nge and new, which he is
desirous of studying more closely, he immediately becomes an examiner in
particular; but, at the same moment, he ceases to be an observer in
general. The extended business of the fair, and the several groupings of
which it is composed, are lost sight of for the moment;--the principle
of individuation begins to act, and the operation of the principle of
association, or grouping, is at the same moment brought to a stand. The
two are incompatible, and cannot act together; and therefore Nature
never allows the one to interfere with the other.

To shew the evil effects of overlooking this important law of Nature in
the education of a child, we have only to attend to the painful results
which would be the consequence of acting contrary to it, even in the
vigorous mind of an adult. Let us for this purpose suppose a person of a
powerful understanding, and a capacious mind, ushered for the first
time, and for only five minutes into a crowded apartment in some eastern
caravansary, or eastern bazaar, in which every thing to him was new and
strange; and let us also suppose that it was imperatively demanded of
him, that he should, in that short space of time, make himself
acquainted with all that was going on, and be able, on his retiring,
minutely to describe all that he saw. The first moment he entered, and
the first strange object that caught his eye, would convince him that
_the thing was impossible_. If, without such a demand, he had been
introduced into such a place, and had seen various groups of strange
persons differently employed, each engaged in a manner altogether new to
him, and the nature of which was wholly unknown, he might look on with
perfect composure, and considerable amusement, because he could attend,
like the boy in the fair, either to the general mass, to isolated
groups, or to individual things. He would in that case attend to no more
than he was able to understand; and would placidly allow the other parts
of the scene to pass without any particular attention. But the
imperative injunction here supposed,--this pressure from without,--this
artificial and unnatural demand upon him,--entirely alters the case. If
he even attempted to make himself master of all the particulars of the
scene in a circumscribed portion of time, he would find himself
bewildered and confounded. The very attempt to individualize and to
group so many various objects at the same moment, within such a limited
peri