consider- 
 able knowledge of Natural History ; that he has a 
 deep insight into human character, and that, without 
 the assistance of grammar or dictionary, he has learnt 
 to speak his mother-tongue with tolerable fluency and 
 accuracy ; that he has made a commencement in sev- 
 eral mechanical crafts, such as those of the mason 
 and carpenter; that he is not wholly ignorant of tlie 
 Fine Arts, and that he has elementary notions of the 
 truths of morality and religion. 
 
 We clearly cannot do better, then, than take 
 Nature for our guide when the child leaves the nurs- 
 ery to go to school. She has mapped out for us the 
 course which we ought to pursue in his formal educa- 
 tion. "New helps and resources may be needed, 
 but the essential means should be the same. Mental 
 growth is to be carried by cultivation to still higher 
 stages, with the same processes hitherto employed. 
 Nothing is more obvious than that the child's entrance 
 upon school-life, instead of being the wise continua- 
 tion of processes already begun, is usually an abrupt 
 6
 
 62 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 translation to a new, artificial, and totally different 
 sphere of mental experience. Although in the pre- 
 vious periods it has learned more than it ever will 
 again in the same time, and learned it according to 
 the fundamental laws of growing intelligence, yet 
 the current notion is that education begins with the 
 child's entrance upon school-life. That which does 
 begin it this time is not education, but simply the 
 
 acquirement of new helps to it." 
 
 # 
 
 The Aim which the Teacher should set before him 
 in Cultivating the Senses. — In cultivating the senses, 
 our aim should be, not so much to bring them to 
 their highest possible acuteness, as to fit them for 
 the duties of life, as efficient and ready instruments 
 of the mind. It is a simple extravagance to aim at 
 attaining "an eye as keen and piercing as that of the 
 eagle ; an ear as sensitive to the faintest sound as 
 that of the hare ; a nostril as far-scenting as that of 
 the wild deer ; a tongue as delicate as that of the 
 butterfly; and a touch as acute as that of the spider." 
 One is tempted, on hearing such language, to quote 
 the words of Pope : 
 
 " Why has not man a microscopic eye? 
 For this plain reason — man is not a fly. 
 Say what the use were finer optics given, 
 To inspect a mile, not comprehend the heaven ?
 
 HOW TO CULTIVATE THE CHILD'S SENSES. 6t, 
 
 Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
 
 To smart and agonize at every pore ? 
 
 Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, 
 
 Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 
 
 If nature thundered in his opening ears, 
 
 And stunned him with the music of the spheres. 
 
 How would he wish that Heaven had left him still 
 
 The whispering zephyr and the purling nil." 
 
 Nor need we have recourse to exercises for the ex- 
 clusive purpose of cultivating the senses. The same 
 lessons which will supply children with such knowl- 
 edge as it is most desirable they should acquire, will 
 afford adequate opportunities for the exercise of the 
 senses. Herbert Spencer says on this point : "From 
 the Bushman, whose eye, habitually employed in 
 identifying distant objects that are to be pursued or 
 fled from, has acquired a telescopic range, to the 
 accountant whose daily practice enables him to add 
 up several columns of figures simultaneously, we find 
 that the highest power of a faculty results from the 
 discharge of those duties which the conditions of 
 life require it to discharge. And we may be sure, a 
 priori, that the same law holds throughout education. 
 The education of most value for guidance must be at 
 the same time the most valuable for discipline." 
 
 Children must Use their Senses. — The great thing 
 for the teacher to aim at is to get children to use
 
 64 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 their senses in the acquisition of all knowledge that 
 is based on observation. This they may do either 
 by collecting facts for inductions of their own, or by 
 verifying the observations of others. Words are in- 
 valuable helps to the mind in classifying things, in 
 recollecting them, in reasoning from them, and in 
 communicating knowledge relating to them, but they 
 can never supersede the necessity for original obser- 
 vation. They have no meaning until the ideas are 
 lodged in the mind which they designate, and, how- 
 ever familiar they may be to the ears of the children 
 who hear them, they are, without antecedent sense- 
 impressions, a meaningless and unknown language. 
 Children must see, and hear, and taste, and smell, 
 and touch for themselves, before they can benefit by 
 the observation and testimony of others. Without 
 accurate sense-impressions our perceptions must be 
 erroneous ; and with erroneous perceptions, our con- 
 ceptions, our judgments, our reasoning, and all our 
 other mental operations must be erroneous. "The 
 education of the senses neglected, all after-education 
 partakes of a drowsiness, a haziness, an insufficiency, 
 which it is impossible to cure." The concrete being 
 unknown, or imperfectly known, the abstract is marked 
 by the same characteristics. 
 
 Miss Edgeworth says on this point: "Rousseau 
 has judiciously advised that the senses of children 
 should be cultivated with the utmost care. In pro-
 
 HOW TO CULTIVATE THE CHILD'S SENSES. 65 
 
 portion to the distinctness of their perceptions will 
 be the accuracy of their memory, and probably also 
 the precision of their judgment. A child who sees 
 imperfectly cannot reason justly about the objects of 
 sight because he has not sufficient data. A child 
 who does not hear distinctly cannot judge well of 
 sound ; and if we could suppose the sense of touch 
 to be twice as accurate in one child as in another, 
 we might conclude that the judgment of these chil- 
 dren must differ in a similar proportion. The defects 
 in organization are not within the power of the pre- 
 ceptor; but we may observe that inattention and 
 want of exercise are frequently the causes of what 
 are mistaken for natural defects ; and, on the con- 
 trary, increased attention and cultivation sometimes 
 produce that quickness of eye and ear, and that 
 consequent readiness of judgment, which we are apt 
 to attribute to natural superiority of organization or 
 capacity." 
 
 But the formation of habits of observation is, per- 
 haps, of more value even than the knowledge gained 
 in childhood by the exercise of the senses. There is 
 no occupation in life in wliicii |M)uet•^ of acciinitc 
 ol)ser\'ati(>ii arc inn needed, to sav nuiliiiiu of ihe 
 infinite sources of pleasure which those powers open 
 up to us. "If we consider it," says Spencer, "we 
 shall find that exhaustive observation is an element 
 
 of all great success. It is not to artists, naturalists, 
 6* E
 
 66 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 and men of science only, that it is needful ; it is not 
 only that the physician depends on it for the correct- 
 ness of his diagnosis, and that to the engineer it is 
 so important that some years are prescribed in -the 
 workshop for him ; but we may see that the philoso- 
 pher, also, is fundamentally one who observes the 
 relationships of things which others had overlooked, 
 and that the poet, too, is one who sees the fine facts 
 in nature which all recognize when pointed out, but 
 did not before remark. Nothing requires more to be 
 insisted on than that vivid and complete impressions 
 are all-essential. No sound fabric of wisdom can be 
 woven out of rotten raw material."
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 OBJECT LESSONS. 
 
 THE intention of object lessons is not so much to 
 communicate information as to put children in 
 the way of collecting information for themselves ; to 
 sharpen and direct their senses; to teach them to see 
 things, instead of merely looking at them, and to de- 
 compose the confused aggregate of impressions which 
 things at first 'make upon the mind; to get them to 
 classify and generalize and connect simple phenomena 
 with their antecedents and consequents; to exercise 
 the reason ; and to do this in Nature's own way, by 
 bringing the learner, as far as possible, into direct 
 contact with things, and satisfying his own instinctive 
 needs. 
 
 The most suitable subjects for a teacher to begin 
 with in the cultivation of the perceptive and concep- 
 tive faculty are 
 
 I. Those that afford occupation for the hands, 
 thereby gratifying the love of activity, as well as ex- 
 
 67
 
 68 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 ercise for the senses, such as the Kindergarten "gifts," 
 colored balls, blocks capable of combination in pleas- 
 ing groups, etc. 
 
 2. Common things, such as a table, a chair, a bed, 
 a poker, a pin, a needle, a knife and fork, a thimble, 
 a feather. 
 
 3. Subjects from natural history, such as the cat, 
 the dog, the cow, the horse, the mouse, the robin, a 
 bird's-nest, a daisy, an apple, an orange, a potato, 
 wool, the lion, camel, etc. 
 
 4. Subjects connected with food and dress, such as 
 bread, cheese, butter, tea, coffee, bacon, rice, sugar, salt, 
 pepper, spice, rice, vinegar; a straw bonnet, cotton, 
 linen, cloth, a shoe, a button, thread, a hook and eye. 
 
 5. Subjects connected with the human body, such 
 as the head, the arms, the legs, the hands, the feet, 
 the eye, the ear, the teeth, the tongue, the nose, the 
 skin, the hair. 
 
 6. Subjects connected with domestic and industrial 
 economy, such as baking, washing, brewing, cooking, 
 building, a butcher's shop, a blacksmith's shop, a 
 tailor's shop, a grocer's shop, a carpenter's shop. 
 
 7. Siil)ic( ts connerted with fiimiliar physical phe- 
 nomena, such us the- ^uii. the iDtxjii. the wind, rain, 
 snow, ice, water, day, night, the seasons, clouds. 
 
 Classification of Object Lessons. — Object lessons 
 for infant-schools may be conveniently grouped into
 
 OBJECT LESSONS. 69 
 
 four classes, corresponding to the ages of the chil- 
 dren. 
 
 1. Lessons in which the main purpose is to lead 
 children to perceive the parts and the more obvious 
 qualities of objects. 
 
 2. Lessons calling attention to the less obvious 
 qualities and uses of objects. 
 
 3. Lessons involving an easy classification of things. 
 
 4. Lessons directing attention to the adaptation 
 of means to ends, and thereby exercising the reason. 
 
 The same subject may be treated in all these ways, 
 the teacher remembering that the senses should be 
 chiefly exercised first, the conceptive faculty next, 
 and the reasoning faculty last of all. 
 
 Object lessons should be continued until children 
 take up the formal study of the subjects under which 
 they are included, physical geography, physiology, 
 chemistry, etc. "They should not be limited to the 
 contents of the house, but should include those of 
 the fields and the woods, the granary and the sea- 
 shore. They should not cease with early childhood, 
 but should be kept up during youth, as insensibly to 
 merge into the investigations of the naturalist and 
 the man of science." As far as possible, even in the 
 primary school, lessons relating to connected and 
 kindred subjects should be given in a series, so that 
 the relations between things may be perceived, and 
 in order that new knowledge may be linked on to the
 
 70 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 old. "Alike in its order and its methods," says 
 Herbert Spencer, "education must conform to the 
 natural process of mental evolution ; there is a cer- 
 tain sequence in which the faculties spontaneously 
 develop, and a certain kind of knowledge that each 
 requires during its development ; and it is for us to 
 ascertain this sequence, and supply this knowledge." 
 
 Apparatus and Illustrations. — The teacher should 
 in all cases take care to provide himself beforehand 
 with the apparatus necessary for his lesson, the appa- 
 ratus and the experiments made with it being, if 
 properly used, in themselves the lesson, and the 
 teacher merely a demonstrator, whose function is not 
 so much to communicate knowledge by word of 
 mouth as to direct and test the child's powers of ob- 
 servation and reasoning. Careful attention should be 
 paid to the order in which the experiments are per- 
 formed and the specimens displayed. 
 
 Specimens. — If possible, the teacher should have 
 the actual object on which the lesson is, placed be- 
 fore the children ; and a specimen of it should be 
 given to each child. For instance, if the lesson were 
 on a daisy, each child should have a daisy, and 
 should examine it for himself under the teacher's 
 direction, first taking off one part and then another, 
 and laying each part carefully aside. An enthusiastic
 
 OBJECT LEZSONS. Jl 
 
 teacher will always be on the lookout for specimens 
 for the illustration of his lessons, and will take advan- 
 tage of times and opportunities to secure them. I 
 recently heard a lesson on the bee, and found that 
 the teacher had had the forethought to secure a com- 
 plete hive of dead bees, from which he was enabled 
 to furnish every child with a handful at the beginning 
 of the lesson. Every school should be provided with 
 
 1. A small cabinet of objects illustrating the animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and the more im- 
 portant arts and manufactures. 
 
 2. A museum of curiosities and other objects of 
 interest, to which the children should be encouraged 
 to contribute. 
 
 3. Apparatus for melting, evaporating, straining, 
 measuring, weighing, etc. 
 
 Pictures. — If the actual object cannot be had, then 
 a picture of it should be introduced ; but it should 
 not be forgotten that a picture is only an imperfect 
 symbol of the object which it represents. It is, of 
 course, a more perfect symbol than a word, because 
 it is not arbitrary and bears some resemblance to the 
 real thing; but it is addressed to only a single sense, 
 and is very liable to mislead even that. It can give 
 no idea, except by way of suggestion from the asso- 
 ciation of ideas, of resistance, weight, texture, etc. 
 Pictures that are not on the same scale as the objects
 
 ^2 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 represented should contain some familiar object to 
 furnish a standard for relative measurement. A pic- 
 ture of a mouse should contain a cat. A picture of an 
 elephant should contain a man. This rule should be 
 invariably observed in lessons on Natural History. 
 
 Models are still better than pictures. They can be 
 taken to pieces, set in motion, and shown in a wide 
 variety of situations. They appeal at once to the 
 instincts of knowledge, activity, and transformation. 
 
 The Black-board. — As an auxiliary to all other 
 modes of illustration the black-board should be freely 
 used. Every teacher should be able to draw rapidly 
 and effectively before his class. An illustration may 
 often be drawn on the black-board when no other 
 form of illustration is available. Children love to 
 see a drawing grow under their eyes. Moreover, a 
 black-board drawing enables the teacher to present 
 a complex object little by little, and to exaggerate the 
 scale of important parts of an object that are too small 
 to be clearly seen in a model or complete drawing. 
 In lessons on subjects in which form plays an im- 
 portant part, as in Botany, it is well to get the chil- 
 dren to copy for themselves the forms set before them. 
 
 Words to be Communicated after the Ideas which 
 they Represent. — In his desire to get children to ac-
 
 OBJECT LESSONS. 73 
 
 quire real knowledge, the teacher should not forget 
 the importance of their acquiring verbal knowledge 
 commensurate with it. Words are indispensable as 
 the symbols of knowledge and should be taught as 
 occasion requires, care being taken that the knowl- 
 edge of the thing or quality takes precedence of the 
 knowledge of the word designating it. There are 
 some qualities that are common to large classes of 
 objects. It is not necessary to introduce these into 
 every lesson on objects possessing them. Once they 
 are well known, the teacher may assume the knowl- 
 edge of them and direct his attention more particu- 
 larly to distinctive qualities. 
 
 All new words should be written on the black-board, 
 and an abundance of examples should be given and 
 required in which the words occur. 
 
 Importance of Neatness. — Teachers cannot be too 
 careful in performing experiments, in handling and 
 arranging specimens, and in drawing and writing on 
 the black-board, to set an example of neatness, order, 
 and symmetrical arrangement. Clumsy experiments, 
 disorderly heaps of specimens, bad drawings, illegible 
 writing, and confused black-board work have neces- 
 sarily a bad moral and intellectual effect on the minds 
 of the children before whose eyes they are constantly 
 presented. 
 7
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 ON THE SPECIAL VALUE OF THE PHYSICAL 
 SCIENCES AS INSTRUMENTS FOR CULTIVAT- 
 ING THE SENSES, 
 
 THE special value of the Physical Sciences as 
 educational instruments lies in the fact that they 
 bring the mind, if properly studied, in contact with 
 things and not mere words, and afford suitable oppor- 
 tunities for systematic training of the observing fac- 
 ulties. " A lesson one day on a bone, the next on a 
 piece of lead, and the next on a flower, may be ex- 
 cellent for imparting 'information,' but the lack 
 of relation among these objects unfits them to be 
 employed for developing connected and dependent 
 thought. This teaching can be thoroughly successful 
 only when the objects studied are connected all to- 
 gether in a large, complex whole, as a part of the 
 order of nature. The elementary details must be 
 such as children can readily apprehend, while the 
 characters and relations are so varied and numerous 
 as to furnish an extended course of acquisition issuing 
 
 74
 
 VALUE OF THE PHYSICAL SCLENCES. 75 
 
 in a large body of scientific principles. Only in a field 
 so bread and inexhaustible as to give play to the men- 
 tal faculties in their continuous expansion can object- 
 studies have that real disciplinary influence which is 
 now so desirable an element of popular education." 
 
 What should be Aimed at in Physical Studies. — 
 
 The object which the teacher should set before him 
 in teaching any physical science should be 
 
 1. To let facts speak for themselves; 
 
 2. To supply suitable experiments and specimens 
 for the establishment of general laws; 
 
 3. To secure accuracy and solidity in the knowl- 
 edge acquired ; 
 
 4. To connect scientific principles with their prac- 
 tical applications ; 
 
 5. To sharpen the observing powers; 
 
 6. To cultivate the imagination in the apprehen- 
 sion of theories where proof is not available; 
 
 7. To exercise the reasoning powers; 
 
 8. To form good intellectual habits. 
 
 The Physical Sciences most suitable for these pur- 
 poses are Botany, Chemistry, Human Physiology, Nat- 
 ural Philosophy, Geology, and Physical Geography. 
 
 Botany. — Of these Botany is, perhaps, the most 
 valuable and available, from an educational point of 
 view. Its special advantages are these :
 
 75 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 1. The materials for its study are everywhere 
 accessible ; 
 
 2. The study can be carried on in an ordinary 
 school-room and requires little apparatus ; 
 
 3. The elementary facts are so simple that their 
 study can be commenced in early childhood, and so 
 numerous as to admit of a prolonged course of ob- 
 servation ; 
 
 4. The study may be stopped at any stage, and the 
 advantages gained are substantial and valuable; 
 
 5. The means are furnished for organizing object- 
 teaching into a systematic method ; 
 
 6. The study is unrivalled in the scope it offers to 
 the descriptive powers, as its vocabulary is more 
 copious, precise, and well-settled than that of any 
 other of the natural sciences ; 
 
 7. It is congenial with the pleasurable activity of 
 childhood and enforces rambles and excursions; 
 
 8. It has a practical value in agriculture and horti- 
 culture, pursuits in which more people are occupied 
 and interested than in all others put together; 
 
 9. The study of plant-forms opens up to us a world 
 of grace, harmony, and beauty, that is not without 
 influence upon the aesthetic feelings, and the appreci- 
 ation of Art ; 
 
 10. Botany is a source of pure and unfailing per- 
 sonal enjoyment ; 
 
 11. It involves, in its higher branches, the employ-
 
 VALUE OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. "jy 
 
 ment of the microscope, the most delicate and pow- 
 erful of all instruments of observation. 
 
 12. It opens the field of experiment and affords 
 opportunity for cultivating manipulating processes. 
 
 13. It has intimate connections with all the other 
 sciences — Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Meteorology, 
 and Physical Geography, and is the proper introduc- 
 tion to the great subject of Biology — the science of 
 the general laws of life. 
 
 The Use of Books in the Study of Physical Science. 
 
 — Books cannot be dispensed with in the study of 
 Physical Science, but they should be subordinated to 
 the study of things. Their proper use would seem to 
 be to follow observation and experiment, and present 
 in accurate language the truths elicited by personal 
 investigation. 
 
 In the earlier stages of teaching physical science 
 the teacher should rely largely upon oral instruction, 
 his immediate object being to stimulate curiosity and 
 minimize difficulties, so as to render the subject as 
 attractive as possible. In the later stages it is well 
 for the class to go first over the f'r()\)iid which the 
 teacher proposes to travcisc 1»\ ilicin->clvc>. Thcv 
 will then be better prepared for his instruction. They 
 wdl have thought themselves hungry, and will come 
 to his teaching with an intellectual appetite.
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 LESSONS ON COLOR AND FORM. 
 
 ONE of the earliest impressions which the mind is 
 capable of receiving is that produced by the un- 
 decomposable sensation of light. Following the or- 
 der of nature, the teacher should make the pupils 
 acquainted at the earliest stage of their education with 
 the more marked differences of color, taking advan- 
 tage of every convenient opportunity to direct the eye 
 to harmonious combinations of color. The apparatus 
 requisite for a series of lessons on Color would be 
 (a) A sheet of colored squares showing 
 
 1. Black and white. 
 
 2. Primary colors. 
 
 3. Secondary colors. 
 
 4. Common shades of different colors. 
 ((^) Loose cards colored in the same way. 
 (c) Colored wools. 
 
 (//) Colored textile fabrics. 
 (<f) Colored pictures. 
 
 78
 
 /.ASSO.VS O.V COLOR AND FORM. J() 
 
 As the colors are learned the children should be re- 
 quired to match the loose cards from the colored 
 squares, or vice versa, to match the squares from the 
 cards; to name familiar objects of the color which is 
 under consideration ; to name shades of the color, etc. 
 
 The harmony of colors is best taught by familiariz- 
 ing the eye with instances of it. The teacher should 
 carefully avoid, in the use of colored balls and wools, 
 and, indeed, at all other times, inharmonious combi- 
 nations of color. Female teachers cannot be too 
 particular in the selection of the colors of their own 
 articles of dress. Careful attention should also be 
 paid to the coloring of the school, and the selection 
 of pictures for the walls. 
 
 The most elementary lessons on form should be on 
 the Kindergarten "gifts," which admit of being 
 handled as well as seen, the notion of solid form 
 being, as we have seen, mainly derived from tactile 
 sensations. 
 
 The apparatus required for teaching superficial form 
 should consist of 
 
 1. A sheet showing the common and geometrical 
 plane and solid figures. 
 
 2. A box of wooden models to correspond. 
 The children should be required 
 
 I. To count the number of sides which each figure 
 possesses as the teacher runs his finger over them or 
 points to them on the sheet.
 
 80 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 2. To match the models from the sheet, and the 
 figures on the sheet from the models, 
 
 3. To name the figures after the figures have come 
 to be readily identified. 
 
 4. To name familiar objects resembling the figures. 
 
 5. To describe the shape of familiar objects; and 
 so on. 
 
 Linear form is best taught in connection with 
 drawing. 
 
 In teaching drawing, the children should not be 
 detained too long over unmeaning straight lines and 
 curves. Their delight in drawing mainly arises from 
 the satisfaction which it affords to their imitative and 
 creative instincts, and is naturally greatest in repre- 
 senting objects in which they take an interest. 
 
 The order of a series of elementary drawing lessons 
 would appear to be 
 
 1. The representation of common objects bounded 
 by straight lines, such as a post, a stool, a bench, a 
 box, a ladder, a comb, a bed, a clothes-horse, a ta- 
 ble. 
 
 2. The duplication of straight lines as seen in va- 
 rious common objects, such as the preceding series. 
 
 3. The representation of common oljjfcts in which 
 turves appear, Mich as a clock, an arched window, a 
 kite, a jug, etc. 
 
 4. The representation of symmetrically divided 
 objects needing measurement with the eye, such as
 
 LESSONS ON COLOR AND FORM. 8 1 
 
 a window showing panes, a door showing panels, a 
 Maltese cross, the front of a house, etc. 
 
 As soon as children have acquired some facility in 
 drawing from the flat they should draw from models. 
 
 The teacher should always show young pupils where 
 to begin in drawing an object, and should draw it 
 himself a part at a time, on the black-board, taking 
 care that they keep pace with him. A complex-look- 
 ing object frightens a child, but if it be decomposed 
 and presented a line at a time, he is encouraged to 
 attack it. There is this further advantage in this 
 method : the children are kept well together and are 
 prevented from wasting their time in needless use of 
 the India-rubber. 
 
 Inventive drawing is best taught after children have 
 acquired some facility in drawing straight lines and 
 curves, and the commoner geometrical forms. The 
 apparatus required for it are 
 
 1. Books ruled for the purpose. 
 
 2. The black-board. 
 
 The children should be shown how a figure maybe 
 ornamently filled up, and after some practice in copy- 
 ing examples, should be encouraged to make designs 
 of their own. 
 
 F
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 THE SENSES IN RELATION TO THE ORDINARY 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 THERE are few subjects of school instruction in 
 which the senses might not play an important 
 part, if teachers would only set children to observe 
 for themselves, instead of giving them verbal ac- 
 counts of observations made by other people. Even 
 in those exercises in which children are bound to see 
 things for themselves, such as writing and drawing, 
 the teacher may do much to make them observe more 
 accurately 
 
 I. By getting them to decompose complex objects. 
 . 2. By classifying the parts and presenting them in 
 the order of their simplicity. 
 
 3. By a critical comparison between the object 
 and its copy. 
 
 Reading is an art which is mainly acquired through 
 the visual memory. We are only concerned, for the 
 
 82 
 
 I
 
 V 
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 83 
 
 present, with that part of it which deals with the 
 learning the shapes of letters and printed words. 
 
 Before children begin to learn the Alphabet they 
 should have their eyes trained to perceive the ele- 
 ments of which letters are composed, and their fin- 
 gers trained to reproduce them. All the capital 
 letters (and those only should be taught first, because 
 tliey are the simplest in outline) are constructed out 
 of these four simple elements, viz. : 
 
 1. The vertical line. 
 
 2. The horizontal line. 
 
 3. Oblique lines. 
 
 4. The circle. 
 
 By judiciously constructed exercises, based on these 
 elements, the children may be led on to produce the 
 letters as they are learned. The advantages of this 
 method are obvious. The complex letter is decom- 
 posed and reconstructed and, in the process, kept 
 continuously under the eye. 
 
 The reproduction of the letters should be made 
 in a variety of ways, so as to satisfy the instincts 
 of activity and construction and avoid monotony. 
 Thus the children may be required to make the let- 
 ters 
 
 1. In the air. 
 
 2. On the black-board. 
 
 3. With bits of wood or paper prepared for the 
 purpose.
 
 84 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 4. With peas and sticks, and so on. Again, the 
 children should be made to match letters for the pur- 
 pose of compelling them to notice 
 
 1. The points of agreement and 
 
 2. The points of difference between them. 
 Again, they should be required to convert one letter 
 
 into another, as / into T, Fmio E, and so on. 
 
 Picture alphabets are of little use except for the 
 purpose of attracting the attention and making the 
 reading exercise pleasurable. "A was an Archer," 
 with its accompanying picture, throws no light on the 
 form of the letter A, and can only assist the memory 
 by calling up the picture in which the A appears. 
 Analogies between the letters and familiar objects, 
 especially if traced by the children themselves, are 
 much more valuable. "Y is like a wine-glass," 
 leads the child to institute a comparison between the 
 two, and forms an association which fixes the -shape 
 of the letter in the memory. The Y calls up the 
 wine-glass and the wine-glass calls up the Y. 
 
 Letters that closely resemble one another, as c and 
 e, b and d, p and q, should be closely compared, 
 and their differences insisted on. Here mnemonic 
 rhymes may be introduced to fix the differences in 
 the memory. 
 
 Anomalous words should be taught as visual wholes, 
 and the hand should form them as soon as the eye 
 has learned to identify them.
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 85 
 
 The ear should be practised by short exercises 
 in pronunciation and enunciation, and the teacher 
 should make a free use of the black-board in making 
 visible to the eye letters not sounded or incorrectly 
 sounded, care being always taken that no wrongly- 
 spelled word is ever put on the black-board. Letters 
 that are not sounded may be crossed through ; sounds 
 that are inaccurate may be represented above or 
 below the proper symbol ; but the picture of the 
 word as properly spelled should never be disturbed. 
 We are haunted not only by the ghosts of errors we 
 have committed, but even by the ghosts of errors we 
 have seen or heard. 
 
 Spelling stands on the same footing as the mechan- 
 ical art of Reading. If spelling were phonetic, we 
 should not need to remember it ; we should have only 
 to apply general rules to particular cases ; but an arbi- 
 trary mode of spelling like our own is mainly remem- 
 bered by the eye, and must be learned through the 
 eye. The mere repetition of the letters contributes 
 very slightly to fix spelling on the memory, there 
 being little or no association to assist us in retaining 
 the letters. In the visible word the whole picture of 
 the word is the aggregate of the parts; in the audible 
 word the whole word is not the aggregate of the alpha- 
 betic names of the letters, and only an approximate 
 aggregate of their phonic equivalents. 
 8
 
 86 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 The best means of teaching spelling are 
 
 1. Transcription. 
 
 2. Dictation after preparation from a book. The 
 correct form of mis-spelled words should be written 
 down sufficiently often to leave a stronger impression 
 upon the mind than the blunder. We must not sup- 
 pose that we can wholly obliterate a blunder. Nature 
 is not to be tampered with in that way. All we can 
 do is to substitute right impressions for wrong ones, 
 and leave the wrong ones to die out, so far as they 
 can die, from .the absence of repetition and of asso- 
 ciations that accompany repetition. 
 
 3. Words, of which the spelling is often confounded, 
 should be brought into close juxtaposition, that the 
 eye may dwell on the points of agreement and differ- 
 ence between them. 
 
 4. The black-board should be used in tracing out 
 the leading rules of spelling. A few well-chosen ex- 
 amples will suffice to indicate to the eye the law which 
 they illustrate. 
 
 Topical Spelling.* — One of the very best methods 
 of conducting a spelling exercise is that by means of 
 topics. No other method so readily puts in exercise 
 the perceptive faculties. A word is of little or no 
 value till it is associated with an idea. No person 
 
 * From the N^ew England "jfournal of Education.
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 8/ 
 
 will remember a list of words from a foreign language 
 unless he is familiar with their meaning ; nor will 
 children retain the spelling of a word unless it be 
 something for which they find a use in ordinary con- 
 versation. The violation of this rule has ««educated 
 whole generations of scholars in our public schools. 
 It is astonishing how young teachers, and not a few 
 old ones, settle down on mere abstractions in all their 
 exercises. Children rarely fail to become correct 
 spellers who are taught while young to spell familiar 
 objects around them at their homes. They at once 
 cultivate habits of observation which never leave 
 them. In this respect, parents are the best of teach- 
 ers to young children. I cannot too strongly recom- 
 mend the following methods to the consideration of 
 parents and teachers. 
 
 I. Direct the whole school to write on their slates 
 fifteen names of objects they can see in the school- 
 room. The first one who has the requisite number 
 raises his hand, and is then requested to copy his list 
 on the black-board. As soon as this is done, the 
 whole school rise, turn their backs to the board, 
 and spell the words from the board, dictated by the 
 teacher or the pupil. When this is finished, the 
 teacher calls upon the school to raise their hands if 
 they have any words on their slates not on the board. 
 The teacher points to each one who spells his addi- 
 tional words. In this way, in a {&\f minutes, every
 
 88 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 object in the school-room is spelled by the whole 
 school ; difficult words are noted, and the whole 
 school is educated in spelling, so far as the school- 
 room is concerned. 
 
 2. For the next exercise, let them rise from their 
 seats, look out of the windows five minutes, by your 
 watch, and then spell everything they can see. Drill 
 them on difficult words. 
 
 3. Give them for topics everything they saw on the 
 way to school ; everything they can see in a store of 
 goods; everything on the dinner-table; names of all 
 kinds of cloth ; all the parts of a wagon and harness ; 
 names of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, 
 shells, garden vegetables, flowers, trees, fruits, metals, 
 rocks, and minerals. 
 
 4. Let them write the name of every object made 
 of iron, or that has any iron about it; also, every- 
 thing made of wood. A live teacher can draw out 
 of his pupils an immense number of words from the 
 foregoing subjects. 
 
 5. Let them write the names of the capitals of the 
 different States in the Union ; also, of different 
 countries on the globe. 
 
 6. Let them write the names of all the persons 
 living in the school district. 
 
 7. Let them write the names of the days of the 
 week, and of the months. 
 
 8. Let them write the names of the parts of an
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL IXSTRUCTION. 89 
 
 apple, a ship, or a house; different kinds of food, 
 and names of different trades. 
 
 9. Let them write a list of all the persons necessary 
 to make a loaf of bread, commencing with the fell- 
 ing of trees in the forest. It is said that one thou- 
 sand different occupations are involved in making a 
 loaf of bread. Let them see how many they can 
 write. 
 
 10. For an occasional exercise, let the first pupil 
 in an advanced class spell the name of some town or 
 city, and then let the next mention the name of a 
 town whose first letter is the same as the last letter 
 of the name just spelled. If a scholar fails to do 
 this, he is seated at once. 
 
 11. Make the whole school rise, and as soon as any 
 scholar can mention the name of a town in the State, 
 he raises his hand. The teacher asks him to spell it, 
 and he is then seated. When the class are all seated, 
 they rise and repeat the exercise, with a new list of 
 words. 
 
 12. Tell a class to spell, for their next lesson, all 
 the words they can think of, commencing with the 
 letter A. Go on in this way through the alphabet. 
 
 13. Tell small scholars to spell, for their next les- 
 son, as many words as they can think of which con- 
 tain but one syllable. Go on through the different 
 grades of words by syllables. 
 
 14. Give them some familiar work for a subject, 
 8*
 
 90 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 and tell them to write on their slates everything they 
 can think of about it, and then make them spell the 
 words in the order in which they have written them. 
 This is an excellent introduction to the writing of 
 compositions, though the teacher should not be so 
 miwise as to call them such. 
 
 15. Dictate to a class ten words difficult to spell, 
 and see how many will write them correctly on their 
 slates. 
 
 Writing, like Reading, is mainly dependent on the 
 visual memory, and requires careful cultivation of the 
 eye. The eye will be assisted in learning the forms 
 of the symbols, and the hand in reproducing them, 
 by copying the elements of which the symbols are 
 composed, first separately, after careful analysis, and 
 then in combination. This should not be persisted 
 in too long. Children prefer words that convey a 
 meaning to unmeaning symbols. As they advance, 
 their attention should be directed to 
 
 1. The normal size of the letters in the hand 
 chosen ; 
 
 2. The normal spaces ; 
 
 3. The normal inclination ; 
 
 4. The normal proportions of those parts of letters 
 which are above or below the line ; 
 
 5. The normal height of the dots to the /'s and the 
 strokes to the /'s ;
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 9I 
 
 6. The balance of curves, etc. 
 
 Children should be shown where to begin letters, 
 and the black-board used to exemplify the points in- 
 sisted on. 
 
 Arithmetic. — Children have no idea of abstract 
 number until long after they have been familiar with 
 concrete numbers. Numbers, therefore, should be, 
 at first, presented to them in the concrete. When 
 children are familiar with three balls, three oranges, 
 three fingers, etc., they will gradually form a concep- 
 tion of three apart from any concrete objects. The 
 apparatus most useful for giving first ideas of number 
 are 
 
 1. A numeral-frame; 
 
 2. Small bags of marbles containing ten each, and 
 larger bags capable of containing ten of the smaller. 
 
 3. Cubical blocks. 
 
 4. Pictorial representations of numbers by dots, 
 lines, and familiar objects. 
 
 5. Lengths of wood or paper, divided into equal 
 parts, to illustrate fractions. 
 
 There is an advantage in always representing the 
 lower numbers in the same way, so that the eye may 
 associate a definite and unaltering picture with them. 
 Let 2 be always represented by two horizontal dots ; 
 
 3 by two horizontal dots and one placed over them ; 
 
 4 by two rows of horizontal dots, and so on. \\\ this
 
 92 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 way children grow accustomed to decompose numbers, 
 and are prepared for the simple rules. 
 
 The Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and 
 Division Tables should all be verified on the numeral- 
 frame. 
 
 Specimens should be provided of all the standard 
 weights and measures. The numeral-frame, or black- 
 board, might have inches and feet measured on one 
 of its sides. The longer linear measures should be 
 marked off on some conspicuous part of the wall. A 
 cubic inch and a cubic foot should be exemplified by 
 wooden models. A superficial foot or yard should 
 be measured in some open space on the school-floor. 
 
 All the tables of money, weights, and measures 
 should be verified before they are learned by heart, 
 and the children should be practised in actual weigh- 
 ing, measuring, and exchanging. 
 
 Whenever it is possible, children should be enabled 
 to give approximate estimates of weights and measures 
 by sight, or muscular effort, or reference to their own 
 bodies. 
 
 The dimensions of the school ought to be well 
 known by the teacher and children as a standard of 
 reference. 
 
 Models showing the volume of an ounce of air and 
 a pound of water will be found useful in teaching 
 arithmetic and meteorology.
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. 93 
 
 Geometry and Mensuration. — Before children learn 
 Euclid's definitions, they should be thoroughly fa- 
 miliar with the concrete examples of the figures to 
 which they relate. A simple cube will illustrate 
 points, straight lines, the square, parallelogram, etc. 
 Exercises should be given in drawing and cutting 
 out simple geometrical figures. 
 
 Such propositions as admit of proof by superposi- 
 tion, that is, by placing one figure on the top of 
 another to show their coincidence, should be first 
 taught in this way. When a child has actually cut 
 up the square on the hypothenuse of a right-angled 
 triangle, and seen that it will fit into the squares on 
 the sides containing the right angle, he will take all 
 the greater interest in the geometrical proof of the 
 proposition. 
 
 All rules in Mensuration should be verified by mod- 
 els in wood or paper showing the number of units of 
 measure in the superficies or solid, as the case may be. 
 
 History. — Wherever there are any local historical 
 remains, such as ancient buildings, battle-fields, camps, 
 old streets, churches, etc., the teacher should, as far 
 as possible, connect them with his lessons in History. 
 In these cases the Past speaks for itself, but, as a rule, 
 the Past is only intelligible through the Present, and 
 the teacher will have to draw very largely on the 
 conceptive faculty of his children. He will succeed
 
 94 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 in this in proportion to the extent to which he con- 
 nects their own experience with the events and scenes 
 which he sets before them. 
 
 The apparatus most useful for lessons in History- 
 would be 
 
 1. A map of the country or locality showing its 
 political features at the time referred to, and its phys- 
 ical features so far as they help to explain the histori- 
 cal facts. 
 
 2. Genealogical charts and synchronistic tables. 
 
 3. Drawings illustrating habitations, dress, modes 
 of warfare, manners and customs, architecture. 
 
 4. Clay models of battle-fields, sieges, etc. 
 
 5. Pictures of striking incidents. 
 
 Geography admits of constant appeals to the 
 visual faculty, and should commence with the physi- 
 cal features of the country at our own doors. Here, 
 also, we have to draw largely on the conceptive fac- 
 ulty to explain what is remote from our experience ; 
 but the near throws more light on the remote in 
 space than in time. A stream of water running 
 down the gutter by the road-side will illustrate the 
 laws that regulate the phenomena presented by the 
 Amazon or the Ganges. A hill of two or three hun- 
 dred feet high is an approach towards Mont Blanc 
 or Mount Everest. A pond is the ocean in minia- 
 ture.
 
 SUBJECTS OF SCHOOL IXSTRUCTION. 95 
 
 The apparatus needed for lessons in Geography 
 would be 
 
 1. A meridian line painted on the floor of the 
 school, or a magnetized knitting-needle freely sus- 
 pended by a collar of paper, so as to show the points 
 of the compass ; 
 
 2. A ground plan of the school ; 
 
 3. A map of the neighborhood in which the school 
 is situated ; 
 
 4. Maps of the County, State, Continent, etc. ; 
 
 5. Specimens of the products of the countries 
 treated ; 
 
 6. Relief maps or clay models of the countries 
 treated j 
 
 7. Sections of the country in different directions ; 
 
 8. Pictures or drawings illustrating vegetable and 
 mineral productions, physical peculiarities, people, 
 houses, costumes, manners, and customs; 
 
 9. Special maps to illustrate distribution of pro- 
 ductions, population, climatic phenomena, etc. 
 
 10. A globe. 
 
 A careful and thoughtful survey of this apparatus, 
 under the direction of an intelligent teacher, ought 
 to render much verbal description and explanation 
 unnecessary. The facts would speak for themselves. 
 
 The teacher of Geography should always keep in 
 memory convenient units of measurement to be ap- 
 plied to large numbers, such as the area of the county,
 
 96 CULTIVATION OF THE SENSES. 
 
 the length of the nearest large river, the population 
 of the town, the height of some well-known public 
 building, etc. All these are helps to the imagination 
 in grasping large numbers. 
 
 Grammar deals with words, and not with things, 
 and affords little direct exercise for the senses. But 
 the teacher who deals with the subject inductively 
 will assist the mind in discovering many of the facts 
 of Grammar, such as inflections and syntactical rules, 
 by placing well-selected examples in close juxtaposi- 
 tion on the black-board. The eye will see for itself 
 what the Grammar teaches. 
 
 If concrete terms be used in connection with the 
 parts of speech, great care should be taken not to 
 confound words with the things and relations which 
 they denote. 
 
 The End.
 
 =*^8 
 
 '^'^ 
 
 Model Text-Books 
 
 FOR 
 
 It 1L 
 
 ^40ol$, ^tatkmics, ami ^oIkij(5> 
 
 CHASE & STUART'S CLASSICAL SERIES. 
 
 COMPRISING EDITIONS OF 
 
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 First Six Boohs of Mncid, 
 
 Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, 
 Virgil's Mneid, 
 
 Cicero's Select Orations, 
 Horace's Odes, Satires, and Epistles, 
 Cicero De Senectute, et Be Amicitia, 
 Sallust's Catiline et Jugurtha, 
 Cornelius Jfepos, 
 
 Cicero De Officiis, 
 Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, 
 . Cicej'o De Oratore, Juvenal, ^ 
 
 . Terence, Tacitus, & 
 
 ' Ovid. In Preparation. LiviJ
 
 A 
 
 SERIES OF TEXT-BOOKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 By JOHN S. HART, LL.D., 
 
 Late Professor of Rhetoric ami of the EnglUh Language in the 
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 The Series comprises the following volumes, viz. : 
 
 Language Lessons for Beginners, 
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 First Lessons in Composition, 
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 A Sliort Course in Literature, 
 A Class-Booh of Poetry, 
 A Manual of American Literature, 
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 Elements of Natural Philoso2)hy. 
 
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 els, and Analysis. With a Key containing the Analysis 
 of every word which could present any difiiculties to 
 tiie learner. By A. C. Webb. 
 
 A Manual of Etf/molof/i/. 
 
 Containing Definitions, Etymology, Sentences as Mod- 
 els, and Analysis. With a Key containing the Analysis 
 of every word which could present any difiiculties to 
 the learner. By A. C. Webb. 
 
 The 3Iodel Siieaher. 
 
 Consisting of Exercises in Prose and Poetry, Suitable 
 for Recitation, Declamation, Public Readings, etc. Com- 
 piled for the use of Schools and Academies, by Prof. 
 Philip Lawrence. 
 
 4
 
 AiKitoini/, l*h!/sio7of/i/, and Hiff/iene. 
 
 A Text-Book for Schools, Aciuleniies, Colleges, and 
 Families. By Joseph C. Martindale, M.D. 
 
 First LestioHs in, Natural Philosoj)7ty. 
 
 For Beginners. By Joseph C. Martindale, M.D. 
 
 A Histortf of the United States. 
 
 From the Discovery of America to the present tinie. 
 By Joseph C. Martindale, M.D. 
 
 Tables of Latin Snjfixes. 
 
 Designed as an Aid to the Study of the Latin Grammar. 
 By Amos N. Currier, A.M., Professor of Latin in the 
 University of Iowa. 
 
 3000 Praetiee Words. 
 
 By Prof. J. Willis Westlake, A.M., State Normal 
 School, Millersville, Pa. Contains lists of Familiar 
 Words often Miss))elled, Difficult Words, Homophonons 
 Words, Words often Confounded, Piiiles for Spelling, 
 etc. It is a book that every teacher wants. Hand- 
 somely bound in flexible cloth, crimson edges. 
 
 In the SeJtool-Rooin ; 
 
 Or, Chapters in the Philosophy of Education. 
 Gives the experience of nearly forty years spent in 
 school-room work. By John S. Hart, LL.D. 
 
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 lish and Spanish. By F. C. Meadows, M.A. • 
 
 The Model PocJiet Pef/ister and Grade-Booh. 
 
 A Roll -Book, Record, and Grade -Book condjined. 
 Adapted to all grades of Classes, whether in College, 
 Academy, Seminary, High or Primary School. Hand- 
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 crimson edges. 
 
 5
 
 The Model Scliool Diary. 
 
 Designed as an aid in securing the co-operation of 
 parents. It consists of a Eecord of the Attendance, 
 Deportment, Recitations, etc., of the Scholar for every- 
 day. At the close of the week it is to be sent to the 
 parent or guardian for his examination and signature. 
 
 The Model Monthly Meporf. 
 
 Similar to the Model School Diary, excepting that it 
 is intended for a Monthly instead of a Weekly report of 
 the Attendance, Recitations, etc., of the pupil. 
 
 MANUALS FOR TEACHERS. 
 
 A Series of Hand-books comprising five volumes, which, 
 it is believed, will prove a valuable contribution to the Art 
 and Science of Teaching. Printed on the best quality of 
 calendered paper, and handsomely bound. 
 
 Price, 50 Cents per Volume. 
 No. 1. On the Cultivation of the Senses. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. Introduction. 
 
 2. The Senses. 
 
 3. How the Child gets his First Ideas. 
 
 4. How the Child Perceives. 
 
 5. How the Child forms Conceptions. 
 
 6. How shall we Cultivate the Child's Senses. 
 
 7. Object Lessons. 
 
 8. On the Special Value of the Physical Sciences as 
 
 Instruments for Cultivating the Senses. 
 
 9. Lessons on Color and Forms. 
 
 10. The Senses in Relation to the Ordinary Subjects in 
 School Instruction. 
 6
 
 No. 2. On the Cultlvatiou of the Memory . 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. What Memory is. 
 
 2. Attention. 
 
 3. Association. 
 
 4. Memory in Connection with Special Subjects of In- 
 
 struction. 
 
 5. Cultivating the Memory in Youtli. 
 
 No. 3. Oh the Use of Words. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. What Words are. 
 
 2. How we Arrive at the Full Meaning of Words. 
 
 3. How we Combine our Words. 
 
 4. How to Teach Ciiildren to Use their Words. 
 
 5. Some Hints on English Words. 
 Appendix.— On the Study of Words. 
 
 No. 4. On Discipline. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. Discipline. 
 
 2. Characteristics of Good Discipline as Regards its 
 
 Results. 
 
 3. Characteristics of Good Discipline as Regards its 
 
 Exercise. 
 
 4. The Instincts to be Satisfied, and the Motives to be 
 
 Cultivated in Education. 
 
 5. Motives. 
 
 6. Habit. 
 
 No. 5, On Class Teaching, 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1. Scope of the Subject. 
 
 2. The Teacher. 
 
 3. Method of Instruction : Aims and Means. 
 
 4. Method of Instruction : Class Subjects. 
 
 5. The Class.
 
 ^^p ^par^pr, 
 
 A MONTHLY EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL 
 
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 general. It is 
 
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 PEICE, 50 CENTS PER ANNUM. 
 SPECIMEN COPY FREE. 
 
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