there is neither mental
exercise, nor any perceptible accession of mental strength. It does not
depend upon the particular form of the exercise, whether it consists of
reading, hearing, writing, or speaking; but simply and entirely upon
the reality and the frequency of the reiteration of the included ideas
during it. This makes the cultivation and strengthening of the powers of
the mind a very simple and a very certain operation. For if the teacher
can succeed by any means in producing frequent and successive
repetitions of _this act_ of the mind in any of his pupils, Nature will
be true to her own law, and mental culture, and mental strength will
assuredly follow;--but, on the contrary, whenever in a school exercise
this act is awanting, there can be no permanent progression in the
education of the pupil, and no amelioration in the state of his mind.
The mechanical reading or repeating of words, for example, like the
fingering of musical instruments, may be performed for months or years
successively, without the powers of the mind being actively engaged in
the process at all; leaving the child without mental exercise, and
consequently without improvement.

In following out the only legitimate plan for the accomplishment of this
fundamental object, that of imitating Nature, the first thing required
by the teacher is an exercise, or series of exercises, by which he shall
be able _at his own will_ to enforce upon his pupils this important act
of the mind. If this object can be successfully attained, then the
proper means for the intellectual improvement of the child are secured;
but as long as it is awanting, his mental cultivation is either left to
chance, or to the capricious decision of his own will;--for experience
shews, that although a child may be compelled to read, or to repeat the
_words_ of his exercises, they contain no power by which the teacher can
ensure the reiteration of the _ideas_ they contain. The words may
correctly and fluently pass from the tongue, while the mind is actively
engaged upon something else, and as much beyond the reach of the teacher
as ever. But if the desiderated exercise could be procured, the power of
enforcing mental activity upon a prescribed subject would then remain,
not in the possession of the child, but would be transferred to the
teacher, at whose pleasure the mental cultivation of the pupil would
proceed, whether he himself willed it or no.

In the "catechetical exercise,"