smical
course of learning, they would, most likely, be better understood in
their separate parts, and, undoubtedly, be better remembered.

For instance, in grounding the young idea in the geography of any
particular country, the main points of its history should follow as a
natural sequence. Its seas and rivers would lead to the consideration
of commerce and the polity of nations:--the mention of its towns,
suggest the names of its great men in literature and art. Its scenery
would call to mind the poets who might have made it famous, the artists
who may have portrayed its beauties with their pencil; while, to pursue
the theme, its valleys and mountains would remind the student of the
value of agriculture and mineral wealth--besides attracting his notice
to atmospherical and other scientific phenomena, that can be far more
readily comprehended by young learners, when thus seen, as it were, in
action, than if taught merely in separate dry treatises that seem to
have little in common with the busy, bustling, moving world, whose laws
they affect to expound.

My plan, indeed, would be a further development of the Kindergarten
scheme, and the Pestalozzian system, generally.

As soon as children had passed through the rudimentary stages of
instruction, being able to spell and read correctly, their advanced
studies should be entirely shorn of their present routine
characteristics. They might be made so full of life, and even
amusement, that they would thenceforth lose their _lesson_ look; and be,
correspondingly, all the more easily-learnt. In fact, they would appear
more as a series of interesting pastimes than school tasks.

Instead of making boys and girls con so many pages, say, of the
geography of China, at the same time that they are wading through the
history of the Norman Conquest, for instance; those two subjects should
be made to bear the one upon the other.

The deeds of Duke Robert would lead to a consideration of the places
mentioned in connection with them, their geographical position, geology,
local traditions, celebrities, and other archaeological associations;
while, their after-bearing on the history of our country should not be
omitted.

The doings of the Black Prince might, also be exampled as inducing the
study of the geography of northern France. Cressy, and Poitiers, and
Agincourt, might, naturally, suggest the first use of gunpowder, its
composition, and invention; and, then, the improvement