ess soon becomes habitual
and very easy. In from one year to eighteen months a pupil can by
means of it accurately recall a lecture or sermon. It has the
immediate advantage, over all the associate systems, of increasing and
enlarging the scope and vigour of the memory, or indeed of the mind,
so that it may truly bear as a motto, _Vires acquirit eundo_--"it
gains in power as it runs long."

Finally, I set forth a system of developing the Constructive Faculty--
that which involves Ingenuity, Art, or manual _making_--as based on
the teaching of the so-called Minor Arts to the young. The principle
from which I proceed is that as the fruit is developed from the
flower, all Technical Education should be anticipated. Or begun
in children by practicing easy and congenial arts, such as light
embroidery, wood-carving or repousse, by means of which they become
familiar with the elements of more serious and substantial work.
Having found out by practical experience, in teaching upwards of two
thousand children for several years, that the practice of such easy
work, or the development of the constructive faculty, invariably
awakened the intellectual power or intelligence, I began to study the
subject of the development of the mind in general. My first discovery
after this was that Memory, whether mental, visual, or of any other
kind, could, in connection with Art, be wonderfully improved, and to
this in time came the consideration that the human Will, with all its
mighty power and deep secrets, could be disciplined and directed, or
controlled with as great care as the memory or the mechanical faculty.
In a certain sense the three are one, and the reader who will take the
pains, which are, I trust, not very great, to master the details of
this book, will readily grasp it as a whole, and understand that its
contents form a system of education, yet one from which the old as
well as young may profit.

It is worth noting that, were it for nervous invalids alone, or those
who from various causes find it difficult to sleep, or apply the mind
to work, this book would be of unquestionable value. In fact, even
while writing this chapter, a lady has called to thank me for the
substantial benefit which she derived from my advice in this respect.
And, mindful of the fact that Attention and Unwearied Perseverance
are most necessary to succeed in such processes as are here described, I
have taken pains to show or explain how they may be rendere