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    dinner and tea parties ; girls have dolls , and boys drive carriages ingeniously constructed of chairs ; the carpenter , the glazier , the blacksmith ' s forge , what a charm these all have for children ! ancj then , what book deli ghts them so much as Robinson Crusoe ? B . has made me read to him the family Robinson over and over and over again , and he is ever wishing for a desert island * If my

    observation on this point be correct , and if my theory be correct , viz . that the individual should pass through pretty nearly the same training as the species has done , the as-yet-undiscovered way of naturally developing the powers may be this , of letting the child , in so far as it can , supply its own wants . There are many of the arts of life so simple as to lie within the reach of the child ' s comprehension and execution . In almost all of them he

    might help a little , and this experience under intelligent guidance would not only g ive a quickness and truth of apprehension and sight , and a full developement to the physical powers , but a large fund of knowledge and science might be taught far more really and pleasantly than through books . For instance , X . has a remarkable talent for mechanics , and I am sure might

    be led to a discovery of the principles of that science , if he were afforded opportunity of seeing machinery , and his mind awakened by intelligent questions . Perhaps in a happier state of the world , when machinery will have taken the place of manual labour , the provision of the wants of the whole community may be intrusted to children . This will be morally good for them ; for under the

    present system of things they are too apt to fancy themselves born for nothing , but to be worked hard for by a whole train of servants , governesses , masters , and relations . Every thing depends upon the way in which a system is administered ; but I do think , that under good management , providing certain of the necessaries of life , would be found an unfailing object for energy , intelligence ,

    and kindness to exercise themselves upon . It is , however , so necessary that the child should be trained to habits of application , and should be accustomed to feel responsible for his actions , that I should require a perfect and regular performance of that which he undertook to do . I have no doubt that , properly

    managed , nothing like enforcement would be necessary ; but should it prove so in any case , I believe there would be less harm , less dulling of the spirit in requiring the accomplishment of an end which the child understood , by means which he understood , than in demanding of him the translation of one hundred lines of

    Homer or Virgil , or the repetition of a certain number of pages of Keith ' s Geography . Are Virgil , Homer , and Keith then to be fo resworn ? No—there ' s the beauty of it—a time will come when hook learning will be eagerly sought for . Distant climes , distant People , by-gone ages will have an intense interest for the being e nteringj upon manhood—the mistake is in introducing tfaese tilings before they can be comprehended—the world that sur *

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    and Experiments in Education . 557

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 557, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/27/