lty, deserved approbation, and made an advance in the pathway of
merit. When properly conducted, therefore, the catechetical exercise
becomes to the pupils a succession of victories; and it imparts all that
delight, softened and purified, which he experiences in excelling his
companion, or in winning a game.--These are the reasons why the
catechetical exercise is so much relished by the young, and why it has
succeeded so powerfully, not only in smoothing the pathway of education,
but also in shortening it.

From a careful consideration of all these circumstances, we are led to
conclude, that the catechetical exercise does, in a superior degree,
fulfil all the stipulations required for imitating Nature, in exciting
to the reiteration of ideas by children, and thus disciplining and
cultivating the powers of their minds. We might also have remarked,
that another advantage arising from persevering in this exercise, is the
arresting of the attention of the children, and successfully training
them to hear and understand through life the oral communications of
others;--but we hasten to consider the time and the order in which this
exercise should be made use of in schools.

Nature intends, that the cultivation and strengthening of the powers of
the mind shall in every case precede those exercises in which their
strength is to be tried. In infants and young children we perceive this
cultivation and invigorating of the mind going on, long before these
powers are to be taxed even for their own preservation. The child is no
doubt putting them to use; but in every such case it is voluntary, and
not compulsory,--a matter of choice on the part of the child, and not of
necessity. The infant, or even the child, is never required to take care
of itself, to clothe itself, to wash itself, or even to feed itself. To
require it to do so before the mind could comprehend the nature and the
design of the particular duty, would be both unreasonable and cruel.
This being the case, the exercises of the nursery and the school must be
regulated in a similar manner, and follow the same law. The due
cultivation of the mind, like the due preparation of the soil, must
always precede the sowing of the seed. If this principle in Nature be
duly attended to, the seeds of knowledge afterwards cast into the soil
thus broken up and prepared, will be readily received and nourished to
perfection; but if the soil be neglected, both the seed and the labour
will