Part 10 (1/2)

How it is that by an act of volition we can suain into the mind an idea which has formerly been present, and which is now absent, we have the sa how, by an act of volition, we can banish a thought which is now present, or by the power of attention can detain soht to the exclusion of all others To think what particular thing it is that ish to remember, is in fact to have remembered it already It is an obstruse and difficult inquiry, into which it is not necessary now to enter A more important inquiry, and one connected directly with our present theme, relates to the different kinds of memory, and their connection severally with the faculty of attention

Quickness of memory is that quality which ispersons It is also its ive it an inordinate develops by rote, is easily acquired by practice It is astonishi+ng what et by heart, when under some special stimulus of reward or display I have often refused to publish ht the accounts incredible, (unfortunately, they were too true,) but because I thought they were a species of ed than bodily excesses A little girl in my own Sunday-School once actually committed to memory the whole of the Westminster assembly's Shorter Catechism in three days! Six months afterwards she hardly kneord of it It had been a regular mental debauch A few more such atrocities would have e records tell us of what are called ”crammed men,” that is, e in order to pass a particular exaain a particular honor, and who afterwards forget their knowledge, as fast as they have acquired it

There is a well authenticated instance of a student who actually learned the six books of Euclid by heart, though he could not tell the difference between an angle and a triangle The memory of such men is quickened like that of the parrot They learn purely by rote Real e, is never roused The knowledge which they gorge, is never truly assimilated and made their own

A quality of memory vastly more important than quickness, is tenacity

To hold on to e get, is the secret of mental, no less than of pecuniary accus most tenaciously to that which has cost it e which comes into the mind without toil and effort, without protracted and laborious attention, is apt to go as easily as it came

But, by far the most important quality of memory, for the practical purposes of life, is readiness Like quickness and tenacity, it is to be greatly improved, if not acquired by practice It is in the cultivation of this quality, that the power of a good teacher shi+nes forth most conspicuously Quickness and tenacity may be cultivated by solitary study But readiness requires for its development a live teacher, and the stir of the school-roo shows its wonderful resources Repeated and continued interrogatories, judiciously worded, have a sort of talis out his knowledge from its hidden recesses, to turn it over and over, and inside out, and upside down, to look at it and to handle it, so that not only it becomes forever and indestructibly his own, but he can ever afterwards use it at ith the same readiness that he uses his hands or his eyes This is what a skilful teacher e and practice of the art of questioning Unfortunately, teachers in general find it much easier passively to hear a lesson, than to y as is necessary to ask a question

It was a re to s, if at each perusal weto the book only when the strials The explanation of this fact is, that each effort to recollect the passage secures to the subsequent perusal a ree of attention; and it seems to be a law of our nature, not only that there is no th to establish, but that the degree of ree of the attention

You will see at once the bearing of this fact upon that species of intellectual dissipation, called ”general reading,” in which the mental voluptuary reads ratification of an idle curiosity, and which is as enervating and debilitating to the intellectual faculties, as other kinds of dissipation are to the bodily functions One book, well read and thoroughly digested, nay, one single train of thought, carefully elaborated and attentively considered, is worth more than any conceivable a in which e There is in fact no e than the nu man once told me he had read the entire list of publications of the American Sunday-School Union He was about as wise as the an at the top of the bill of fare with the intention of eating straight through to the botto and debauching alike to the moral and the intellectual constitution There is too ood books

No one should ever read a book, without subsequent meditation or conversation about it, and an atteorous process of mental assimilation Any continuous intellectual occupation, which does not leave us wiser and stronger,the body with food which it does not digest, onlyany book, if we are not the better for it

There is an obvious distinction on this subject, of soested, so far as I am aware, by the Scotch metaphysician, Dr Reid, between attention as directed to external objects, and the same faculty directed to what passes within us When we attend to what is without us, to e hear, or see, or smell, or taste, or touch, the process is called observation When, on the other hand, dis for the tihts inward, and consider only what is passing in the inner chambers of the mind,--when, for instance, we analyze our s of passion, or scan the ency of the will, the process is called reflection This latter species of attention is one much more difficult of development than the former

It is developed ordinarily much later in life,--seldom, I believe, developed to any considerable extent before the age of manhood,--developed by some professions and pursuits e class of mankind, probably the majority, never developed at all

This species of attention, which is thus directed inwards, subjective attention some would call it,--in other words, the reflective powers,--are, I doubt not, capable of being cultivated e which I have indicated as the normal period of their developh authorities in education, to doubt the wisdom of a precocious cultivation of this part of our intellectual system In all our plans of education, we should closely follow nature, who seement and the reflective powers for the latest, as they certainly are the most perfect, of her endowments We, who are teachers, have chiefly to do with those whose powers are as yet immature, and whose attention is to be cultivated primarily in its direction to external objects Our business, in other words, is to train our pupils first of all to habits of observation

In doing this, it is of some practical importance to bear in mind the well-known difference, in respect to memory, between the objects of different senses Whether it be attributed to the different degrees of perfection hich the qualities of bodies are perceived, or to some difference in the qualities themselves, or whatever may be the cause, the fact is established beyond a question, that the knowledge which coh the e the most easily and the most perfectly remembered We reuished from that of another; we remember the sound of a voice; we can conceive, in its absence, the odor or the taste of a particular object; but none of these ideas come to us with that definiteness and perfection which mark our recollections of e have seen It requires, for instance, but ordinary powers of attention and perception, for a person who has one good look at a house, to recall distinctly to his ht, shape, color, material, the number of stories, the pitch of the roof, the kind of shutters to the s, the position of the door, the fashi+on of panels, the bell-handle, the plate, even the little canary-bird with its cage in the s above, and the roses, geraniums, and what else may be fairer still, in thebelow These are all objects of sight In their absence, he can bring to mind and describe them, with almost the same accuracy that he could if they were actually present Now, it is impossible to obtain a like precision and fulness in our conceptions of a quality which we have learned through any other sense We fore or picture of the object, which in the other case is impossible We can by no possibility for of canary, of the perfume of a rose, or of any other quality, except those which address us through the eye Our conceptions of taste, s, in the absence of the objects of sense, have a certain diueness, mistiness, uncertainty about them The conceptions of visible objects, on the contrary, are definite, precise, and h the sight, is, of all kinds of knowledge, the

The practical application of these views to the science of teaching, is too obvious to requireare to make the subject of their attention, for the purpose of re it, should be represented as far as possible to the eye If the object itself, on account of its bulk, or its expensiveness, or for any other reason, cannot be exhibited for inspection, let there be so to be re neither form nor substance, perhaps it may have, or the teacher may make for it, some concrete, visible syic and the abstractions of arithebra These visible syive to those sciences all the advantages in this respect which were supposed to be peculiar to sootten every ebra, will remember the formula, x2 + 2xy + y2, just as perfectly and on the saht it to hieoes been found to be of such peculiar value as a ? Because of the visible delineation of its doctrines by diagrams addressed to the eye

How much more readily and certainly chemical science can now be acquired, since the adoption of the presentits doctrines by cou qualities addressed alike to every sense, respecting functions indeed not cognizable by any sense, are now presented on the board in visible sye over the forht of a chess-board during the progress of a game has over a mere verbal description of the ly illustrated in the present raphy, as co at the map of a country, with its boundaries and other physical characters painted to the eye, had to grope through a trackless wilderness of description The study will be still more improved, when children shall be universally required to make as well as to look at h the sight, there shall be added that inerasible impression upon the memory, which comes from fixedness and continuity of attention It is i intently, and with continued attention, upon every part of that which is to be delineated

The two conditions to perfect recollection are coe, which is the result, is the very last to fade from the memory

Every teacher of small children knothan by hearing You may repeat to a child five times over the sounds which make up a word, and he will not recollect it with half the certainty that he would on seeing it once The same principle which leads to this result, and which indicates the propriety, not only of looking at e of geography, will suggest to the thoughtful teacher the expediency of children's not only looking at words, but of writing them, in order to become perfect spellers

Mental arithmetic has its fascinations It has, too, I aes, however, I apprehend are not precisely those which are sometimes attributed to it There can be no doubt, I think, that it helps to cultivate the reflective powers; that it requires, and by requiring gives, the ability to confine the attention to continuedexpert practical accountants, which is generally quoted as its distinguishi+ng benefit, I confess I am partial to the slate and pencil, and to that venerable parallelogram, the old-fashi+oned Multiplication Table, in the shape it caoras

The reader will not, of course, understandto discard Mental arithest is the inquiry, whether its advantages are not looked for in the wrong direction, whether they are not so arithmetic, especially when pursued as a hobby, is not sometimes pushed too far, and made thebenefit In teaching mental arithmetic, too, for I would certainly teach it to so children, in perforures, in other words, to forns, which are visible objects, rather than of quantities and relations, which are mere abstractions Multiplication is a n of multiplication is a simple, visible sy conceived by the mind with uners in the first steps of learning to add and to take away, is a pretty sight, doubtless But it is painful to see a person grown to man's estate, and in other respects well educated, as I have very often seen, still dependent upon the saers when required to add long coluet the child under way But the sooner the leading-string can be dropped, and the child can be ns, their coers, or apples, or cakes, or tops, the better for his arithmetic, and the better for his mental cultivation

The subject has a painful interest for the Sabbath-School Teacher The teacher of the infant school, indeed, has so this principle of pictorial representation, in teaching the little ones of his charge The infant school-roorams, and even blackboards; and most infant school teachers wisely avail theo into the main school-room--what can the teacher do? Twenty, thirty, forty classes huddled together into one room, compact as sheep in a pen, how can the individual teacher, if disposed, use adequate visible illustrations for the instruction of his class? Where shall he place his blackboard? where shall he hang up his maps? where shall he suspend his models? where shall he exhibit his specimens? The utmost that can be done in most of our schools, as at present provided for, is to have a few maps on the distant walls of the room which the superintendent may refer to, whenever he chooses, and which all the children may see who can! The tiious truth will be considered of asof arithmetic or of chemistry, and the Sabbath-School will have the sa instruction as the week-day school But that time has not yet come In the meanwhile, let the teacher carefully avail himself of whatever subsidiary aids are within his reach No teacher should ever present himself before his class without a Bible Atlas and a Bible Dictionary in his hand Many of those things hich his class ought to be made acquainted, are here not only described, but delineated, with equal accuracy and beauty Thanks to the booksellers and the religious publication societies, the scenes of sacred history, and indeed religious topics generally, have been illustrated in cheap pictorial cards, both large and small, and with admirable fidelity and skill

These form a part of the indispensable furniture of the Sunday-School teacher They are to him as necessary as are experiments, or a cabinet of specimens, to the lecturer on the physical sciences The Sabbath-School teacher should be continually on the look-out for publications of this kind, not only for instructing and furnishi+ng his own mind with definite ideas, but for exhibition to his class A wise teacher will not only have so to show The ideas which the child gets fro at really instructive pictures and ent apprehension of the scriptures is increased, by a knowledge of topography, and by associating each event in the sacred narration with the place in which it occurred?

It may be proper to say, too, in this connection, that it is with a view to the principle now under consideration, that in preparing books and papers for the young, authors and publishers feel justified in giving so much labor and space to pictorial illustration When, indeed, such illustrations are merely for display, they deserve the contempt which they often receive But when these pictorial illustrations have a definite , when they connect in the child's ious truth with distinct and easily remembered visible forms, they are a really valuable aid in the inculcation of doctrine

The power of attention, like all the reater in some than in others Still, there is no power more susceptible of improvement The importance of its cultivation cannot well be over-stated It affects not one study only, but all studies; not one mode of study only, but every mode of study, by text-book or by lecture; lessons to be recited by memory, or those by question and answer; not even study only, but conduct and ulation of the heart and the formation of the character The precisethat pertains to his character and standing as a scholar, will in nine cases out of ten be his power and habit of attention There are indeed lamentable cases of wilful and intentional disorder Yet every teacher knows that by far the greater portion of the things which interrupt and disturb a school arise frohtlessness and inattention There are also equally undoubted cases of ignorance that is no crireat majority of those who fail in their studies, fail simply because they do not attend To attend, however,more than merely to be bodily present, more even than to have the ears open and the eyes fixed in the direction of the speaker, when a thing is said, or done An old lady used to sit in the same aisle with me in church, and unfortunately lived opposite me in the street, as neither deaf nor blind, and as never absent fros to knohat it was the ht, or that htly understand!

But it is not necessary to go to church, to find those who ”having eyes see not, and having ears hear not, neither do they understand,” who look without seeing, and hear without co so any specific direction No matter how simple, or how plainly expressed, the notice may be, or how particularly attention may be called beforehand to the announcement about to be made, where is the happy teacher who has been able on such an occasion to make himself understood by all? Teachers and preachers and speakers of every naenerally very little idea how ive solected onewiththe school, I rang the bell as a signal for attention There was a general hush throughout the room

All eyes were turned to the desk I said: ”Your class-books unfortunately have been left behind thisThey have been sent for, however, and they will soon be here As soon as they co theo on with your regular lessons” The bell was then tapped again, and the routine of the school resuirl came up to the desk, with, ”Sir, teacher says, will you please to send her class-book; it was not brought round, as usual, this , before school opened!”

Here was a class of ten girls, averaging twelve years of age, and not one of them, nor their teacher, had heard or understood the notice which I thought I had made so plain!

Here is another instance At the exah School, as a s how far this very faculty of hearing and of attention has been cultivated, the candidates are required to copy a passage from dictation These exercises are always preserved for reference, and in order to show the fairness of the examination On one occasion, when I was Principal of the School, I took the pains to copy out a few of the exercises, in order to show the singular freaks into which an uncultivated ear may be led One or two specimens will serve to illustrate the point The first clause with its variations, was as follows:--

Every breach of veracity indicates soe ” rascality ” ” latest vice