nd accordingly in that
case, the teacher not only questions upon the clauses in connection with
the other principal words, but he takes the _words_, of which the
clauses are composed, and catechises the child upon them also. This is
called the "Verbal Exercise," which has been found of great value in the
teacher's intercourse with his younger classes. Upon these principles
the Initiatory Catechisms and their Keys have been formed, together with
the several Helps for communicating Scriptural knowledge. The success of
these school books, although labouring under all the disadvantages of
new instruments, imperfectly formed to work out new principles, is
mainly to be attributed to the close imitation of Nature aimed at in all
their exercises.

The _rule_ for the parent or teacher in mastering these exercises is the
same in all; it consists simply in forming the question in such a
manner, as that the word, the clause, or the whole proposition, shall be
required to make the answer. Sufficient explanation and examples of all
this will be found in the Note.[13]

The uniform results of many experiments, have established the importance
of this exercise as an instrument in communicating knowledge to the
ignorant, whether young or old. We shall shortly advert to a few of the
circumstances connected with these experiments, for the purpose of
satisfactorily establishing this.

In an experiment made in May 1828, under the direction of the Very Rev.
Dr Baird, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, before the Lord
Provost, and several of the Professors and Clergymen of that city, nine
adult criminals, "taken without regard to their abilities," and who, in
the opinion of Governor Rose, "formed a fair average of the usual
prisoners," were, in the space of three successive weeks, exercised in
whole for eighteen or twenty hours. They were at the end of that time
minutely examined in the Chapel of the County Jail, in the presence of
the Right Honourable and Reverend Professors and Gentlemen, who formed
Principal Baird's committee; and their Report of the experiment and its
effects bears, that "the result of this important experiment was, in
every point, satisfactory. Not only had much religious knowledge been
acquired by the pupils, and that of the most substantial, and certainly
the least evanescent kind; but it appeared to have been acquired with
ease, and even with satisfaction--a circumstance of material importance
in every case, b