ion which analogy establishes between this and any other object. It is to be borne in mind that the design of this list of particulars is not so much to aid the pupil in the actual performance of his exercise, as to suggest to him the proper manner of viewing his subject, and to assist him in the study of it. The help thus afforded by the teacher in furnishing such a list of particulars will lead him to think-and by the same law of association or suggestion, to which I have already more than once referred, it will supply him with such a copious flow of ideas that his difficulty will now be, as I before stated, in the selection. Again, let us suppose the subject of a description to be written, be a person. Few of the particulars in the lists already presented, will here apply. The following suggestions will be more appropriate. 1. The physical appearance, stature tall or short-thin or fleshy, symmetrical or deformed. 2. The manner of the individual, whether graceful or awkward, strong or feeble, active and energetic-or indolent and wanting in energy, his gait, whether slow or rapid, &c. - 3. His behavior and general character, whether good, bad, or indifferent. 4. His disposition whether amiable or irritable. 5. His habits-whether temperate or otherwise—his principles whether fixed and steady, or vacillating and irresolute. 6. His profession or occupation-station in society riches or poverty — birth, parentage, residence, age, education, associates, his likes and dislikes his aims, or objects of pursuit. - 7. The character of his mind-his talents, memory, discrimination, judgment, language and expressions, &c. Such lists of particulars may be easily made by any teacher, or he may find books in which they are contained, suitable to be put into the hands of the pupil. But the teacher must take especial pains that the pupil may understand the design in furnishing him with this list-namely, that it is to suggest ideas-not to supply their place. Every exercise required of a pupil must be proportioned to the age, talents, and attainments of the child. In order to facilitate the performance of the exercise which I have now described, it may be necessary in some cases to add to the list of particulars above mentioned, a list of words to be incorporated in the exercise, on the principle of the lesson first recommended. I will illustrate my meaning by an example. Suppose for instance that I were to require the pupil to describe the appearance of a landscape and to assist him in the performance of his task, I should not only give him, in a printed form, the above-mentioned list of particulars to be embraced in the description of natural scenery but should also further aid him by suggesting a number of words to be incorporated in the performance. And further, let us suppose these words to be something like the following, giving him leave at the same time to substitute a synonyme for any one of them. Delightful The cattle month gilded fearing the heat browsing labors in began to the field - lovely day slaked But suddenly rolled look dark darted through the sky artillery spread on all around. These words, assisted by the list above mentioned, would perhaps suggest a description like the following: "It was a delightful morning in the month of June. The sun rising above the horizon had gilded the tops of the trees. The birds fearing the heat had assembled in the shade. The cattle having slaked their thirst in the pool, were browsing on the plain the peasant had commenced his labors in the field. All things seemed to give promise of a lovely day. But suddenly the clouds began to rise-the heavens began to look dark, the lightning darted through the sky- the thunder rolled and a noise, as if all the artillery of heaven was discharged at once, spread fear and consternation on all around." By such suggestions, the pupil may be led to regard the subject of composition with very different feelings from those which he entertained when he at first addressed himself to it. His mind becomes expanded, and by slow, and perhaps insensible degrees, he overcomes the obstacles in his progress; his intellectual powers, as they are severally exerted, acquire strength and activity, and the whole object of the business of education is effectually secured. Mr. Jardine, in his work entitled the "Outlines of a Philosophical Education," says, "The skill, experience, and prudence of the teacher, are essentially necessary to success in this part of the business. He must exact from the pupil nothing more than may he rea sonably expected from the actual state of his intellectual powers and previous attainments. The first exercises should be such as require less labor and exertion, than those which are to succeed them; but even these must demand such a degree of exertion, as will call into action all the powers of the student, and carry him forward to the next step in his progress to higher attainments. That burden which the laborer, by gradually increasing efforts, may become able to support, would completely overpower him, when he made his first efforts." "He that begins," says Mr. Locke, "with the calf may carry the ox; but he that will go at first to take up the ox, may so disable himself, as not to be able to lift the calf after that." When the mind has brought itself to attention and close thinking, it must be able to cope with difficulties, and master them without any prejudice to itself, and then it may go on readily." Still, as Mr. Locke elsewhere observes, "Quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent," must be made the measure of every man's understanding, who has a desire not only to perform well, but to keep up the vigor of his faculties, and not to baulk his understanding by what is too hard for it. The mind by being enaged in a task beyond its strength, like the body strained by lifting a weight too heavy, has often its force broken, and thereby gets an inaptness or an aversion to any vigorous attempt ever afterwards. In the same essay, he observes that too easy tasks are equally hurtful. "He that has for some time accustomed himself to take up what easily offers itself at first view, has reason to fear, he shall never reconcile himself to the fatigue of turning and tumbling things in his mind to discover their more retired and more valuable secrets.' Lord Bacon, whom Pope describes so happily and justly in one line, as "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind," in whose works every teacher will find much to learn, expresses the same views. "The task," says he, "must be as exactly as possible, accommodated to the capacity and knowledge of the student; and should require neither more nor less than he can give. Too great a burden might depress. those who have little courage; and a burden too easy might lead them to place such confidence in their own capacity, as both to repress their ardor, and to obstruct the progress of their studies." The business of education is not merely to store the mind with useful information; but also to enable it to work with the materials which it has acquired and thereby to strengthen its powers, to invigorate its growth to develope its facties, to give them a force and freedom of action in the day of small things, which shall enable them to cope with the difficulties which may arise in the broad theatre of the world, when the whole man must assume its panoply and be "ready against assail of troubles, by opposing to end them." A good net is worth more to the fisherman than a whole freight of the finny herds of the lower deep, or, as the same idea has been better expressed by others, "a tree is more valuable than a basket of fruit, and a good hawk better than a bag full of game." The analogy is readily perceived, as I transfer these homely adages to the mind; for who will not readily allow that the possession of faculties strengthened by use, of powers matured by action, of an intellect enlarged and expanded by exertion, is more valuable to their owner, than a mind stocked and stored with the lumber of lorea mere warehouse of facts, piled heap on heap in disorder and confusion. The sea which has no outlet may be swollen with the accession of a thousand tributary streams, but its miserly hoarding of its waters, gives it no title to the gratitude of mankind, for wafting from clime to clime the blessings of commerce, the interchange of reciprocal conveniences from the domains of equatorial day, to those of polar night,or the diffusion of the charities of life among those remote regions, which although widely separated by nature, have been knit into brotherly union by art and science. It is so with the human mind. Like the sea with no outlet, it may be constantly receiving accessions from a thousand sources, the streams of knowledge may be pouring into it in rich profusion, yet unless its hoarded wealth of wisdom finds some channel by which to benefit mankind, it resembles more those reservoirs which pollute the air, and teem with foul corruption. And how shall that mind diffuse its wealth, that cannot discharge its constantly increasing accessions of fact and fancy through the strains of the orator, the numbers of the poet, or the pages of the ready writer. Let us not, then, in our attempts to cultivate the mind, let us not imitate the phlegmatic Hollander, whose resources are expended in the construction of prodigious dykes, within which the beauties of nature and of art may teem with rich profusion; but rather let us emulate his richer neighbor, whose means and whose powers are strenuously devoted to the construction of those facilities, by which the blessings of an honest commerce may be borne on every wave and be wafted by every gale. The human mind is not a mere store-house. The figure, though less elegant, is more just that describes it as a workshop, and the intellectual faculties as the operatives. Materials, it is true, must be stored there, which those skilful artisans, intuitively taught, must be engaged in moulding and fashioning, but great care must be taken that these materials be neither carelessly stowed, nor inconveniently arranged, so as to obstruct the free motions of the laborers within. In other words, the cultivation of the mind consists in furnishing its various powers with opportunities for separate and united action; and thus enabling it to lean upon itself, rather than to be dependent upon others for its thoughts, its feelings and its opinions. To combine and to compare, to reason and to judge, to perceive and to discriminate, are as needful and as laborious duties of the faculties, as to discover and to acquire. Of all the duties required of the intellectual powers, the task of composition is the most important, and interesting; because it subserves the whole purpose of education, by calling each into both separate and united action. But I have been drawn, from the unity of my subject, by the more fanciful occupation - the tracing of analogies. The digression is not however altogether irrelevant, as its object is to show the importance of my theme. The next step to be taken by the pupil is an attempt at narration. A short story or tale having been read to the class, an outline may be furnished, to assist them in writing the story in their own words. This method is particularly described in Walker's Teacher's Assistant, one of the very few works of transatlantic origin, calculated or designed to aid the pupil in his early attempts in composition. It is from the work of Mr. Walker, that this principle was copied into the "Progressive Exercises in English Composition," a volume prepared by your lecturer about five years ago, which contains many of the principles to which allusion has been made, or remains to be made in this lecture. This volume, I may here remark, is to be followed by a sequel, designed to treat of the subject in its higher departments, as well as to supply many deficiencies, and remedy some defects which the |