against any risk he may run of having his attention diverted, or his interest made to flag, through the frequent repetition of the same lesson. The best system of teaching is plainly that which is most calculated to keep alive the interest of both Preceptor and Pupil :—and it does not admit of a question, that the System here recommended tends more than any other to sustain the interest of the Teacher, by compelling him to originate questions,—and at the same time to sustain the attention of the Scholar, by forcing him to trust to his own resources for his an swers. ARBROATH, 1st June, 1831. DIRECTIONS. THE following simple and obvious hints, in regard to the Mode of Teaching the present Series of Lessons, are respectfully submitted to the consideration of the enlightened Teacher : 1. Endeavour to get the Pupil to understand the meaning of every lesson he reads, as well as to read it with facility; and, in doing this, aim at getting him to understand the scope of the lesson and the amount of the information contained in it, rather than the mere meaning of the leading words that occur. However important it be that he should accurately apprehend the meaning of particular words, it is far more important that he should apprehend the meaning of sentences. With mere memory he may be equal to the former; the latter is an exercise for the judgment. 2. Never permit him to leave a lesson till it is fully mastered, and never let him pass from one section to another until he has previously revised the former. Without attention to this rule, the advantages resulting from the progressive arrangement of the lessons will be in a great measure lost. 3. The Introductory Exercises are considerably more difficult than any other part of the book. But by persevering repetition the Pupil will be able to master them; and it is absolutely necessary to his subsequent progress, that he should be thoroughly acquainted with them before he proceed to the lessons which follow. It is rather a disadvantage that they consist, in so great a degree, of detached and unconnected sentences: but this was inevitable; and it will be in some measure remedied, if each separate sentence or paragraph is considered and prepared as a distinct lesson. 4. The Prefixes, Affixes, and Latin and Greek Primitives, should all be accurately committed to memory, and the Pupil should be required to find out and furnish other instances, in addition to those given in the Appendix, of English words involving them or derived from them. The object, in requiring the Pupil to commit these Roots to memory, is not merely to furnish him with a key to the correct understanding of his own language, but also to train him to a salutary mental exercise,—the habit of thinking of the meaning and history of the words with which he meets in his reading; and this object is quite defeated, when, instead of being presented with only one or two English derivatives, as in the present little volume, he is furnished, as in some late compilations and vocabularies, with a list of almost all the derivatives that exist. It ought ever to be remembered, that the success of the Teacher is to be measured, not by the number of the words with which he succeeds in loading the memory of his Pupil, but by the power and strength of the habits of application and reflection which he succeeds in forming. 5. The lists of words of more than three, four, and five syllables, which are given in the Introductory Exercises, are not intended either as exercises for the memory, or as exercises in spelling. They are only to be read and accurately pronounced. Being the longest words that occur in the respective sections to which they are prefixed, it is hoped that a previous familiarity with them will facilitate the Pupil's progress through these sections. No exercises in spelling are given, because it is believed that the best mode of teaching spelling is to cause the Pupil to spell all the words of the lesson he reads. 6. It will be seen, from an inspection of the Elliptical Lessons, that they are intended to serve as a severe exercise to the judgment and sagacity of the Pupil. It is his duty to suggest the words that ought to fill up the blank spaces :-And the Teacher can never be at a loss to ascertain whether the word suggested by the Pupil be the right one, as these lessons have been so printed, that the size of the blank necessarily determines the size of the omitted word. The following is an instance of a sentence both in the elliptical and complete form :— inside of St life, and The figures the Evangelists which decorate at Rome, do not appear to be larger is ten feet long, from which one Peter's yet the pen in St Mark's may calculate their real The figures (of) the Evangelists which decorate (the) inside of St Peter's (Church) at Rome, do not appear to be larger (than) life, and yet the pen in St Mark's (hand) is ten feet long, from which one may calculate their real (stature). INTRODUCTORY EXERCISES. EXERCISES on Words occurring in Section I....................... Page Supplyand Distribution of Water in Cities, Dr Arnott,. The Human Frame,........ Marks of Design in the Animal Economy, Sturm, -the Eye, the Bones of the Neck,... Paley, Muscular Power,...................... ........Lib. of Ent. Knowledge, 178 The Advantages and Power of Steam,... Various,............................ The Christian Salvation,......... ...Id.......... ..... Citizen of the World,... 11 |