hool Teachers, vol. i. p. 267, and
Effects of the Lesson System, p. 37.

[21] Counsellor Jackson, M. P. Secretary to the Kildare Place Society,
and Mr Hamilton, brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington, one of the
Committee.

CHAP. VII.

_On the Imitation of Nature in Teaching the Practical Use of Knowledge._

The third step in the educational process of Nature we have found to be,
the training of her pupil to the practical use of his knowledge.--All
her other processes, we have seen from numerous circumstances, are
merely preparatory and subservient to this; and therefore, the attempt
at imitation here by the teacher is of corresponding importance. The
practical application of knowledge must be the great end of all the
pupil's learning; and the parent or teacher should conduct his exercises
and labours in such a manner as shall be most likely to attain it. The
powers of the mind are to be cultivated;--but they are to be cultivated
chiefly that the pupil may be able to collect and make use of his
knowledge:--And knowledge is to be pursued and stored up;--but this is
to be done that it may remain at his command, and be readily put to use
when it is required. To suppose any thing else, is to suppose something
directly opposed to all the indications of Nature, and to the plainest
suggestions both of reason and experience.

If in this department then, the teacher is to imitate Nature with
effect, there are two preliminary objects of which he ought never to
lose sight. The first is, that he studiously select from the numerous
subjects which may form the staple of education, those only, or at least
chiefly, which are to be most useful, and which may most easily and most
frequently be put to use by the pupil;--and the second is, that whatever
be the truth or the subject taught, the child should, at the time of
learning, be instructed in the methods and the circumstances in which it
may be used. To neglect these preliminary points, is really to betray
the cause of education, and, besides inflicting a lasting injury on the
young, to deceive the public.

In our enquiries into Nature's method of applying knowledge, we found,
in a former chapter, that she employs two distinct agencies in the work.
The one we denominated the Natural, or Common Sense; and the other is
the Conscience, or Moral Sense:--the one appearing to regulate our
knowledge in so far as it refers to the promotion of our own personal
and physical com