education of the young. Nature always brings it into operation when a
teacher, while communicating any series of _connected truths_, such as a
portion of history or of science, gives more of the details than the
mind of his pupil can receive, or his memory retain at one time. It may
be desirable that the pupil should be made thoroughly acquainted with
all the minute, as well as with the general circumstances of a history
or a science; but if so, it must be done, not at once, but by degrees,
or steps. It is usually done by repeating the course,--"revising," as it
is called,--and that perhaps more than once;--going over all the
exercises again and again, till the several parts are perceived and
remembered in their connection. In these "revisings," the mind forms an
analytical table of the subject for itself, consisting of successive
steps, formed by the successive courses. By the first course, or
hearing, it is chiefly the great outlines of the subject that are
perceived; and these form the first branch of a regular analytical
table, which every succeeding course of reading or hearing tends to fill
up. This will perhaps be best understood by an example.

Let us suppose that a young person sits down to read a history for the
first time, and that he reads it with attention and care. When we
examine the state of his mind after he has finished it, we find that,
independently of what, by the principle of grouping, he has got in the
form of episode, he has been able to retain only the great outlines of
the history, and no more. He remembers perhaps of whose reign he has
been reading, and the principal events that took place during it; but
the intermediate and minor events, as connected with the history, he has
not been able to remember. Nothing has been imparted by this first
reading, but the great landmarks of the narrative. These are destined to
form the first branch of a regular analytical table, of which the reign
of the particular monarch is the root. This is the frame-work of the
whole history of that period, however numerous the minor circumstances
may be; and a second reading will only enlarge his knowledge of the
circumstances under each of the heads. In other words, it will enable
him to sub-divide them into more minute details or periods, and thus
form a series of second branches from each. Now it is quite obvious,
that when this analysis of the circumstances of that period is once
formed in the mind, no new event c