e as they
really are, and we must have a reduced scale; and there follows a
difficulty in making the representation, as neither too large nor too
small. An explanation is then also necessary as a judicious supplement
to the picture.

Sec. 87. Pictures are extremely valuable aids to instruction when they are
correct and characteristic. Correctness must be demanded in these
substitutes for natural objects, historical persons and scenes. Without
this correctness, the picture, if not an impediment, is, to say the
least, useless.

--It is only since the last half of the seventeenth century, i.e. since
the disappearance of real painting, that the picture-book has appeared
as an educational means; first of all, coming from miniature painting.
Up to that time, public life had plenty of pictures of arms, furniture,
houses, and churches; and men, from their fondness for constantly moving
about, were more weary of immediate perception. It was only afterwards
when, in the excitement of the thirty-years' war, the arts of Sculpture
and Painting and Christian and Pagan Mythology became extinct, that
there arose a greater necessity for pictured representations. The _Orbis
Rerum Sensualium Pictus_, which was also to be _janua linguarum
reserata_, of Amos Comenius, appeared first in 1658, and was reprinted
in 1805. Many valuable illustrated books followed. Since that time
innumerable illustrated Bibles and histories have appeared, but many of
them look only to the pecuniary profit of the author or the publisher.
It is revolting to see the daubs that are given to children. They are
highly colored, but as to correctness, to say nothing of character, they
are good for nothing. With a little conscientiousness and scientific
knowledge very different results could be obtained with the same outlay
of money and of strength. The uniformity which exists in the stock of
books which German book-selling has set in circulation is really
disgraceful. Everywhere we find the same types, even in ethnographical
pictures. In natural history, the illustrations were often drawn from
the imagination or copied from miserable models. This has changed very
much for the better. The same is true of architectural drawings and
landscapes, for which we have now better copies.--

Sec. 88. Children have naturally a desire to collect things, and this may
be so guided that they shall collect and arrange plants, butterflies,
beetles, shells, skeletons, &c., and thus gai