child read a
sentence or passage aloud; and, while he is doing so, in requiring him
at the same moment, to be actively employed in detecting and throwing
out certain specified words in the passage, and in selecting, arranging,
and substituting others in their place; the child still keeping to the
precise meaning of the author, and studying and practising, as far as
possible, simplicity, brevity, elegance, and grammatical accuracy. It
may be asked, "What child will ever be able to do this?" We answer with
confidence, that every sane pupil, by using the proper means, may attain
it. This is no hypothesis, but a fact, of which the experiment in Leith
gives good collateral proof, and of which long and uniform experience
has afforded direct and ample evidence. Any teacher, or parent indeed,
may by a single experiment upon the very dullest of his pupils who can
read, be satisfied on the point. Such a child, by leaving out and
paraphrasing first one word in a sentence, then two, three, or more, as
he acquires ability, will derive all the advantages above described;
and, by advancing in the exercise, he may have his talents taxed during
the whole progress of his education to the full extent of their powers.
It is in this that one great recommendation lies to this exercise,--it
being adapted to every grade of intellect, from the child who can only
paraphrase a single word at a time, to the student who, while glancing
his eye over the passage, can give the scope of the whole in a perfectly
new form, and in a language and style entirely his own. Of the nature
and versatility of this exercise we shall give a single example.

Let us for this purpose suppose that a child sees in the first answer of
the First Initiatory Catechism the words, "God at first created all
things to shew his greatness," and that the teacher wishes to exercise
his mind in the way, and upon the principle of which we are here
speaking, by making him paraphrase it. He begins by ascertaining that
the child knows the exact meaning of one or more of the several terms
used in the sentence, and can give the meaning in other words. As for
example, he should be able to explain that the first word means, "the
Almighty;"--that the words at "first," here signifies, at "the beginning
of time;"--that "created" means, "brought into existence;"--that the
term "all things," as here used, indicates, "all the worlds in Nature,
with their inhabitants;"--that the phrase to "shew," m