CHAPTER XX.

THE ELLIPTICAL PLAN.

_Method Explained--Its success_

CHAPTER XXI.

REMARKS ON SCHOOLS.

_National schools--British and foreign societies--Sunday
schools--Observations_

CHAPTER XXII.

HINTS ON NURSERY EDUCATION.

_Introduction to botany--First lessons in natural history--First
truths of astronomy--Geographical instruction--Conclusion_

THE INFANT SYSTEM.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

RETROSPECT OF MY CAREER.

_Days and scenes of childhood--Parental care--Power of
early impressions--School experience--Commencement in
business--Sunday-school teaching and its results--Experiment on a
large scale--Development of plans and invention of implements--Heavy
bereavement--Propagation of the system of education, in the
neighborhood of London, and ultimately in most of the principal
places in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland--Misapprehension
and perversion of the principles of infant education--Signs of
advancement--Hope for the future_.

* * * * *

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise,
We love the play-place of our early days;
The scene is touching."--_Cowper_

"What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under
the sun?"--_Ecclesiastes i. 3_.

* * * * *

How came you to think of the Infant School system of teaching?--is
a question that I have often been asked; and my friends think it
advisable that it should, in part at least, be answered. I proceed
therefore, in compliance with their wishes, to give some little of
the required information in this place, as perhaps it may throw light
upon, or explain more clearly, the fundamental principles laid down
and advocated throughout this volume. In few words, then, I would
reply,--_circumstances_ forced me to it. Born an only child, under
peculiar circumstances, and living in an isolated neighbourhood, I had
no childish companions from infancy; I was, consequently, thrown much
on my own resources, and early became a _thinker_, and in some measure
a contriver too. I beheld a beautiful world around me, full of
everything to admire and to win attention. As soon as I could think at
all, I saw that there must be a Maker, Governor, and Protector of this
world. Such things as had life won my admiration, and thus I became
very fond of animals. Flowers and fruits, stones and minerals, I also
soon learned to observe an