wledge, there is no way of
remembering these elements in connection with each other, except by this
principle. If, therefore, we change the order or relative position of
the elements or objects which compose the scene, or group, we draw the
attention of the pupil altogether from the former, and create another
which is entirely new;--in the same way as the transposition of the
figures in any sum, forms another of an entirely different amount. The
drawing-room, for example, is seen by the children of the family with
the fire-place, the cabinet, the sofas, the tables, and other stationary
ornaments, in certain relative positions, and this grouping of those
objects is to them in reality all that they know of the room. Any
material change in shifting these objects to other places in the
apartment, would, to the _parent_, whose judgment is ripened, produce
feelings comparatively slight; but, to the younger branches of the
family who group, but cannot as yet classify, it would appear like the
complete annihilation of the former apartment. The different arrangement
of a few of the articles only, would to them create another, and an
entirely different room.

This leads us to observe another circumstance connected with the
operation of this principle, in the instruction of the young, which is
the remarkable fact, that, by making the child familiar with a very few
primitive elements, a parent or teacher may communicate an almost
infinite variety of groupings, or stories, for cultivating the mind, and
increasing the knowledge of his pupil. Hence it is, that hundreds of
agreeable and useful little histories have been composed for children,
with no other machinery than a mamma and her child, and the occasional
introduction of a doll or a dog, a cat or a canary bird. To the child,
there is in these numerous groupings no appearance of sameness, nor want
of variety; and although so much circumscribed in their original
elements, they never fail to amuse and delight.

The most important circumstance, however, connected with the working of
this principle in the education of the young, appears to be the
necessity of a previous familiarity with the individual objects, before
the child is called upon to group them. If this has been attended to,
the grouping of these into any combination will be easy and
pleasant;--but if his attention be called from the group, to examine
exclusively even but one of its elements, the operation is checked, the