sharp ones, will reason and say, as there are six letters, and two of them vowels, the remaining four must be consonants; making it a question in arithmetic.

In this way very great interest may be excited; and when such words as bounty, city, yearly occur, the teacher should point out, that at the end of words y is a vowel; at the beginning, a consonant; and then ask them to quote all the words they know beginning or ending with y: this gives them great facility in acquiring words; such questions, as, what is the first letter in such and such a word-what is the last-how many syllables in the word-what is the middle syllablewhat is a syllable made up of? of letters. What is a word made up of? of syllable or syllables. This interests much more than the ordinary way of reading without observation, and keeps up the attention.

Again, call their attention to the page of their book—say it is page ten, eleven, twelve, or thirteen-how many leaves? five, five and a half, six, six and a half; and from this they will very soon gather that when the page is denoted by an even number there is an exact number of leaves, and no odd page remaining; hence the teacher will point out to them, that all even numbers are divisible by two without a remainder, and that an odd number, when divided by two, always leaves a remainder of one. Occasionally making them reckon the leaves, in order to show that it agrees with their arithmetic, is good; in fact, there are innumerable ways in which the common sense of a teacher ought to be called forth.

It will also be useful to give them correct ideas of the kind suggested by the following questions. Where does the sun rise? point in the direction. Where is he at noon? Where does he set? When is he highest in the heavens? In what direction is your shadow cast in the morning: in what direction at noon?-in the evening? In what direction do you come to school?-go home? and as they come, of course, from very different directions, this becomes more instructive. Point to your home-towards sunset. Are the days lengthening or shortening? Will to-morrow be longer or shorter than to-day? In what direction is such and such a parish or striking object? How the parish in which they live is bounded on the different sides, &c. In this way children may be made to get correct ideas as to east, west, north, and south, and the intermediate points.

The teacher should also occasionally call one of them forward, and, putting a piece of chalk into his hand, tell him to draw a line on the floor running north and south. What is the first letter of north, and what of south? put N and S then at the proper ends; how does he know the south from the north? draw a line through the middle running east and west-another half way between the east and the north-the east and the south, &c. This they are all pleased in being able to do themselves, and there is scarcely a boy in the smaller classes that would not do it with great accuracy; of course the teacher might vary it, by telling a boy to begin and make a ring (circle) on the floor as if he were going to play marbles, then to draw a line through the centre due east and westanother north and south, and this way has an advantage; as they improve in doing it, they will get to something like the figure of the compass.

I have observed also, that they take great interest in having their attention drawn to the particular points in which the sun rises and sets; for instance, that on a certain day in March he rises due east and sets due west; that every succeeding day up to the 21st of June he rises farther and farther to the north of east, and sets a little farther to the north of west, on each succeeding day, and up to this point the days go on increasing he then returns in the same way, rising nearer to the east and setting nearer to the west on each succeeding day until the 21st of September, when he again rises due east and sets due west then up to the 21st of December rises farther to the south of east and sets farther to the south of west, and on each succeeding day describing a smaller and smaller arch in the heavens and the days shortening.

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This becomes a matter of daily observation, as a thing which they can see with their own eyes, and interests them accordingly. Again, the teacher should point out how their shadow is longest when the sun is in the horizon-diminishes up to noon, when the sun is highest, and then increases again until sunset-what it would be if the sun were over their heads, &c. The following verse, from one of the Lessons, affords considerable instruction:

"Trudging as the ploughmen go

(To the smoking hamlet bound); Giant-like their shadows grow, Lengthen'd o'er the level ground."

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Questions like the following are also instructive.

If the sun rise at five o'clock, half-past four, three, &c., in the morning, at what time will he set? getting them to understand what mid-day means, and that there are as many hours from sunrise to noon, as from noon to sunset-that the difference between the hour of rising and twelve o'clock will give the hour at which he sets.

As soon as children are able, the teacher should endeavour to give them correct ideas of the measures of time, of space, and of volume: ask them, for instance, What is a year? they will answer, twelve months. What is a month? four weeks. What is a week? seven days. What is a day? twenty-four hours. What is an hour? sixty minutes: and thus driving them into a corner, they find out the answer was not the one expected, and begin to think on the subject: the teacher should then point out to them, that a year is a measure of time, as a yard is a measure of length; that a month, a week, a day, &c., are also measures of time, but of less duration than the year; of course they will afterwards be made to understand what duration of time the year does measure: he should then point out the great conveniences of the subdivisions of time for the purposes of civil life.

I was pleased some time ago in going into the school, to see the contrivances of some of them in making a clock-face on paper, which had been the evening task for one of the lower classes; what struck me was, the great regularity of an inner and outer circle for the face, in many instances as if made with compasses; they had had recourse to cups or saucers, or any other circular things of unequal dimensions in their cottages, but of a size which came within the compass of their paper on which they placed them, and then run the pen round the edges; this shows that man is a contriving animal, and I have no doubt the task afforded amusement and instruction both to parent and child.

The teacher should exercise the children on the clock-face pointing out that the minute-hand goes round twelve times for the hour-hand once; that the circle on the face is divided into twelve equal parts; that while the minute-hand goes once round the whole circle, the hour-hand would only move from twelve to one, orth of the whole; that when it had gone twice round, the hour-hand had arrived at two o'clock, or

on;

ths; when three times, at three o'clock, or ths, and so and when the minute-hand had gone twelve times round, the hour-hand would have moved over twelve of these divisions, or 12ths in this way they by degrees get some idea of fractions.

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In the same way as to measures of length, giving them a correct idea as to the length of a yard, a foot, an inch, &c., and how many times the smaller measure is contained in the greater; and here the teacher would do well to have a two-foot rule, and make first one and then another of the children measure the dimensions of the room-the length and breadth of the doorway, or any distance between one fixed point and another-to show them to what particular purposes in civil life these measures are used-measuring the distance between one place and another; that the yard is the measure by which they buy calico, flannel, fustian, cloth, cordage, &c., all things for the purposes of clothing: the length only being measured, the breadth being of a standard kind.

That in speaking of the size of a room, of a garden, of a field, both length and breadth must be taken into account—of a peck, a bushel, a quart, &c., length, breadth, and depth-and the particular things measured by these should be pointed out.

Again, as to weight, the name of all the weights used, from a ton downwards, or from an ounce upwards, speaking to them of the particular things bought at the shop by weight-of those bought by volume-that fluid substances easily taking the shape of the vessel into which they are poured make the usual modes of measuring them the most convenient ;—that solids, instead of putting them into any particular measure, might be more easily measured by putting them into the form of some regular solid, and then taking its dimensions, * &c.

When a class is able to read without spelling, the teacher should endeavour to interest them in what they are reading,

* A friend of the author's, speaking with a large farmer in his neighbourhood on the importance of giving the agricultural labourer a better education, observed that he thought it very probable there was not one of his labourers, and he employed a great many, who knew the number of ounces in a pound, although they were in the daily habit of buying things by these weights. The farmer could not see much good in education, and thought none of his labourers so ignorant as this; but agreed to ask them the question on the Saturday night, when he paid their wages, and, to his own great astonishment, there was not one who could answer it.

by showing them specimens of anything which may be mentioned; pointing out whether it is of an animal, a vegetable or a mineral kind—if a manufactured product, how made, and the nature of the raw material—if it form any part of what they eat, or drink, or wear ;-how it is called into use in any of their domestic concerns ;-in the every-day occupations of themselves, or of their parents;-connected with the mechanic trades, or with farming occupations; in short, calling their minds into exercise in every way he may have it in his power.

For instance, the pen and ink with which they write? the one animal, the other vegetable matter dissolved in water ;how the water dries away and leaves the vegetable matter behind?-paper made from what, and how?-when first made? difficulty of getting books before that, and on what written? printing, when invented?-wooden types, afterwards metal types, &c., down to printing by steam: the slate they use ;the string which fastens it round their necks;-the binding of their books, pointing out the variety of materials used, and the trades called into operation in preparing them;-the little woodcuts which illustrate their lessons, how made, &c.

Also in the same way the manufactured articles of ordinary clothing-how made, and whether the raw material is animal or vegetable-leather, how prepared, &c. : their stockings, knit or woven; carding-spinning, knitting.

GRAMMAR.

Grammar is taught here almost entirely through their reading lessons, and in this way, far from being the dry subject many have supposed it to be, it becomes one in which they take great interest. Any attempt by giving them dry definitions of parts of speech and rules of grammar is almost sure to fail: for one which it interests, it will disgust ten, and therefore the thing ought not to be attempted in this way. The most natural and easy manner seems to be, first,

Pointing out the distinction between vowels, consonants, and diphthongs, from words in their lessons: when a or an is used before a noun: the difference between a table, and the table; between a book, and the book; a sheep, and the sheep;