will occupy as much time as the teacher can spend in one reading lesson during the limited period of school hoursleaving him little or no time for explanation, and none for training. On the contrary, under our system, although one here and there in each line of the gallery, or in any of the divisions, is required to read individually, yet, on the simultaneous gallery method, whatever one reads, all read; and each and all may in less time read audibly, four times at least as much as is the ordinary practice in schools. If, therefore, less time be occupied in reading under the training system, the remainder of the time, or at all events, part of it, is spent in analysing and picturing out the lesson to be deduced;thus carrying the memory of the understanding, as well as the memory of sounds, and giving a taste for reading at home, during school attendance as well as in after life. The training system, therefore, whilst it saves time, secures at the least an equal amount of reading; and, in addition, when faithfully practised, distinct articulation-a thorough understanding-a taste for private reading, and, we trust, under a judicious master, a discrimination of what books ought to be read.

KEY TO THE FIRST SPELLING-BOOK.

We now give a few notices of the earliest mode of procedure in conducting the lessons of THE FIRST SPELLINGBook, which we drew up as being more in accordance with the training system than spelling-books generally are, and which has been used by the masters of the model schools of the Seminary during the last ten or twelve years.

Although, under the training system, books are not placed in the hands of the children under six years of age, yet the lessons of the first elementary book are used in the classes of the initiatory department, being printed in large characters in sheets, and pasted on boards, as an introduction to the art of reading; thus preserving a uniformity in the mode of communicating knowledge in that department. The first spelling lessons, therefore, are used at the close of the infant department, and the commencement of the

juvenile. In the former case, in sheets on boards; and in the latter, as a book, placed in the hands of every child.

Those children, of six to eight years of age, who enter the Junior School, and who have not undergone the training of the Initiatory School, in addition to the lessons from Spelling-Book, No. I., etc., must be daily exercised in the same simple and natural mode of picturing out in words, as is pursued with infants of two to five or six years of age; in other words, the child of six to eight years of age must be commenced with precisely in the same mode as the child of two to four. No Juvenile School, however, can succeed so well with children who have not been previously trained in infancy, and whose physical, intellectual, and moral powers have lain waste till that period.

It is desirable, even in a First Book, composed as it ought to be of monosyllables, that every sentence should convey a distinct meaning, which may be easily pictured out and illustrated; a little sacrifice is made, however, for the sake of sound. This book is constructed upon the principle, that the children should not be puzzled with new sounds in which they have not been previously exercised; therefore, as the acquisition of the sounds of figures is a primary object, we would not stop to analyse every word or sentiment in a First Book; at the same time, we would employ none, which, when analysed, would leave any improper impression on the young mind.

In describing the form of the letters, as well as in analysing words and sentences, take to your assistance objects and pictures; avail yourselves of these in every stage of the child's progress, and when these fail, as fail they must, seeing that pictures can only present one state or condition, then picture out in words the idea which you wish to convey.

Whilst you do not forget to articulate and enunciate every syllable slowly, clearly, and fully, at the same time suit your action and modulation of voice to the words, while drawing out and training the minds of the children. Never forget that physical exercises must be given at short intervals, during the progress of the shortest lesson, more particularly with the younger children; if not, the steam will accumulate and break out into mischief. The natural buoyancy of youthful health and energy ought to be directed, not merely restrained.

We proceed to give the mode of teaching First SpellingBook:

LESSON I.-The first lesson shows the elements or component parts of which each letter of the alphabet is composed. If it be asked, why not adopt the usual mode of teaching the letters as a first lesson? Our answer is, The letters being composed of variously-formed lines, it appears as unnatural to teach the alphabet

first, as it would be to give a word of three or four letters to a child before we give the individual letters of which that word is composed. The natural mode of acquiring a language is, first, the simple lines of which each letter is composed; next, the letters themselves; then, the letters formed into words; and lastly, the words into sentences. The natural way is the most interesting and impressive; and the child seeing that there is a reason for every sign and term he uses, that which is proverbially dry and uninteresting as the A, B, C, becomes a positive pleasure.

Lesson I., therefore, shows the figures, or simple lines, of which each letter is composed-the names and formation of which ought to be rendered familiar by illustrations, referring to objects easily seen or understood; for example, a boy's hoop (a circle); a girl's skipping rope (a semicircle); the school pillars (perpendicular or straight lines), etc. Recurrence cannot be too frequently made to these forms, and shapes, and terms, during the first few months. The first lesson assists the pupil in knowing the letters from their form, the second enables him to give their powers. Although in Lesson I. the twenty-six letters of the alphabet appear under the heads obtuse angle,' acute angle,' 'circular letters,' etc., this arrangement is only intended to show under which geometrical figure or figures each letter may be placed, and not the names or powers of the letters. This is reserved to the next lesson; when you proceed to give them the various powers of the letters, as they are generally pronounced in reading, reserving the names of the letters, Bee, Dee, etc., and their regular order, A, B, C, to Lesson XXXII.; at which stage they may spell, giving the names of the letters with much less confusion to their minds than were the and names of the letters given together at the commencement.

6

powers

LESSON II.-The same, or similar observations, may be made regarding Lesson II. Nothing is more interesting to the children than this lesson, and the understanding and feeling that the lips, teeth, palate, gums, and nose, are all brought into requisition in repeating the alphabet, and indeed every word they can express or articulate. The trainer will show that b, p, exhibit a different pressure of the lips; s clearly shows the teeth-and this letter is called a dental. The man who pulls teeth, and sets teeth, is called ... a dentist; dental, then, is something belonging to teeth. In commencing Lesson II. the trainer may proceed in this way: Children, look at me; sit upright, straight up; draw in your feet; heels close; toes... out; hands on

...

...

...

lap.

...

Observe what I print on the board (making the letter b). Then putting his mouth into the form for pronouncing it, he gives the power of the letter. The children must imitate the sound twice or thrice, and then print it on their slates; or, if infants, place the letter, pasted on wood, in a frame opposite the class. The trainer will then print the vowels successively, and give their most common power. He may then require the child to imitate him in placing

each vowel alternately before and after b. In this way he will treat in succession each letter in Lesson II.

The same plan is pursued with the others, the process becoming always more easy and more rapid.

Each letter that occurs for the first time must be printed on the black board, and pronounced first by the master or trainer, and then by the children simultaneously, and occasionally individually, as well as printed on their slates.

The trainer calls upon the children to observe the form of his mouth, while he sounds s o slowly and separately, which they repeat twice or thrice; then s-o a little more rapidly, and then so. This last being a word having a meaning, and which may be pictured out by one or more familiar illustrations.

The most simple and ordinary sound of the vowels alone is given at first, and firmly rooted in their memory, as illustrated in the succeeding lessons.

LESSON III. on to XXX. inclusive, are simple words, conveying, no doubt, some meaning, but intended chiefly as exercises on the powers of the letters.

The sounds of the vowels are introduced into the reading lessons in order; and as exercises are given under each sound, the child has one rivetted before he proceeds to another.

During the Seventh and subsequent lessons, fix upon some one or two words and illustrate them, and also draw a lesson from them-moral when you can, but at all times intellectual: such words as fan, tan, sad, mad, cat, rat, bag. Such exercises occasionally introduced during a dry reading lesson, enliven and invigorate the mental and even bodily energies of the child, and stamp the word or sign more firmly on the memory, and greatly facilitate the acquisition of the letters.

LESSON XXXII. gives the 26 letters, or alphabet, in their regular order, which is important, for the purpose of turning up a dictionary, etc. The child may now be told the names of the letters, and trained to understand and express both the names and the powers. This is also a suitable stage to acquire the forms of the numerical figures and numerals.

It materially assists the pupil that he is required to picture out, by description and visible action, some of the expressions that occur in the ordinary reading lessons, such as, we go. What is meant by,

...

we go? What motion do you make? You do not sit or ... stand when you go. The child shows how he goes, by walking, probably; but the trainer may ask, Do you always walk when you go? The answer will most likely be, Yes. The trainer, however, will not tell the child his error, but bring it out that he is wrong; and for this purpose may put one or two questions. Were I to say, I go to Paris immediately, would I walk the whole way? Could I say, I go, when, perhaps, I might ride in a coach, or on horseback, part of the way, and sail the rest in a ship? You thus train them to understand, that to go is not simply to walk. The child sits too passively when he does not fill up an occasional ellipsis, and his mind is too much on the defensive by the mere question and answer system. The whole process is better conducted on the gallery principle-with a dozen or twenty or fifty children than with one or two.

This simple and progressive mode may be adopted with beginners, whether of three, five, or seven years of age; the great principle being ever kept in view, that the understanding of the meaning should precede the committal of words to the verbal memory. Unless this be done, the child has the feeling of one walking in the dark, and the labour of committing to memory is rendered extremely irksome. Sense as well as sound.-We were lately informed by a learned gentleman, that after having left the parochial school in which he was taught his letters three or four years, he was astonished when he discovered that the name of the spelling-book from which he had learned to read, and which he had been accustomed to call Readie-me-deezy, was actually 'Reading made easy.'

In the initiatory department we do not proceed much farther than the First Spelling-Book, or stories composed of monosyllables, printed in large characters on boards. Books are reserved for the juvenile department.

SPELLING.

In order to give the children some interest in such a dry, unintellectual exercise as mere spelling, you may fix upon every eighth, tenth, or twelfth word that the children are asked to spell, and very shortly analyse it by familiar illustrations as outlines of a training lesson. Were you to attempt picturing out every word on the list of a daily spelling lesson, you would never get through the list. The few words so pictured out, however, not merely interest the children at the time, but give their mind a habit of analysing all they read. We copy one of the first spelling lessons; those marked. may be