BY
AUTHOR OF LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES,
AND THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT, &c. &c.
AND, BY
F.R.S. AND M.R.I.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES ... VOL. I.
SECOND AMERICAN EDITION.
PUBLISHED
BY J. FRANCIS LIPPITT, PROVIDENCE, (R. I.) AND T. B. WAIT & SONS,BOSTON.
T. B. Wait and Sons, Printers.
1815.
We shall not imitate the invidious example of some authors, who thinkit necessary to destroy the edifices of others, in order to clear theway for their own. We have no peculiar system to support, and,consequently, we have no temptation to attack the theories of others;and we have chosen the title of Practical Education, to point out thatwe rely entirely upon practice and experience.
To make any progress in the art of education, it must be patientlyreduced to an experimental science: we are fully sensible of theextent and difficulty of this undertaking, and we have not thearrogance to imagine, that we have made any considerable progress in awork, which the labours of many generations may, perhaps, beinsufficient to complete; but we lay before the publick the result ofour experiments, and in many instances the experiments themselves. Inpursuing this part of our plan, we have sometimes descended from thatelevation of style, which the reader might expect in a quarto volume;we have frequently been obliged to record facts concerning childrenwhich may seem trifling, and to enter into a minuteness of detailwhich may appear unnecessary. No anecdotes, however, have beenadmitted without due deliberation; nothing has been introduced togratify the idle curiosity of others, or to indulge our own feelingsof domestic partiality.
In what we have written upon the rudiments of science, we have pursuedan opposite plan; so far from attempting to teach them in detail, werefer our readers to the excellent treatises on the different branchesof science, and on the various faculties of the human mind, which areto be found in every language. The[Pg iv] chapters that we have introducedupon these subjects, are intended merely as specimens of the manner inwhich we think young children should be taught. We have found fromexperience, that an early knowledge of the first principles of sciencemay be given in conversation, and may be insensibly acquired from theusual incidents of life: if this knowledge be carefully associatedwith the technical terms which common use may preserve in the memory,much of the difficulty of subsequent instruction may be avoided.
The sketches we have hazarded upon these subjects, may to some appeartoo slight, and to others too abstruse and tedious. To those who haveexplored the vast mines of human knowledge, small specimens appeartrifling and contemptible, whilst the less accustomed eye is somewhatdazzled and confused by the appearance even of a small collection: butto the most enlightened minds, new combinations may be suggested by anew arrangement of materials, and the curiosity and enthusiasm of theinexperienced may be awakened, and excited to accurate and laboriousresearches.
With respect to what is commonly called the education of the heart, wehave endeavoured to suggest the easiest means of inducing useful andagreeable habits, well regulated sympathy and benevolent affections. Awitty writer says, "Il est permis d'ennuyer en moralites d'ici jusqu'a Constantinople