hope that it may be of use to others whom God, in due season, may call to carry on the work.

24. Rectification.—In the meantime we may draw three conclusions:

(i.) Every art must be contained in the shortest and most practical rules.

(ii.) Each rule must be expressed in the shortest and clearest words.

(iii) Each rule must be accompanied by many examples, in order that the use of the rule may be quite clear when fresh cases arise.

FOURTH PRINCIPLE

25. Nature advances from what is easy to what is more difficult. For example, the formation of an egg does not begin with the hardest part, the shell, but with the contents. These are at first covered by a membrane; it is not till later that the hard shell appears. The bird that learns to fly accustoms itself first to stand on its legs, then to move its wings gently, then to do so with more force until it can raise itself from the ground, and last of all gains sufficient confidence to fly through the air.

26. Imitation. In the same way a carpenter's apprentice learns, first to fell trees, then to saw them into planks and fasten them together, and finally to build complete houses of them.

27. Various Deviations.-It is therefore wrong to teach the unknown through the medium of that which is equally unknown, as is the case:

(i.) If boys who are beginning Latin are taught the rules in Latin. This is just as if the attempt were made to explain Hebrew by Hebrew rules, or Arabic by Arabic rules.

(ii.) If these same beginners are given as assistance a LatinGerman instead of a German-Latin dictionary. For they do not want to learn their mother-tongue by the aid of Latin, but to learn Latin through the medium of the language that they already know. (On this error we will say more in chap. xxii.).

(iii.) If boys are given a foreign teacher who does not understand their language. For if they have no common medium through which they can hold communications with him, and can only guess

at what he is saying, can anything but a Tower of Babel be the result?

(iv.) A deviation is made from the right method of teaching, if boys of all nations (i. e., French, German, Bohemian, Polish, or Hungarian boys) are taught in accordance with the same rules of grammar (those of Melanchthon or of Ramus 26, for example,) since each of these languages stands in its own particular relation to Latin, and this relation must be well understood if Latin is to be thoroughly taught to boys of these several nationalities.

28. Rectification.-These errors may be avoided

(i.) If the teachers and their pupils talk the same language. (ii.) If all explanations are given in the language that the pupils understand.

(iii.) If grammars and dictionaries are adapted to the language through the medium of which the new one is to be learned (that is to say, the Latin Grammar to the mother-tongue, and Greek Grammar to the Latin language).

(iv.) If the study of a new language be allowed to proceed gradually and in such a way that the scholar learn first to understand (for this is the easiest), then to write (for here there is time for consideration), and lastly to speak (which is the hardest, because the process is so rapid).

(v.) If, when Latin is combined with German, the German be placed first as the best known, and the Latin follow.

(vi.) If the subject-matter be so arranged that the pupils get to know, first, that which lies nearest to their mental vision, then that which is moderately near, then that which is more remote, and lastly, that which is farthest off. Therefore, if boys are being taught something for the first time (such as logic or rhetoric), the illustrations should not be taken from subjects that cannot be grasped by the scholars, such as theology, politics, or poetry, but should be derived from the events of every-day life. Otherwise the boys will understand neither the rules nor their application.

(vii.) If boys be made to exercise, first their senses (for this is the casiest), then the memory, then the comprehension, and finally the judgment. In this way a graded sequence will take place; for all knowledge begins by sensuous perception; then through the medium of the imagination it enters the province of the memory; then, by dwelling on the particulars, comprehension of the universal

arises; while finally comes judgment on the facts that have been grasped, and in this way our knowledge is firmly established.

FIFTH PRINCIPLE

29. Nature does not overburden herself, but is content with a little.

For instance, she does not demand two chickens from one egg, but is satisfied if one be produced. The gardener does not insert a number of grafts on one stock, but two at most, if he consider it very strong.

30. Deviation.-The mental energies of the scholar are therefore dissipated if he have to learn many things at once, such as grammar, rhetoric, poetic, Greek, etc., in one year (cf. the previous chapter, Principle 4).

SIXTH PRINCIPLE

31. Nature does not hurry, but advances slowly.

For example, a bird does not place its eggs in the fire, in order to hatch them quickly, but lets them develop slowly under the influence of natural warmth. Neither, later on, does it cram its chickens with food that they may mature quickly (for this would only choke them), but it selects their food with care and gives it to them gradually in the quantities that their weak digestion can support.

32. Imitation.-The builder, too, does not erect the walls on the foundations with undue haste and then straightway put on the roof; since, unless the foundations were given time to dry and become firm, they would sink under the superincumbent weight, and the whole building would tumble down. Large stone buildings, therefore, cannot be finished within one year, but must have a suitable length of time allotted for their construction.

33. Nor does the gardener expect a plant to grow large in the first month, or to bear fruit at the end of the first year. He does not, therefore, tend and water it every day, nor does he warm it with fire or with quicklime, but is content with the moisture that comes from heaven and with the warmth that the sun provides.

34. Deviation.-For the young, therefore, it is torture

(i.) If they are compelled to receive six, seven, or eight hours' class instruction daily, and private lessons in addition.

(ii.) If they are overburdened with dictations, with exercises,

and with the lessons that they have to commit to memory, until nausea and, in some cases, insanity is produced.

If we take a jar with a narrow mouth (for to this we may compare a boy's intellect) and attempt to pour a quantity of water into it violently, instead of allowing it to trickle in drop by drop, what will be the result? Without doubt the greater part of the liquid will flow over the side, and ultimately the jar will contain less than if the operation had taken place gradually. Quite as foolish is the action. of those who try to teach their pupils, not as much as they can assimilate, but as much as they themselves wish; for the faculties need to be supported and not to be overburdened, and the teacher, like the physician, is the servant and not the master of nature.

35. Rectification.-The ease and the pleasantness of study will therefore be increased:

(i.) If the class instruction be curtailed as much as possible, namely to four hours, and if the same length of time be left for private study.

(ii.) If the pupils be forced to memorize as little as possible, that is to say, only the most important things; of the rest they need only grasp the general meaning.

(iii.) If everything be arranged to suit the capacity of the pupil, which increases naturally with study and age.

SEVENTH PRINCIPLE

36. Nature compels nothing to advance that is not driven forward by its own mature strength.

For instance, a chicken is not compelled to quit the egg before its limbs are properly formed and set; is not forced to fly before its feathers have grown; is not thrust from the nest before it is able to fly well, etc.

A tree, too, does not put forth shoots before it is forced to do so by the sap that rises from the roots, nor does it permit fruit to appear before the leaves and blossoms formed by the sap seek further development, nor does it permit the blossoms to fall before the fruit that they contain is protected by a skin, nor the fruit to drop before it is ripe.

37. Deviation.-Now the faculties of the young are forced: (i.) If the boys are compelled to learn things for which their age and capacity are not yet suited.

(ii.) If they are made to learn by heart or do things that have not first been thoroughly explained and demonstrated to them. 38. Rectification.-From what has been said, it follows

(i.) That nothing should be taught to the young, unless it is not only permitted but actually demanded by their age and mental strength.

(ii.) That nothing should be learned by heart that has not been thoroughly grasped by the understanding. Nor should any feat of memory be demanded unless it is absolutely certain that the boy's strength is equal to it.

(iii.) That nothing should be set boys to do until its nature has been thoroughly explained to them, and rules for procedure have been given.

EIGHTH PRINCIPLE

39. Nature assists its operations in every possible manner. For example, an egg possesses its own natural warmth, but this is assisted by the warmth of the sun and by the feathers of the bird that hatches it. God, the father of nature, takes forethought for this. The newly-hatched chicken, also, is warmed by the mother as long as is necessary, and is trained by her in the various functions. of life. This we can see in the case of storks, who assist their young by taking them on their backs and bearing them round the nest while they exercise their wings. In the same way nurses help little children. They teach them first to raise their heads and then to sit up; later on, to stand on their legs, and to move their legs preparatory to walking; then by degrees to walk and step out firmly. When they teach them to speak they repeat words to them and point out the objects that the words denote.

40. Deviation.-It is therefore cruelty on the part of a teacher if he set his pupils work to do without first explaining it to them thoroughly, or showing them how it should be done, and if he do not assist them in their first attempts; or if he allow them to toil hard, and then loses his temper if they do not succeed in their endeavors.

What is this but to torture the young? it is just as if a nurse were to force a child to walk, while it is still afraid to stand on its legs, and beat it when it failed to do so. Nature's teaching is very different, and shows that we ought to have patience with the weak as long as their strength is insufficient.