DIRECTIONS FOR A LESSON ON

Strike in succession two bells, one tone than the other, and call attention pitch in their sounds. Let the childre high and low tones with the voice. sharp noises, as by striking hard sul breaking of wood, or by the children high key and stopping suddenly; then posite character, as by the rapid move of many children, as they sit in the ga any heavy object on the floor, or by th the voice. Call attention to such slight produced, by the rubbing or striking stances, and then let the children listen and try to determine the causes which Place several children out of sight and in succession, while the class try to di voices. Direct attention to the feelings human voice in exclamations of sorrow, mirth, and other emotions, and to the v expressive of their feelings and wants.

Explain the difference between ina such as laughing, sobbing, muttering, articulate sounds, as speaking and singi

The kind and amount of instruction lesson must, of course, depend entirely advancement of the pupils; the subject treated in a way to suit a child of three of age, and such preliminary lessons preparation for correctness of ear in sp ing. Indeed, when developed, the im children is so great that no refinement tions of voice are difficult to them, importance of a pure pronunciation and

of speaking in the teacher, as defects in this respect are but too readily imitated and bad habits formed.

DEVELOPING LESSONS ON OBJECTS.

When, by the preceding series of lessons, some idea of the general properties of things has been imparted, the observation of particular objects should be commenced; but we must always keep clearly in view the principle on which this kind of lesson rests, viz. that the children should discover for themselves the qualities of the object under examination, the teacher merely supplying the words needed to express them, for to tell the pupil that such and such qualities exist in it, which we are not able to demonstrate, will not develope his faculties. Hence it follows, that attention should be called only to the more palpable and striking characteristics, and that, if possible, the same quality should be traced through several examples, and even contrasted with its opposite, to render it more evident.

Suppose, for instance, two such substances as glass and india-rubber were chosen for a lesson. The most striking properties of the glass are that it is transparent, hard, brittle, sonorous, rigid, reflective. These are rendered more evident by contrasting them with the qualities of the india-rubber, which is opaque, soft, tough, not sonorous, flexible, dull. The idea of transparency may be rendered more general by reference to water, air, mica, crystals, and other examples, and also by extending the idea of the opposite property of opacity, and so on with the remaining qualities. We will now proceed to an example of this kind of teaching.

LESSON ON COAL AND CHALK.

Teacher.-Tell me what you observe in the object I now show you? Children.-It is white. Is it quite white? Yes, quite white. the same kind of white? me the colour of this object.

What else have you seen of
Linen, paper, snow. Tell
It is black. Is it black

like this piece of cloth? No, the coa cloth is not. But are not both blac chalk bright and smooth; feel it an quite rough and dull. Now feel the it smooth? Yes, in some parts. Does the light? Yes. Repeat now with me reflects the light; chalk is white and a line on the black-board with the that the chalk makes a white mark? off. Yes, it is friable; that is, it wi away. Now we will try to make the it made any mark? No. I will tel the wood is softer than the coal, and so Weigh the two substances in your h are they heavy or light. Try which Listen while I strike each of them, and hear. The coal gives a sharper soun Yes, because it is harder; for you will dies give a dull, heavy sound, and ha sound.

I am going to hold the piece of co this candle; will you watch what ta coal burns and gives out smoke. Say combustible. Now watch if the chalk b flame. No, it neither burns nor sm will not burn; it is incombustible. It is by the heat, but you cannot see the ch

When we wish to break coal into c how do we do it? With a hammer broken in the same way? Let us try. and chalk can be broken by a blow, called, brittle. Do you think that c made by men? No, I will tell you: t oat of the ground, and were formed God, and such things are called natu made by man are called artificial. I substances transparent? No, most

things dug out of the earth are opaque.

will shine through them, nor can we see through them. Such things as are neither animal nor vegetable are called mineral, and these are mineral substances. Now let us repeat what we have learned about them: Both coal and chalk are natural, mineral, opaque, brittle, heavy. Coal is also combustible, black, smooth, shining, hard. Chalk is white, friable, soft, and will not burn. You know that they are both useful. Will you try to name some of the uses of coal? To warm our houses, to cook with, to drive steam engines, to make gas, and so on. Now some of the uses of chalk. To write and draw with, to make white-wash, to make lime, to manure land. Now you have examined these two substances and know some of their qualities, I will tell you something more about them. Coal is generally found deep down in the earth, and men must dig down to get it. Some of you may have seen a well out of which water is raised, and the entrance to a coal mine is like a very deep well. Up this well or shaft the coal is drawn by a rope or chain moved by a steam engine, and when the workmen wish to go down into the mine, they get into a box covered with an iron roof, and are let down. If you look on the map of England for the counties of Northumberland and Durham, it is there, on both sides of the river Tyne, that so many coal mines are worked; but there are many other places in England, Ireland, and Scotland, where coal is found.

If you wished to see a coal mine, you would first have to be let down the shaft very far, and then, when you arrived at the bottom, you would find many passages leading in different directions, along which little cars laden with coal are drawn by horses or pushed along by boys; and, in some places, you would see the miners digging the coal out of the earth with pickaxe and spade, each with a lantern to light him covered with wire-gauze; for a kind of gas like that which burns in the street-lamps comes out of the coal, and if the flame of a candle or lamp touches it, it takes fire and explodes

with a dreadful noise, often killing the may be near; but this gas will not small holes in the wire-gauze, and so from the miner's light.

Chalk is dug out of the ground, bu in the earth as coal, and is often clo The men who dig it out are called c a great quantity of chalk is used to put wheat and other crops grow. When it changes into quick-lime, and is the ing mortar for building. Sometimes calves to lick, or put into the water w Although chalk is now found in the sid once underneath the sea; for sea-shells with it, which must have got into it wh state at the bottom of the sea, just a mixed with the soft sand on the sea-sho

Let us compare these two things, an their properties. First look at the spor its form; is it of a regular or irregula is its colour? Feel it, and tell me w gives to your hand. It is rough. Lo me if the surface is uniform or every No, it is full of holes. Things which porous. Try if you can press it into a Does it remain in the form you pressed springs back to the shape it was in at f elastic. Dip it into this glass of water, a you observe. It takes up some of the w try, children, to remember what this qu Absorbent. Take the sponge from the wa it dry. Is any of it gone? No, it is the That is, because sponge will not melt

Wha

in any