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NEW SERIES.

NOVEMBER 1, 1828.

NUMBER 11.

MATERNAL INSTRUCTION.

[From Rev. Joseph Muenscher's Address at the Inauguration of the Instructers of Brookfield Female Seminary.]

In order to communicate the first lessons of instruction to her tender offspring and to give a right direction to the infant mind, it is not sufficient that the mother be mistress of certain external accomplishments, or acquainted with the arcana of domestic economy. She may, notwithstanding all this be utterly disqualified for the important business of domestic education. She should be thoroughly versed in the philosophy of the human mind and of the human character,* in order to impart knowledge to her children in the most pleasing and successful manner She should be intimately acquainted with natural science-and with the causes and reason of things, even to answer the many curious and interesting inquiries which children of inquisitive minds daily make of their parents, and which from ignorance, perhaps, as much as from any other cause, are permitted to pass unanswered. An accurate knowledge of the principles of grammar and rhetoric [] is likewise of the highest importance to parents. Whence arises the great disparity between different families and individuals in regard to the style of their ordinary conversation? Does it arise from the inequalities of natural talent ? It canno be attributed to this cause, because many persons of inferior talents converse with more correctness and elegance than others who are decidely their superiors in this respect. Is it oc

* Here, we presume, the author intends that true philosophy, which is the result of attentive observation and sound judgment, and which is to be drawn not so much from books as from a thinking and reflecting mind.-Ed.

11

casioned by the difference in their comparative advantages for a public education? It manifestly is not; for many who have enjoyed all the advantages of a public education, and have received all the honours of our literary institutions, discover less purity and elegance in their colloquial style, than many who have had an opportunity to avail themselves of no such advantages. Is it in consequence of a familiarity with good society? Purity of language may be and doubtless often is acquired by familiar intercourse with good society, but it is more frequently acquired at an early period of life, in no society but that of the domestic circle. The difference arises, it is believed, more from the education of the nursery than from any other cause. It is owing chiefly to the care and pains taken by intelligent and well-educated mothers. The forms of speech and modes of expression which children imbibe from their parents and others, who have the care of their early education, are usually retained through life, notwithstanding the superior advantages they may at a subsequent period enjoy. Let the mother habituate her children from the very first, to the use of neat, appropriate, and elegant expressions, let her be particularly cautious in the selection of her own words, that they may imbibe from her none of those improprieties of speech which are common even in good society, and she will accomplish that for her offspring which, if neglected in early life, they may fail to acquire either in polished circles or within the walls of a learned university. For the vulgarities, the solecisms, the colloquialisms and other grammatical and rhetorical errors which are contracted in early life, entirely by imitation, in consequence of being deeply fixed by habit in the mind, become as it were constitutional infirmities, which, like chronic diseases of the body, it is almost beyond the power and skill of man to cure.

INFANT SCHOOLS.

[From Mr. Ladd's Address copied in the New-York Christian Advocate.]

An infant school society was formed in New-York, in May, 1827. Last winter I had the pleasure to visit their school No. 1, under the immediate direction of Mrs. Bethune, a lady who walks in the same paths that her sainted mother, Mrs. Graham,

trod before she went to receive her reward. One hundred and seventy children were registered in this school-average attendance, sixty to one hundred. Beside the superintendent, there are two teachers and one assistant, all females. My visit was on a day of public exhibition, and if ever my heart beat as though it would burst from its narrow tenement-if ever I had difficulty in preventing my tears from overflowing my eyes, it was then. To see these infants raked from lanes and alleys, cleanly though coarsely clad, seated in an amphitheatre, on benches raised one above another, with joyful and intelligent countenances, watching every motion of their teacher, none over six years of age, from that age down to eighteen months, reading, spelling, answering questions in arithmetic, geography, and astronomy; repeating a chapter in the Bible, and giving the sense in a plain, perspicuous, and intelligent manner, which would put to shame many of our grown persons, even professors of religion, and singing hymns with astonishing harmony and melody, I could but exclaim, surely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.'

Apprehending that this might be stage effect, got up for the occasion, I determined to investigate the facts, which, had not my eyes seen, and my ears heard, I should have thought incredible; and I resolved to visit the school at some other time, and see it in its every day dress. Accordingly, without any form of introduction, a few days after, I rapped at the door, and easily gained access. Here I beheld the same lady, surrounded by her infant charge, whom she was busily instructing. To my mind he appeared more noble, more entitled to veneration, than Napoleon on his throne, surrounded by kings, princes, dukes, and marshals of his own creation, who strutted their little hour upon the stage, and then passed over it like a gaudy pageant, and returned to the obscurity from whence they came. I found her as willing and as able to instruct adults as children, and spent an hour delightfully in witnessing the ever varying evolutions of the school, and the happy countenances of the delighted children, who received their instruction as pastime rather than a task. I do not remember that more than one child cried while I was there, and she was soon pacified. There was no rod; the children were governed by love, not by fear.

The art of instruction is one of the most important in the world; yet instruction is often entrusted to persons who have no knowledge of that art, nor any inclination to learn. It is often deemed sufficient if the instructer knows what the children

are to learn; yet how often do we see learning treasured up in some capacious head, as though dispensing it would lessen the quality; and the well stored scull resembles a tub of frozen water, which contains indeed the element, but no tapping will draw it out. The faculty of imparting instruction is every thing to a teacher; and the art of teaching is itself to be learned. It is by the proper application of this art that such wonders are performed in the infant mind, and effects produced which to be believed must be witnessed.

The instruction of infants must differ essentially from the instruction of elder persons. Children cannot be expected to have at once the power of abstraction: they must be addressed by the medium of the senses. Ideas acquired by mere sensation must be first treasured up in abundance, and they will soon learn to combine these ideas by reflection. For a child to learn bare names, without learning things, is of little use; and they will learn names much faster when they are visibly applied to things. Children have an astonishing perception of the resemblance of pictures to their originals. You will frequently hear them naming the objects on crockery ware, such as the cat, the dog, mother, father, sister, &c., and where this is encouraged, it often exceeds belief. Infants have also an ear for music ;hence they are quiet while their nurse sings to them, and with their little bodies will keep time to music before they can speak. The organs, therefore, of sight and hearing are inlets to the mind of a child long before it can pronounce a syllable; and pronunciation may be much facilitated by conveying the idea along with the same. For instance, show a child before it can speak the picture of a cat; it immediately recognises the likeness of its cradle companion, and stretches out its little arms to embrace it. Underneath the picture may be placed the letters c, a, t; the child is soon taught to spell cat, and thus at once learns its letters, the name of its favourite animal, and how to spell it. This I observed in the infant school, in children of about eighteen months old, that could scarcely stand alone, who, on a picture of a cat being placed on the stand, would, as the monitor pointed with his stick, spell c, a, t, cat. The same with dog, cow, horse, &c., up to elephant, crocodile, rhinoceros, and other animals of which they had only seen two pictures. It soon becomes easy to make them acquainted with the natural history of these animals, and an infant learns the difference between the names of an elephant and a phæton, and how to spell them much sooner than some persons who ride in one of their

own.

Thus children acquire ideas of things along with their names. They are sensible of this acquisition and are delighted with it. Happiness and satisfaction are depicted on their countenances, and intelligence begins to mark their features. But the interest. must be kept up by a constant variety, and a constant attention of the teachers to the monitors, and of the monitors to the individuals. They march to and from their lesson posts to music, and in order. There is something beautiful in order; it is 'Heaven's first law.' Add motion to order and you increase the effect, and then add music and the effect becomes irresistible.

It would delight you, had 1 time to delineate the simple process by which children under six years of age learn arithmeticto enumerate to millions--to add, subtract, multiply, and divide; all of which instead of being irksome to the children, is one of their gayest and most exhilarating sports.

From objects near at hand, and within the range of sight, the transition is easy to objects remote, but still material. Thus an idea of a mountain, an island, an isthmus, &c. is more quickly, and perfectly comprehended by an infant on inspecting the figures, or with a picture, than it can be by a youth at an academy, assisted by all the definitions which the schools can furnish, without a picture or model. By means of models the infant acquires ideas of astronomy, and of all other objects of the material creation.

ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

[The following thoughts form the commencing part of the Introduction to the Pestalozzian Primer, By Dr. John M. Keagy. Of this valuable work we should ere this time have given a notice at considerable length; had we not been waiting in expectation of a second edition, and in the hope of bringing before our readers the author's peculiar plan under the most favourable circumstances,-an advantage to which the intrinsic value of the work richly entitles it. The new engagements of the author, may, we fear, prevent another edition from appearing soon; and we improve the present opportunity for endeavouring to direct the attention of those of our readers who may not yet have seen this publication, to the useful and instructive principles which it embodies.

To some of our readers the views of Dr. Keagy may appear too theoretic and philosophical; but experience, guided and sustained by observation and reflection, will be found, we be