o regulate the highest flights of imagination. We shall
consider the power of reasoning in another point of view, as being
essential to our conduct in life. The object of reasoning is to adapt
means to an end, to attain the command of effects by the discovery of
the causes on which they depend.

Until children have acquired some knowledge of effects, they cannot
inquire into causes. Observation must precede reasoning; and as
judgment is nothing more than the perception of the result of
comparison, we should never urge our pupils to judge, until they have
acquired some portion of experience.

To teach children to compare objects exactly, we should place the
things to be examined distinctly before them. Every thing that is
superfluous, should be taken away, and a sufficient motive should be
given to excite the pupil's attention. We need not here repeat the
advice that has formerly been given[85] respecting the choice of
proper motives to excite and fix attention; or the precautions
necessary to prevent the pain of fatigue, and of unsuccessful
application. If comparison be early rendered a task to children, they
will dislike and avoid this exercise of the mind, and they will
consequently show an inaptitude to reason: if comparing objects be
made interesting and amusing to our pupils, they will soon become
expert in discovering resemblances and differences; and thus they will
be prepared for reasoning.

Rousseau has judiciously advised, that _the senses_ of children should
be cultivated with the utmost care. In proportion to the distinctness
of their perceptions, will be the accuracy of their memory, and,
probably, also the precision of their judgment. A child, who sees
imperfectly, cannot reason justly about the objects of sight, because
he has not sufficient data. A child, who does not hear distinctly,
cannot judge well of sounds; and, if we could suppose the sense of
touch to be twice as accurate in one child as in another, we might
conclude, that the judgment of these children must differ in a similar
proportion. The defects in organization are not within the power of
the preceptor; but we may observe, that inattention, and want of
exercise, are frequently the causes of what appear to be natural
defects; and, on the contrary, increased attention and cultivation
sometimes produce that quickness of eye and ear, and that consequent
readiness of judgment, which we are apt to attribute to natural
superiority of organizat