are in the study of any other branch of science. The actual, ocular inspection of objects, is felt to be the only means of effective instruction in all other subjects which require the verification of principle by reference to fact. Without the aid of such practical measures, the best of text-books becomes dry or tedious, and, at all events, fails of exciting the earnest attention and personal interest which secure the energetic action of the whole mind, give life and vigor to its habits of action, and insure the further prosecution of inquiry in after stages of life.

To secure an earnest voluntary application to this noble study is not difficult, if the instructor take pains to invite his students to personal investigation of the numberless evidences of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness, which are furnished in every department of nature. The pleasure of observing, recording, and reporting these, is one to which the teacher who will faithfully make the experiment will find few minds so torpid as to be insensible.

Evidences of Christianity.-This subject, too, has its appointed place in our seminaries of learning; and that it is a study required in our higher schools for the female sex, as well as in our colleges, is a happy indication. But, the unintellectual, unmeaning process of reciting merely the paragraphs of a text-book, has the same injurious effect in this as in other departments of education. No subject can be presented to the mind on which the importance of clear and distinct views, or deep impressions and personal convictions of truth, are so important to the student, as on this;--none on which the utmost rigor of deduction, the closest investigation, the most cautious induction, are so imperatively demanded. The mere verbatim committing to memory, or even the careful recapitulation, of the arguments presented in the best of manuals, is a process too passive for any valuable purpose of educational influence on the individual. The secondhand knowledge thus acquired, makes too slight an impression to become a permanent personal possession; as the experienced teacher has sometimes cause to feel most deeply, when he sees a promising youth, who has recited his way successfully through a whole manual of "evidences," so easily caught and entangled in the slight web of superficial and sophistical arguments offered by a fluent fellow-student, inclined to skeptical habits of thought.

The result is quite different when the instructor prescribes, not the mere language or reasoning of a single author, but a careful comparison of several, and a resumé prepared by the student himself, together with a full statement of objections, and the arguments by which these are rebutted. A still deeper impression is made on the mind of the individual, when such recapitulations are made, not only in the regular

form of writing, but in that also of deliberate, correct, and, if possible, earnest oral expression. It is thus only that great and vital truths can be woven into the texture of his own mind, and become, as it were, inseparable parts of itself.

Practical Exercises.-In conclusion of these suggestions regarding the development and discipline of the reflective faculties, a few other forms of practical exercise may deserve attention, as matters which devolve on the personal action and diligence of the teacher,-in regard to the aid which his living instructions and intelligent supervision ought to furnish, in addition to the customary course prescribed in manuals or text-books; and here we may advert to the great value of

(1.) Systematic Reading, as a means of cultivating reflective and thoughtful habits of mind,-reading, I mean, which is study, and not mere perusal; reading which is attentively done, carefully reviewed, exactly recorded, and, if practicable, orally recounted. Memory, under such discipline, becomes thoroughly retentive, information exact, judgment correct, conception clear, thought copious, and expression ready and appropriate.

(2.) An important aid to systematic reading may be found in the exercise of writing a careful, marginal synopsis of valuable works, comprising all their principal topics, distinctly presented, and, in addition to this, a penciled analysis of every prominent head or paragraph into its constituent subordinate details. In the case of standard works of great value and permanent authority, it may be worth while to draught a separate plan of the entire work under study, in which the synopsis and the analysis are so arranged to the eye, that the advantage of a mental map of the whole subject is secured for distinct and easy recollection, by the union of logical and ocular method.

(3.) As a means of training the faculty of judgment to correctness in its decisions, and exactness in discrimination, exercises in analysis, on every description of material, are of the greatest value. In the earliest stages of education, these may be performed, to great advantage, on objects in nature, particularly on the structure and organization of plants, with the aid, too, of the microscope. At a more advanced stage, the analysis of language, successively extending to sentences, clauses, phrases, words, and syllables, in written as well as oral forms, is another exercise of great value for sharpening the power of discrimination and forming habits of correct judgment. Still greater benefit attends the oral analysis of discourses, essays, and other didactic compositions, for the purpose of tracing their authors' trains of thought, following these in detail, and afterward recording the analysis, as has been already suggested.

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(4.) To cultivate successfully the reasoning faculty, no method more effectual can be adopted than that of training the mind to a perfect observance of the prime law of Order. This great principle comes to the aid of the young mind, as creative ordination applied to chaos. The countless multitude and variety of objects soliciting observation, in the early years of childhood, and even at much later stages, often throw the mind into confusion and perplexity, till order comes to its aid, and, like the benevolent fairy in the fable, arranges the complicated masses and irregular accumulations, and lets in the light of system and method upon the elements of the mental world. Conflicting objects and relations are thus parted by due distinction; accordant elements and phenomena are grouped together, by their analogies and affinities, their connections and dependencies, the predominance of some and the subordination of others; till, at length, the authority of Law is recognized, and harmony established.

To attain this result, Reason, the supreme ordaining faculty, has to exert its power in various modes of operation. Judgment, as reason's executive, has to collate, examine, compare, associate, combine and classify the objects of observation and the subjects of consciousness. For such purposes no exercises can be better adapted than those which commence with the action of the perceptive faculties, and yet involve the use of the reflective, to a certain extent. Nature's great systems, in her three vast kingdoms, furnish, of course, the best material for such exercise and discipline of the mind, by combining with its perceptive action the aid of reflecting reason, in the contemplation and study of the vast domain of creation. As a noble discipline for the rational faculties, in their ascendancy over those of outward observation, and yet in perfect harmony and coöperation with them, no exercise can be more beneficial than that of surveying, in the light of science, the elements and forms of external nature. An illustration in point may be found in the science of botany, which is now rendered so generally accessible and so highly attractive, by recent manuals presenting this subject on the "natural" system, as an instructive and interesting branch of knowledge for all minds. Another example occurs in the arrangement of the animal kingdom presented by Cuvier, and modified by our great contemporary naturalist, Agassiz. The generous labors of this distinguished instructor, in his endeavors to bring his favorite subject before the minds of teachers, in forms happily adapted to the condition of their schools, have afforded the best suggestions for conducting appropriate exercises in this department of education. And it is to be hoped that many of our seminaries will henceforward enjoy the benefits of the admirable mental discipline resulting from those

habits of attentive observation, careful examination, and close analysis, as well as those of orderly arrangement, enlarged contemplation, and systematic classification, which the thorough study of nature is so happily adapted to insure.

But it should never be forgotten by the teacher that it is the extent to which the student is induced to carry the personal observation and actual collection of natural objects, and the care and fidelity with which he arranges his specimens according to the requirements of scientific classification, which determine how far the higher powers of his mind will be benefited by the study. There are too many seminaries, even now, in which the teacher, far from following the instructive personal example of the eminent authority to whom we have just referred, and joining their students in the actual exploration of nature, in the field exercises of observing and collecting, permit them to stay within doors, and "study" the whole subject by book.

The value of personal observation and actual investigation, as the only sure means of rendering the educational materials furnished in external nature, and in the action of the percipient intellect on these, conducive to the development and discipline of the mind's reflective power, is evinced in all the other relations and departments of physical science. The study of astronomy, as commonly conducted in our seminaries of all grades, has been, till recently, a process of mere bookwork, of committing to memory the successive sentences of a manual, and repeating them by word of mouth. The actual observation of the heavens was a thing not thought of but as a matter of occasional gratification to curiosity; while, to render astronomy an effective instrument of mental culture, capable of awakening attention and eliciting reflection, the nightly survey of the varying aspects of the firmament, in conjunction with the passing hours, and the actual positions, or apparent shifting of the planetary bodies, should be continued till the eye finds itself, so to speak, at home in that upper world of wondrous facts, and the observer can literally "call the stars by name." Many teachers have it easily in their power to render the young mind this noble service, which may stamp a thoughtful character on its habits of action for a whole life-time. Happily, many of our colleges are now enabled to offer to those who enjoy the superior opportunities of study afforded by such seminaries, the facilities for actual observation, which modern science and art so amply provide, in this department of education. But, in most of our higher schools and academies,—even in some which are favored with the possession and occasional use of a telescope,-the actual study of the heavens, even with the naked eye, or the humblest endeavor to note the position and

movements of the heavenly bodies, so as to enable the learner intelligently to read the sky, remains, as yet, a thing seldom attempted.

Were early education in this department rightly conducted, the young student would be prepared to receive with delight those sublime revelations of astronomical science which exhibit the laws of order and subordination,--of mutual influence and adjustment, ruling in the apparent" wilderness of worlds," and indicating the controlling power of that Reason which presides in eternal supremacy over the universe.

CONCLUDING EXPLANATIONS.

The brief and imperfect survey of the ground and principles of intellectual culture, which is here concluded, was, as has been intimated, originally presented in the form of conversational oral lectures to successive classes of young teachers and of persons intending to enter on the occupation of teaching. The views presented in these lectures were adapted, therefore, to the mental circumstances of students to some of whom any form of systematic investigation on the subject of intellectual discipline was wholly new, and to many of whom the philosophy of education was, as yet, a field unexplored. This fact will serve to explain the strictly elementary character of the preceding discussion, and the familiar style of its illustrations, as well as the frequent iteration of special topics; while the vast importance of the subject itself, in relation to the anticipated office and duties of the teacher, as the educator and guardian of the young mind, together with the acknowledged too general neglect of such considerations, rendered it necessary that the lecturer should endeavor to present the whole work of education in the impressive light of the highest relations and principles of human action.

To some of the readers of this journal, therefore, the whole series of these lectures may have seemed common-place and uninteresting; and to others the course of analysis may have seemed too abstract and philosophical for the ordinary purposes and business of education. The contributor of this and the preceding communications of the series to the pages of this journal can only plead, in answer to both classes of objections, that, for many years, his personal field of observation and of action has made it necessary for him to endeavor to meet the wants of ingenuous minds, conscious of deficiencies in their own course of early training, and earnestly desirous of the guiding light of the simplest, yet the highest, educational principles, to direct their own efforts for the advancement of others. Successive years, occupied in three of our New England States, in endeavoring to aid the noble aspirations of those whose daily labors form the ground of the