self, and to form an opinion of its own. But this is not as it
should be. Such a system is neither likely to produce great nor wise
men; and is much better adapted to parrots than children. Hence, the
first thing attempted in an infant school is, to set the children
thinking,--to induce them to examine, compare, and judge, in reference
to all those matters which their dawning intellects are capable of
mastering. It is of no use to tell a child, in the first place, _what
it should think_,--this is at once inducing mental indolence, which
is but too generally prevalent among adults; owing to this erroneous
method having been adopted by those who had the charge of their early
years. Were a child left to its own resources, to discover and judge
of things exclusively by itself, though the opposite evil would be
the consequence, namely, a state of comparative ignorance, yet I am
doubtful whether it would be greater or more lamentable than that
issuing from the injudicious system of giving children dogmas instead
of problems, the opinions of others instead of eliciting their own. In
the one case we should find a mind, uninformed and uncultivated, but
of a vigorous and masculine character, grasping the little knowledge
it possessed, with the power and right of a conqueror; in the other,
a memory occupied by a useless heap of notions,--without a single
opinion or idea it could call its own,--and an understanding indolent
and narrow, and, from long-indulged inactivity, almost incapable
of exertion. As the fundamental principle of the system, I would
therefore say, let the _children think for themselves_. If they arrive
at erroneous conclusions, assist them in attaining the truth; but
let them, with such assistance, arrive at it by their own exertions.
Little good will be done, if you say to a child,--_That_ is wrong,
_this_ is right, unless you enable it to perceive the error of the
one and the truth of the other. It is not only due to the child as a
rational being that you should act so, but it is essentially necessary
to the development of its intellectual faculties. It were not more
ridiculous for a master, in teaching arithmetic, to give his pupil the
problem and answer, without instructing him in the method of working
the question, than it is for a person to give a child results of
reasoning, without showing how the truth is arrived at. But some,
perhaps, will be ready to exclaim, "Surely the teacher should not
withhold the b