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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
t in the shape of Bell aad Lancaster , of whom he thua « pe « Jw slightingly : , * The improvements introduced by Bell and Lancaster appa * rtp ma to relate more to the machinery than to the principles of education ; toore to economy of time and expense , and ingenious expedients for securing a kind of military order and mechanical attention , than to any higher characteristics of a system . *—p . 12 , '
Nevertheless he does not hesitate to expound at considerable length , and to praise loudly , the plans of Jacotot , which , except 33 they regard the acquisition of language , demand as perfect prostration of the understanding as heart could wish . What does the intelligent reader think of such doctrines as these ?
i * No lesson is considered as learnt and done with , hut will he referred to on all fit occasions , and continue , from time to time , to receive and afford illustration , and to supply points of comparison . It is considered as merely a link in a chain , —a part of the body of universal truth . Bacon ' s remark , that " no natural phenomenon can be adequately studied in itself alone , but . to be understood , must be considered as it stands con *
nected with all nature , " is corroborative of this plan . It is owing to neglect of it that many read so much and retain so little . They travel through the regions of literature , like persons through a country on a stage-coach , each landscape obliterating the preceding . They resemble the man who , after reading through Bailey ' s Dictionary , did not know what it was about .
4 This is especially the case with those who are in the habit of reading periodicals , and . more particularly the cheap periodicals of the present day . Owing to the miscellaneous character of their contents ,, and the want in the readers of a distinct purpose and aim to connect each fact with their previous knowledge on the same subject , —to put it , as it were , in its proper place in their minds , —they find themselves at last in
the precise predicament of the above student of Bailey ' s Dictionary . the precise predicament of the above student of Bailey s Dictionary . 4 would be an interesting subject of speculation—perhaps , to many , a painful one—to ascertain , in our own cases , how much reading has been lost for want of this distinct purpose to profit , how many truths lie entombed in our minds , in juxtaposition , not in union . —p . 34 , 85 . Where can the author have picked up the following notions ?
* I do not mean to insinuate that it is unnecessary to study the sciences separately to gain a profound acquaintance with them , but merely to GXpre ?* my opinion that it has been an error in elementary education to make them objects of independent pursuit . The sciences are not counters to be laid side b y side , but branches growing from a common item , and must therefore be studied simultaneously and in their mutual
c ' dnnexion . The consequences of thus isolating the various branched of earfucfUfdn have been most pernicious , and not the least has been the frnfeerfect kind of knowledge that has been acquired . H ^ wmany know ffire rYarbes ancl can describe the situations of every place of important on the surface of the globe , and know nothing , or hav ^ drily the rrio * griritrfl * nd vrfgml nations , of their k ^ t ^ iyv pw ^ ril ^ wmdition * { the oatuiv ctf ib «! gcnroirttipmV » oi ) . witolf , £ kp 4 Mt &feO # * d y « t , wiWntf
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BligVi HinU * + A ** l tfUc fteching . « f *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1835, page 673, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2650/page/45/
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