after the lesson is over, let him direct them to close their books, and spell any word or sentence he may select from it.

The practical superiority of such a plan is obvious. For the language of letters, and of composition, in general, consists of such combinations of words as occur in the pages of a reading-book-not of words syllabically and alphabetically arranged, as we see in the columns of a spelling-book. Let the reader who may be disposed to dissent, dictate in the manner recommended, a few familiar sentences to a young person who has learned orthography from the columns of his spelling-book only, and, unless we are greatly mistaken, the inferiority of the old plan will be evinced by the erroneous spelling of some, perhaps, of the easiest and most familiar words.

But how, it may be inquired, are children, without dictionaries or spelling-books, to learn the MEANING of words? By being accustomed to give,

1 The sound or pronunciation of a word will not enable us to spell it, because, as we have seen, the same sounds are often represented by different signs or letters. The words meet, mete, and meat, for example, are spelled differently, though the sound or pronunciation of each is the same. To spell a word correctly, therefore, we must be well acquainted with it. We must know its meaning or signifi. cation, and the identical letters which compose it. The sound of it is not sufficient; we must know how it looks: and this the eye will enable us to do, for, as has been well said by an American writer, "the eye in such cases may be said to remember." Hence, whe we are in doubt as to which of two ways a word should be spelled, it is a good rule to write down both, and the eye will enable us to decide which is correct. Hence, too, persons that write or even read much are, in general, correct spellers; for their eyes are so well acquainted with the form or appearance of the words, that they can at once detect the errors which arise from wrong or omitted letters.

in their own language, their own ideas of every unusual and important word which occurs in their READING LESSONS ; the teacher, of course, correcting them when wrong, and explaining to them, when necessary, the proper meaning of the term in question; or referring them for this information to their dictionaries, which should always be at hand for this, their legitimate use.

In confirmation of the recommendations here made we subjoin the opinions of the Edgeworths and of other eminent educationists on the subject of SPELLING and SPELLING-BOOKS.

"SPELLING comes next to reading. New trials for the temper; new perils for the understanding; positive rules and arbitrary exceptions; endless examples and contradictions; till at length, out of all patience with the stupid docility of his pupil, the tutor perceives the absolute necessity of making him get by heart with all convenient speed every word in the language. The formidable columns rise in dread succession. Months and years are devoted to the undertaking; but after going through a whole spelling-book, perhaps a whole dictionary, till we come triumphantly to spell Zeugma, we have forgotten how to spell Abbot, and we must begin again with Abasement. Merely the learning to spell so many unconnected words, without any assistance from reason or analogy, is nothing compared with the difficulty of learning the explanation of them by rote, and the still greater difficulty of understanding the meaning of the explanation. When a child has got by rote

"Midnight, the depth of night;

"Metaphysics, the science which treats of immaterial beings, and of forms in general abstracted from matter;

bas he acquired any very distinct ideas either of midnight or of metaphysics? If a boy had eaten rice pudding till he fancied himself tolerably well acquainted with rice,

would he find his knowledge much improved by learning from his spelling-book the words

"Rice, a foreign esculent grain?

yet we are surprised to discover, that men have so few accurate ideas, and that so many learned disputes originate in a confused or improper use of words.

"All this is very true,' says a candid schoolmaster; 'we see the evil, but we cannot new-model the language, or write a perfect philosophical dictionary; and in the meantime we are bound to teach children to spell, which we do with the less reluctance, because, though we allow that it is an arduous task, we have found from experience that it can be accomplished, and that the understandings of many of our pupils survive all the perils to which you think them exposed during the operation.'

"Their understandings may and do survive the operation; but why should they be put in unnecessary danger; and why should we early disgust children with literature by the pain and difficulty of their first lessons? We are convinced that the business of learning to spell is made much more laborious to children than it need to be: it may be useful to give them five or six words every day to learn by heart, but more only loads their memory; and we should at first select words of which they know the meaning, and which occur most frequently in reading or conversation. The alphabetical list of words in a spellingbook contains many which are not in common use, and the pupil forgets these as fast as he learns them. We have found it entertaining to children, to ask them to spell any short sentence as it has been accidentally spoken. 'Put this book on that table.' Ask a child how he would spell those words if he were obliged to write them down, and you introduce into his mind the idea that he must learn to spell before he can make his words and thoughts understood in writing. It is a good way to make children write down a few words of their own selection cvery day, and correct the spelling; and also after they have been reading, whilst the words are yet fresh in their memory, we may ask them to spell some of the words which they have just seen; by these means, and by re

peating at different times in the day those words which are most frequently wanted, his vocabulary will be pretty well stocked without its having cost him many tears. We should observe that children learn to spell more by the eye than by the ear; and that the more they read and write, the more likely they will be to remember the combination of letters in words which they have continually before their eyes, or which they feel it necessary to represent to others. When young people begin to write, they first feel the use of spelling, and it is then that they will learn it with most ease and precision. Then the greatest care should be taken to look over their writing, and to make them correct every word in which they have made a mistake; because bad habits of spelling, once contracted, can scarcely be cured: the understanding has nothing to do with the business; and when the memory is puzzled between the rules of spelling right, and the habits of spelling wrong, it becomes a misfortune to the pupil to write even a common letter. The shame which is annexed to bad spelling excites young people's attention, as soon as they are able to understand that it is considered as a mark of ignorance and ill-breeding. We have often observed, that children listen with anxiety to the remarks that are made on this subject in their presence, especially when the letters or notes of grown-up people are criticised.

"Some time ago, a lady who was reading a newspaper, met with a story of an ignorant magistrate, who gave for his toast at a public dinner the two Ks.' for the King and Constitution. How very much ashamed the man must have felt, when all the people laughed at him for his mistake! they must all have seen that he did not know how to spell; and what a disgrace for a Magistrate too!' said a boy who heard the anecdote. It made a serious impression upon him; a few months afterwards he was employed by his father in an occupation which was extremely agreeable to him, but in which he continually felt the necessity of spelling correctly. He was employed to send messages by a telegraph; these messages he was obliged to write down hastily in little journals kept for the purpose; and as these were seen by several people when the business of the day came to be reviewed, the boy had

a considerable motive for orthographical exactness. He became extremely desirous to teach himself, and consequently his success was from that moment certain. As to the rest, we refer to Lady Carlisle's comprehensive maxim, Spell well-if you can.

The following is from "Wood's Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School:"

66

In the Sessional School the children are now taught to spell from their ordinary reading lessons, employing for this purpose both the short and the long words as they occur. Under the former practice in the school, of selecting merely what are longer and apparently more difficult words, we very frequently found the pupils unable to spell the shorter and more common ones, which we still find by no means uncommon in those who come to us from some other schools. By making the pupil, too, spell the lesson, just as he would write it, he is less liable to fall in future life into the common error of substituting the word their for there, and others of a similar kind. In former times the practice prevailed of telling a long story about every word which was spelt: thus, in spelling the word exemplification, for instance, even a child in the higher classes used to say, 'ex, ex; em, em, exem; pli, ple, exemple; fi, fe, exemplefe; ca, ca, exemplefeca; tion, shun, exemplefecashun; six syllables, and accented on the penult syllable.' This, obviously, as a general practice, was a great waste of time, and is, we believe, almost universally exploded. In our own school, the pupil, in spelling, merely names the letters, making a marked pause at the end of each syllable."

The following extract is from "Thayer's Lecture on Spelling and Definitions" (delivered before the American Institute of Instruction):'

"I have said nothing of the practice, once so common, of assigning lessons in spelling and defining from the columns of a dictionary, sweeping through the whole, from the letter A to the last word under Z-if the pupil 1 Published by Knight in "The Schoolmaster."