ON THE
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS
OF
~lmnti^r~ lufimrurtimo.








SOME SUGGESTIONS
ON THE
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS
OF
ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.
BY H. B. WILBUR, M. D.,
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS,
ALBANY:
J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET.
1862.








:E1R RI AT A.
On page 8th, insert that after the word peculiarities in the 14th line.
On page 10th, 27th line, insert the words bothphysician after the word
position.
On page 12th, 23d line, the word sidelong should read sideling.
On page 14th, 5th line, erase "of view"
On 16th page, 31st line, for exercise read exercises.
On 22d page, 12th line, for tone read tones,
On 24th page, 39th line, for one read our.
On 26th page, 41st line, for perception read perfection.
On 27th page. 1st line, for education read educationist; 25th line, for
lesson read lessons.








ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.
That branch of Natural History, known as zoology, furnishes us
with the following concise description of the race to which we belong.
Division Vertebrata; Class Malnmalia; Order Bimana: Genus Homo.
The English of this briefly stated is, that man is distinguished from
all other animals by the fact that he is provided with two hands.
The additional generic description is unhappily chosen, for homo
means etymologically only formed from the dust. This description
has sufficed thus far the purposes of zoological classification; but if
the distinction between man and the other orders of animals were
only what this definition implies, the race would have been a shortlived one. The two handed would have been, in a physical sense,
no match for his companions on the globe. A few fossil bones of an
extinct race, brought to light from some recesses in the rocks or
exhumed from  some diluvial formation would alone have told  the
brief story of its existence to the later and more intelligent occupants
of the earth.
Comparative physiology, however, kindly comes to the relief of
humanity at this supposed critical period in its early history.  This
science reveals certain other points of difference between man and
all other animals; partly organic and partly functional; which modify
his relations to the world, to all the varieties of animals with which
it teems, and especially to his own species. Let us notice the fundamental distinction.
Comparative physiology teaches us the existence of marked differences in the structure of the nervous system in different animals.  In
the lower orders of animals it is comparatively a very simple apparatus.  In some cases it even eludes the present attained powers of
the microscope. But as we ascend the scale, it grows more and more
complex, till it culminates in that complicated and wonderful system
exhibited in the human subject. I have spoken of its structural simplicity in the lower orders of animals; yet even there, when we consider its function, the mode of operation is entirely beyond our comprehension. Its office there is to supply the forces, active and counteractive, that regulate and control the nourishment, growth and
reparation of the individual, and secure the reproduction of the
species. Besides, there is another function inhering in the nervous
tissue; and that is, to act as the means of communication in the or



4                     DEVELOPMENT OF THE
dained relation that exists between the animal itself (however feeble
and limited its wants and requirements, or however strong and far.
reaching its demands and aspirations) and the objects and companions of its own world around it, whatever that world may be.
Science also teaches the existence of differences of function and
spiritual endowment dependent upon or quite uniformly co-existing
with these varieties of nervous structure. Thus as the nervous apparatus becomes more complicated in the ascending scale of animal life,
by the addition of new nervous centres; by increase in the number of
parts; by new distinctions in its ultimate structure and organization;
or by addition to the volume of the principal nervous masses, new
functions are added. The principle is, that a difference in the organ
or apparatus implies a corresponding difference of function.
We may notice further, that man's distinguishing physiological
characteristic is in the perfection of his nervous system, viewed as a
whole and compared with all other animals.  He has in common
with them a nervous tissue, that is distributed through all his parts
and organs and which presides over and regulates their growth and
functions. Besides, in the superior development of the brain and spinal
cord and its prolongations; in" the nerves of special sensation and
voluntary motion, and in those mysterious interlacings of nerve filaments of nerves of differing origin, he has the organs and instruments
of the higher functions-sensation, thought and will. This organic
superiority adds not only power to the endowments, he possesses in
common with other animals, but adds capacities which distinguish
him from all others.
The development of the human brain in the embryo furnishes the
best illustration of this organic superiority, and I therefore quote a
summary description of the process by Hugh Miller: " Nature in
constructing this curious organ first lays down a grooved cord, as the
carpenter lays down the keel of his vessel; and on this narrow base,
the perfect brain, as month after month passes by, is gradually built
up like the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a brain closely
resembling that of a fish; a few additions more convert it into a brain
indistinguishable from that of a reptile; a few additions more impart
to it the perfect appearance of the brain of a bird; it then developes
into a brain exceedingly like that of a mammiferous quadruped; and
finally expanding atop and spreading out its deeply corrugated lobes
till they project widely over the base, it assumes its unique character
as a human brain."
To these changes, thus graphically described, are to be added
certain others which take place during the progress of a human being
from birth to maturity.  These may be summarily stated: There
is a relative expansion of the cerebrum. There is a consolidation in
the substance of the brain; and though the specific gravity may not
be materially increased, there is a change of structure as marked as
in the case of the other tissues of the animal economy. It becomes
firmer, more fibrous and in all respects in a better condition to sustain
the wear and pressure of its increasing functional exercise.
Let me observe, that so far as the study of the relations between




HUMAN FACULTIES.                          5
the material and spiritual parts of human nature are concerned, the
mature physical man may be conceived of only as a complete nervous
system.  The purpose of all the other organs is only to repair the
waste inseparably connected with the exercise of the various functions
of the nervous system, and to act as the instruments in fulfilling its
requirements.  I refer now to the cerebro-spinal system or voluntary
system, and it is to the functions of this. that we may now briefly
turn our attention.
The moment we observe animal life carefully, we see certain manifestations peculiar to it. We see certain motions indicating life.
The motions at first manifest are mechanical and purposeless and
evidently originate in the nervous centres. Then we notice others
that come in response to certain impressions from without. We can
trace with certainty the steps of this process. Thus an impression
made upon the surface of the body is conducted by one set of nervous
fibres to a nervous centre, and then follows a return influence through
another set of nerves stimulating certain muscles to contract, thus
producing motion, and to some end.  We can interrupt these sequences at three points in the chain, viz: by severing the nerves bearing the impression, by rendering the nervous centre inoperative, and
by preventing the returning influence or volition.  Sensation does not
necessarily accompany this reflex action.
Again we see that certain organic feelings give rise to muscular
movements; that impressions made upon the organs of special sensation,
as through touch or sight or hearing are followed by certain resulting
motions of the animal. In these cases, likewise, the impression is
transmitted to a nervous centre and an influence thence emanates
that reaches certain muscles or organs stimulating them to action.
This resulting action from sensation may be directly reflex and immediate, or, it may be modified and indirect or even suspended tbr a
time.
When these resulting motions are invariably consequent upon any
form of sensation or feeling, we call them instinctive. When these
succeeding actions are contingent upon a self-determining power
resident, we know not how, but still manifestly resident in the central
nervous organism, we call them voluntary. When these same motions
or actions take on a quasi invariability, from the effect of repetition,
the force of habit, we may call them automatic. If we study carefully the whole class of what are commonly supposed to be instinctive
acts, in the human being. we shall find that the most of them are
automatic rather than instinctive; or the result of habit based upon
experience.
Let us now notice from another point of view, what with some limitations, may be regarded as the higher functions of the nervous system, still availing ourselves of physiological analogies. In man, as
I have before remarked, there is with the additions to and modifications of the nervous apparatus a variation in the exercise of the
common animal functions and an endowment, in the way of still higher
functions. An intrinsically new nature is added in connection with
this superior physical development; a nature which springs from this




6                      DEVELOPMENT OF THE
added organism as a base of support, but yet, like the parasitic orch;d,
draws the life, sustenance and growth for its own more etherial nature, from a higher and purer element. Nor is this strange or singular viewed analogically.  There is a point in the series of animal
life where to the function of nervous tissue, which has hitherto been
concerned only in conveying an impression from without to an unconscious nervous centre and then returning a reflex impulse resulting in muscular contractions (a nervous centre which may be as
unconscious as the magnet, which first attracts and then repels).
There is a point, I say, where this unconsciousness gives place or is
superseded by an intelligent apprehension of the impression made
upon the peripheral nerve, which modifies the returning and voluntary
motion.  So when man was created, there was added to the endowments possessed by other animals, the power of connected and con.
tinuous thought, the gift of language, the moral sense and the will.
I mean a free-will. And to avoid discussion, I fortify myself with
an extract from Bishop Berkeley.  I have seen him quoted (I now
forget where or by whom) substantially as follows: "No matter
what theories may have prevailed upon the subject, the great mass of
mankind, in all ages of the world, have practically believed in the
doctrine of free-will." In other words, that it is supreme over all
the other faculties and powers. The possession of will, in this sense,
cannot certainly be claimed for any other of the animal kingdom.
Nor is the fact that this free agency is developed, step by step, from
faint volitions, incited by animal wants, a valid objection to its claim
as a strictly human prerogative; for from analogous beginnings and
by similar processes of evolution come various other human endowments, not shared by animals generally. And as with the incoming of
the higher powers and faculties there ceased the necessity for the exercise of some of the lower, these last were dispensed with in the
new creation. Accordingly, we find that instinct exists in a very
limited degree in man. The new nature had its own vital force,
its own element, its own principlo of growth, its own proper aliment, its own relations, its own peculiar responsibilities; but not subject to that inexorable law of the animal world, death.
The new being was to be a social being.  To this end, it was ordained, that there should be for him a protracted period of dependence upon others for care and sustenance, physically; and that
relatively to his higher nature, his development should depend less
upon the intuitive application of his faculties to their related objects,
and more upon guidance and education. That obedience, humility
and intellectual faith should be the conditions precedent of comnaand,
self-reliance and mental vigor.  Humanly speaking, all the higher
endowments of our nature could alone be disciplined and perfected by
just such a dependence and subordination.
Let us consider these powers and faculties in the process of development. Here is a new born infant; the young creature is perfect, in
that the chain of physiological functions is complete. Its life hitherto dependent upon another life for all its functions and manifestations, has now become an independent existence.  But the self-con



HUMAN FACULTIES.                         7
scious spirit, to Whom the reins of its new being are to be committed,
apparently needs a brief term of occupancy before asserting any control over the newly-constructed physical organization, and the new
creature lies the passive centre of a variety of influences, now silent,
but designed and destined to call out all its faculties and powers. To
it, light is glare and sound a confused noise, and touch a dull feeling,
and taste and smell undefined sensations, and the aggregate of these,
if anything, a source of pain and not of pleasure. The motions are
involuntary and purposeless, and are dependent solely upon the ebb and
flow of a spontaneous nervous or muscular energy.  The cries are
inarticulate, and expressive only of unsatisfied organic wants. Hunger
and repletion, alternate motion, and rest, and sleep, constitute its
whole daily life.
We are to suppose then, first, the dawning of self-consciousness
upon the new-born spirit, an intuitive recognition of self (however
faint), in distinction from what is external, from whatever may or is
to be revealed by sensation or thought. This idea, about which
metaphysicians have so long disputed, must necessarily be a matter of
practical knowledge to the child at the very outset; must be intuitive.
We are to pre-suppose, I say, self-consciousness, and then from the
chaotic state of early infancy, that wilderness of sensation, will come
distinct sensation, developed by degrees through an individualizing
power that is spontaneous.  And then also will come, based upon
this definite sensation, determinate and voluntary movements.
The being I have attempted to describe is ushered into a world of
influences, between which and himself, certain relations have been
ordained that were designed to develop him to the limit of his capacities; nature, the family, society and divine revelation.
From this condition, helpless, dependent, ignorant and immature,
is to emerge and ripen the mature man, conscious, capable of feeling,
thought and action, endowed with the moral sense and the power of
self-determination. From this vegetative existence (if I may so express myself), is to come a life, that when developed up to its full
measure and type, is but a " little lower than the angels."  A being
who has been thus described,' One whose senses bear truthful evidence of everything within their range; whose understanding is
capable of receiving that evidence;  whose aesthetic nature can
respond with appropriate emotions to the feelings thus awakened;
whose reason can draw proper conclusions from the truthful evidence
thus received; whose imagination can combine from simple conceptions, new forms of beauty and the like; whose will can continuously
guide the thought and control the imagination; whose moral sense
can tell the right and wrong of any act growing out of the thoughts;
and whose act can at his own pleasure, be in conformity with the
action of all these qualities."
Now to assist this feeble, timid but craving spirit within, as it
reaches outward in attempts to follow sensations to their sources or
producing agencies; to shift before these opened windows of the soul,
the endless panorama of things animate and inanimate, aiding it to
note, as it unrolls, distinctions of identity, of parts and whole, of




8                    DEVELOPMENT OF THE
properties and qualities, of time and number; to assist it in the
acquisition of ideas of mode, of essence and of accident; and finally,
to help it in determining the relative weight and sphere of the various motives that act simultaneously or successively in influencing the
conduct and life; —in snort, to bring out of the first estate I have described, the ripeness and vigor of the second; that is your province,
laborers in the general field of education.
Mine has been a more humble task. My labors as a teacher have
been, in the main, devoted to a class known as idiots.
I ventured to introduce at the outset, some preliminary physiological considerations, for a two.fold purpose. The one was that my
audience might notice how idiocy originates in causes absolutely physiological, and incidentally perceive that not only idiocy, but likewise
many of the mental and moral peculiarities fall under the observation of' every teacher.   The other was, that the teachers who
listen to me might bear in mind during the whole of the discussion,
that even they, in their daily occupation, have to deal with innate
and inherent differences of capacity and character, less marked to be
sure, but still sufficient to influence their methods of education, and
that will also limit the results attained.
In the case of idiots, I remark then, that the process of development and growth of the nervous structure, already described, may
have been arrested at some point between its rudimental and highest
extremes; from its first appearance as a distinct structure and the
culminating point at maturity. At whatever stage of organic development this arrest takes place, we should naturally expect a corresponding default in the performance of functions connected with the
organ thus impaired.  Again, we may have pressure upon the nervous
masses by thickening of membranes, the effusion of fluids or adventitious growths, that likewise may impede not only the originating
function in the brain, but also the conducting power of the nervous
system, through which the impressions come that precede the manifestations of originating power. And thus we have disordered functions of animal life. We have imperfect reflex actions and discordant
movements.  We have a want of spontaneousness of perceptions, of
emotions, of thought, of action and of will. These deficiencies
exist to a greater or less extent according to the degree of idiocy, or
depending upon the point of arrest in the development of the nervous
system.
Viewed as subjects of education, we may speak of the class as
incapable of sustaining ordinary social relations, and as insusceptible
of development by the ordinary methods of instruction. In other
words, the problem of education in the case of idiots, is complicated
by the inertia or inactivity of the in-dwelling spirit; by the imperfect
means of communication with it from  without; by the weakness or
deficiency of the mental faculties; by the limited number and feebleness of the incentives and motives that can be brought to bear upon
it; by the absence or impotence of the moral sense, and finally, by the
physiological limitations to the development process in each individual
case.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                          9
This soul-sleep is to be awakened. The avenues through sensation are to be opened. The perceptive faculties are to be drawn or
forced into action. The emotional nature is to be warmed into life.
The intellectual powers are to be exercised and strengthened.  The
range of motives is to be enlarged. The moral sense is to be cultivated. And finally, during all these various processes, from the very
outset, the care and training necessary to remove or diminish the
underlying physical defect or infirmity is not to be neglected. All
this is to be accomplished in accordance with principles of education
that are well-nigh universal in their application.
The peculiar subjects, order and methods of our system of instruction, are as it were necessitated. That necessity is the result of a
natural order in the development of human faculties, which is to be
observed and followed, and a similar order of succession in the incentives and motives that are to be applied in accomplishing the ends
in view.  The steps in the intellectual way must be shortened to
conform to diminished powers. Each new step is related to the preceding; a dependence of power as well as of fact.
Fortunately the opportunities for discovering the proper order of
succession, both in development and in means, can be more readily
noted in the slower evolution which makes the knowledge indispensable.
With the limited degree of instinct possessed by the human race,
there results a dependence upon education from the earliest infancy.
This however is, in its earliest stages, to some extent, a self-education. That is, it is an intuitive application of the senses and
faculties to properly related objects without, and a spontaneous process of inference. We call it experience.
In the case of idiots, there is an absence of intuitive power, and
therefore, instruction from the earliest period, must be applied directly from without. And generally, it may be said that by just so
far as the spirit of the pupil (any pupil), fails in its out-reach for its
natural aliment, by just so much must the teacher increase his efforts
to furnish a supply.
While it can not properly be claimed that our subjects and our
methods of instruction are needed or suited for the primary schoolroom, or even for what Dr. Hill calls sub-primary education, nevertheless the order of development of the human faculties, and the
economy of incentives, and motives to human action, are by universal
admission, primary conditions to the highest success in every stage of
education; and so far forth, as these are revealed by our labors, some
account of our experience may be, at least, suggestively instructive
even to teachers, in general.
There was a period in the life of every one of us, and in the life
of every one of your pupils, when so far as any manifestation of
action, thought or will was concerned, we and they were as lowdown
in the scale of intelligent being, as any submitted to my care.
When it is my good fortune to have a visit at the institution with
which I am connected from any particularly interested in education,
I ordinarily take this course in exhibiting the working of our special




10                   DEVELOPMENT OF THE
system. I enter with them the room where are collected the pupils
of the lowest grade of intelligence, and where are employed the
most simple and rudimentary exercises used in our developing process.  I try to bring out in the cases before us. some of the more
marked phenomena of idiocy; those conditions and features which
constitute the obstacles to education. I seek to show, however extreme the mental deficiency, however great the want of spontaneousness on the part of the pupil, that there are even then methods and
appliances fitting and adequate, under which the dullest eye may kindle a little, and passive capacities may be warmed into some degree
of life and action.
From thence I lead my visitors through the several rooms, till we
reach the highest where may be witnessed exercises not unlike those
of a well ordered primaly school-room. And as we go from room to
room, I try to have it appear that the educational exercises from first
to last have an appointed place in a properly progressive series; the
higher methods in the one approximating the lower methods in
the next; each new need or want of the pupil met by a new ministering; a series faulty, in part, because of the short time that has elapsed
since a system has been devised for the instruction of idiots, and faulty
also through my own want of wisdom and ingenuity in applying that
system.
I can, however, ordinarily satisfy the visitor that it is not so imperfect but that a place may be found in it for pupils of every shade
of mental deficiency; and that a pupil may be led along in an intellectual way, without abruptness, through the whole series from highest to
lowest. As I can not do this with my audience and as I am in my
official position and teacher, I may fall back upon a custom of my
former profession and make this a clinical lecture. This leaves me
some freedom of discussion, for a clinical lecture not only includes an
examination of the disease of the patient, its course and progress, but
also the principles of cure, the applicability of various remedies and
the steps in the curative process. I wish that I could be orderly in
presenting my experience, but the various exercises to be described
are so commonly designed with several objects in view that it will be,
I confess, a difficult task.
They may be classed generally under the heads-Development of
the Will; Education of the Senses; Development of the faculty of
Language; and to these branches I shall confine myself, and so far as I
shall introduce illustrative cases, I shall be compelled to restrict my
description of them to just those features that are related to the point
under discussion.
I notice then first the deficiency of Will in Idocy. This implies a
weakness of the will itself and also its want of proper control over
the other faculties, by which alone its power is or can be manifested.
The will is to be strengthened. It is to be made to assume its prerogative as the governing faculty. The efforts to accomplish the second
named purpose secure at the same time, the first.  By the same exercises by which it acquires supremacy directly, it acquires power incidentally.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                        1
I take an extreme case. Here was a girl of eight years old; tall,
slender and with regular features; there were but very few external
impressions that would produce reflex motions in her. One could
prick her with a pin and there was no withdrawal of the suffering
part. She would simply scream and throw out her limbs in vague and
purposeless movements.  She would allow me to touch the ball of
her eye without winking or betraying any consciousness of the presence of my finger or any effort of the will to escape the infliction.
She did not stand or sit alone or even hold up her head: not from
a want of muscular power but from a want of will and of intelligence.
She had no fear of falling. When seated or put in an erect position
she fell a passive subject of the law of gravitation. I tested this
inertia in a harmless way. Placing her in a rocking chair, I stood
behind it, and let it fall backwards repeatedly only catching it as it
nearly reached the floor. Not a muscle moved! Not a sound escaped her.
She had no will to grasp or hold anything in her hand. The only
evidence of any control over the muscular system was given, when
angry, by throwing herself backward, with a sort of convulsive motion.  She did not use her eyes to see, though the organs were perfect.  She did not use her ears sufficiently to distinguish tones of
anger from tones of affection.  She did not notice the direction of
sounds.  There was, however, a slight appreciation of musical
sounds. She had been heard to hum something resembling a familiar
air, that her sisters played upon the piano. Of course she had no idea
of language, she had but little teeling and none of the active sense of
touch.
Her sense of taste had, however, been educated by years of indulgence. She ate only sponge cake and drank only weak tea. But sbe
craved these at certain periods of the day.  I said ate, but this needs
qualification. When I placed the accustomed food at her lips the
mouth opened but she made no effort to take the food. I placed it on
the tongue, still no effort at mastication. I put it to the back of the
mouth and then she sucked it down.  Her thirst was satisfied in the
same unnatural way.
Let me briefly describe the steps in the calling forth of voluntary
motion and sensation.  And here I must trespass upon the domain
of mental philosophy by premising that the human will is influenced,
is brought in exercise by the occurrence naturally or the presentation
of certain motives progressive in their character; commencing with
the appetites, at the lowest extreme, and ending with the moral sense
or conscience. I commenced them as every teacher should, from the
known.  In the case of my present pupil, the known was nearly confined to sensation in the back part of the mouth. With a piece of
sponge cake, on a fork, I drew gradually and in successive lessons the
sensation of taste forward on the tongue; then to the lips. Desire
prompted by appetite followed close at the heels of sensation.
Soon I was able by touching the lips, the mouth at its sides, and
above and below, to make her reach her head forward, to turn it a
little from side to side, and up and down in pursuit cf the desired
morsel (the sense of smell was somewhat educated meanwhile), and
she also raised her head for the same purpose. Occasionally, when




12                   DEVELOPMENT OF THE
through my impertinence in drawing it away, she failed to get it, she
drooped backward with a discouraged air. In exercises thus hastily
sketched I had accomplished this much.  Master and pupil were
brought into a conscious relation. Sensation was extended. Voluntary motion to gratify the appetite was induced.
I wished now to secure voluntary effort in the way of balancing
herself as a preliminary to standing alone. I put down on the floor
in one corner of the room a piece of smooth and varnished oil-cloth
carpeting. Placing her in an erect position with her back against the
wall and seating myself in a chair in front of her, I held her up
against it with one hand and with the other kept her knees from
bending. Her whole weight was thus thrown upon her unaccustomed
limbs. Then guiding her feet with my feet I allowed them to slip
forward till her position became quite uncomfortable.  After a few
moments, I restored her to a more comfortable position by pushing
back her feet. This was repeated for some time, till to my joy she
took the hint and to relieve herself slightly drew back one foot.' Now, Miss," I exclaimed, "your education in locomotion is begunrest for to-day!"
In another lesson or two she learned to step backwards continually
and regularly as I allowed her feet to slip forward.  I next moved
her body a little to one side, till prompted by the discomfort of the
sidelong attitude and acting upon the gentle hints furnished by my
suggesting foot, she recovered an erect position by a sideways movement of her own.  I need not follow these exercises farther, only to
say tlat she was promoted to a large sized baby jumper, where for
brief periods, she was left with the alternative of discomfort or some
voluntary effort to keep on her legs. With such and similar methods
she learned to walk; to stand up and sit down at my command, and
to follow the other pupils in their march to and from the dining-room.
This was not accomplished without some struggles and some screams,
The path of knowledge has its thorns as well as flowers, under the
most judicious guidance, despite the theories just now prevailing.
I now wished to bring her hand under the control of her will.
Holding her wrist, I placed in her soft palm (for she made no effort
to grasp anything,) various objects hot and cold, smooth and rough,
light and heavy. She at last knew she had a hand. After a while I
succeeded in inducing an effort (voluntary, remember) on her part not
to grasp the object but to drop it by a slight motion. This I encouraged till she positively dropped it. In time I thought that she perceived a connection between the dropping of the body and the noise
and jar as it fell at her feet, assisted perhaps by my simultaneous
exclamation. Acting upon this and with the impelling influence of
my stronger will, which she now began to appreciate, I at last secured
the end I had in view and she held whatever I gave her. I should
mention that heavy bodies are held more readily than light ones.
Let me take another case-type of quite a class of cases that have
fallen under my observation. A boy of eleven years of age.  He could
stand and walk, but did not use his hands even to feed himself. He
did not hear a sound apparently, though we fired pistols at his ears
and tried him with all sorts of surprises in the way of sound. He




HUMAN FACULTIES.                         13
saw only food. When I led him to the edge of a pond or stream of
water, he would walk in, in perfect un, onsciousness of any danger.
Nor had he acquired the experience of the burnt child. He had however a strong appetite, an intense thirst and a marked fear of falling.
He insisted when brought to a pair of stairs in going up "on all
fours."  I commenced by giving him no water but what he carried to
his mouth in a drinking cup. Holding a sharp-tined fork in his hand
I allowed him no food but what he assisted in taking and carrying to
his mouth by his own voluntary effort. This continued for weeks,
the amount of my assistance diminishing each day, till he accomplished it alone. Incidentally his vision had been brought into exercise, though in the main, he groped with his fork in picking up his
food.
I now placed him upon a ladder, one step up. He clung timidly to
the rounds.  I carefully drew him down till he found himself safely
on the floor. This I repeated till he learned stimulated by tear to do
what I at first did for him. Then I placed him  higher up and he
came carefully down, looking as well as feeling for the rounds, with
both hands and feet. I had meanwhile cultivated his vision by means
hereafter to be described, and now standing in front of him I had him
take a pole or dumb-bell as often as I handed it to him.  Next I
dropped it into his hand.  Then I threw it at him. He failed to
catch it, it struck him and he received an unpleasant jar. In time, to
avoid the jar, he stopped it with one hand and at last succeeded in
catching it.  I now commenced with exercises in imitation; motions
of the arms.  Here the exercise of his will was to t;,ke a new direction.  The power obtained by the lessons in voluntary motion was to
be used over the perceptive faculties, in watching the motions of the
teacher; in other words, in attention, the will directing the intelligence and the senses. And as these lessons passed into gymnastics
proper, we had in his case, efforts of the will to control the muscular
system  and also efforts of the will directing the intelligence as it
perceived the manner and the mode of the acts to be imitated.
We shall have occasion to notice incidentally the development of
the will further, in connection with tle work of educating the other
faculties. I observe, however, in passing to the next topic, that
there is an existing natural order in the agencies which excite volition, which is to be observed and followed in the efforts to develop
and strengthen that highest form of will, the human will. The law
of life in its lowest stage is rhythmical or intermitting action, modified
to a limited degree by physiological habits. The stimulus to this action is what I may call functional satisfaction; i. e. the complete fulfillment of the function of the individual organ, or the aggregated organs
constituting the particular organism. The law of life in the higher
form, is determinate action and repose, variously alternating and
modified by mental as well as bodily habits. The incitements to these
higher activities are primary, and are to be accounted as operating
behind volition. They may therefore be classed as motives by which
the will is developed and strengthened. These are summarily stated,
the muscular feelings, the appetites, the desire or tendency to exercise,
the gratification of the senses, curiosity, the affections, and finally




"A 4DEVELOPMENT OF THE
intellectual and moral considerations. And as in any education, the
exercise of the will of the pupil is the first requisite, it may be remarked, that the lower the point at which distinct educational means
are resorted to, the lower will be the character of the incentives to
be used. And viewing these from another point of view, one may add
that upon the degree of intelligence of the pupil, will depend the predominance of the impelling or the persuading influences adopted.
There is a second order that deserves the attention of the educator,
and that is the succession in which the various powers and faculties
are subordinated to the will. I can only mention briefly, that the
will first obtains power over the muscular system, then in the use of the
senses.  The exercises by which this is accomplished, give it a power
to undertake the task of acquiring supremacy over the mental acts.
This attained, it can now attempt to master and rule over the appetites and passions.
What a wondrous faculty is the human will. At first a servant,
and then the master.  Inseparably bound up in origin and growth
with all the other powers and faculties, it over-rules all their activities. Not necessary to appetite, it is yet necessary for acquiring the
means of gratifying it; not necessary to sensation, but essential to
every step beyond, in sense-perception; not seen in the appetencies,
but manifest in every out-growing emotion and desire, whenever
any mental appreciation is mingled with the native appetency. It is
present in every act of attention, it is necessary to every voluntary
motion, to every intellectual act and every moral choice. Its lowest
manifestation is seen in the first attempts at definite movements in infant life (an individualizing process to separate in action, the one
muscle or set of muscles to satisfy wants); its highest in transcendent
instances of mental discipline or moral courage.
Intimately related to the development of the will, is habit.  This
is to be studied by the teacher of idiots, as by every other teacher, in
two aspects. First as an assistant to the will, supplying its place as
instinct would in minor matters near home, and thus leaving the will
itself to operate in distant and larger activities. Secondly, in its
counteractive agency to that wakeful self-determination, which can
alone give effectiveness to the higher human attributes.
We come now, naturally to the education of the senses. I have
mentioned that there are certain movements in the human infant
preceding voluntary motion which are instinctive. This was essential to the preservation of life. So there is a passive sensation which
is instinctive, which in the child precedes active or voluntary sensation. This also was indispensable.  In animals, we have certain
perceptions connected with sensation, that are usually termed instinctive. In man, these invariably consequent perceptions, are very
few in number, and are called intuitive.  Of course these intuitive
perceptions can only occur after the channels of sensation are
fairly opened, after the senses have become able, by more or less of
exercise, to transmit the impressions from without.
Education begins where instinct ceases, when intuition ends. This
point differs in different animals, perhaps in different individuals of
the same species.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                         15
Among idiots (which are anomalous cases), are not infrequently
found individuals in whom there is a partial or entire disuse of senses.
that may be said to be instrumentally perfect. I will not attempt to
describe in the language of the metaphysician, this default of sensation, but give the facts.
In the first case, I have cited from my record, the sense of taste
had been educated.  The sense of smell was quite dormant. Odors
pleasant, and odors pungent made no impression upon the olfactory
nerve.  The sense of touch existed only passively.  There was a
slight appreciation of musical sounds.
There was, however, no apparent vision. Eyes had she, but she
did not see. The pupil of the eye did not respond readily to different
degrees of light by dilation and contraction. She did not at first seem to
notice sudden changes from light to darkness. I have repeatedly and
during quite a period of time in the presence of numerous witnesses,
touched the ball of her eye without her seeming to be much disturbed
by it; at all events without her making any effort to guard against the
approach of my finger. It was, however, slightly sensitive through
the nerves of general sensation. The only way to meet this obstacle
seemed to be to excite the special function of this organ through its
general sensation. And I did succeed, I hardly know how, but doubtless analogously, as the active sense of touch is awakened through
appeals made to its passive form, feeling.  I discovered in this as in
several other cases that there seemed to be a pleasure derived from
flitting some object before the eyes, and in front of a bright light; the
continual interruption of the solar rays falling upon the torpid organ.
Something of the kind, I have been told may be seen in a blind asylum, among the pupils that can just distinguish light from darkness,
It is something akin perhaps to the sensation one may feel, by pressing gently on the closed eyelids. From the first step, just mentioned I
proceeded with sudden changes fromlight to darkness; with sudden
passes made towards her eyes with my hand till I at last secured the
use of the organ, to the extent, at least, of receiving ordinary visual
impressions, from  near objects.  During these exercises I should
mention that I closed the ears in some way, to shut up the other main
inlet to the brain. In the second case to which I directed your attention, another fact was noticed. I had educated his eye and his will
till he followed in imitative acts the motions of my arms when standing directly in front of him and very near him.
I then found that I had to go through a second educational process
to have him follow my motions when removed to a little distance.  I
had to teach him in other words the adjustment of the visual instrument both for distances and direction.
Here was another boy, eight yearsold: an idiot of low grade, but
with restless and persistent habits. All his sensations were dull except that of sight. That had been cultivated by a variety of playthings, and especially by the bright-covered and gilt-edged books that
adorned his mother's center-table.
He selected with great discrimination the brightest and best. He
was supposed to be entirely deaf and was so recorded in the state
census. He was deaf to all noisy surprises and experiments, contrived




16                    DEVELOPMENT OF THE
to elicit some manifestations of hearing, if any he had. He fell into
my hands.
With his hands tied behind him. and his eyes blind-folded his restless spirit, impatient of confinement and wanting news from the world
without, soon yielded to my persistent efforts to communicate with
him through the organs of hearing and responded to my blandishments.
Soon he turned his head from side to side as I addressed first one ear
and then the other. Soon he learned to follow me by the sound of
my voice, and ultimately acquired the full use of the sense of hearing.
I have now brought these pupils by education up to the point where
in the case of ordinary children. the parent or teacher is to commence
in his efforts to educate the senses. I drop illustrative examples and
proceed to describe my methods for further development in the same
direction.
In my first schoolroom, there is a contrivance of this kind. The
room  can be made by shutters entirely dark.  In these shutters
are arranged slides, moving one of these lets in a startling ray of light
upon the darkness; moving others light enters through apertures of
various forms, thus encircling portions of space with outlines sharp
as the difference between light and darkness can cut them.
Moving others the light is transmitted through glass of different
colors, so that distinctions of color may be discriminated through
successive presentations of unlike hues, not only of the openings themselves but in the various objects bathed in the admitted light. It is a
dull eye and a torpid brain that will not heed such appeals. In this
room some simple exercises are introduced requiring attention.  In
this room, the first steps in language, which I am hereafter to describe,
are taken-simple commands, the names of familiar objects, their own
name, exercises in articulation. The commencement of lessons in
forms, size, color, and position. Exercises in imitation, in taste, and
feeling incidentally. All theme are interspersed with appropriate
gymnastic exercise.
In the next school room, are introduced farther exercises in form,
size, position, and color.
The first idea of number is communicated, or counting as far as it
can be carried without teaching the arbitrary names of the numerals.
Rude drawing which furnishes always a practical evidence that the
idea of form is acquired. Exercises that develop distinctions of form
and color combined; color and size; color and position; color, form
and size, &c., &c.
Distinctions of sound-loud and soft. high and low, direction of
sounds, musical sounds; sounds as modified in speech, articulation.
Distinctions of weight, relative and absolute.
The properties of objects are next made the subjects of instruction,
their qualities and their more obvious relations.
As I propose to exhibit some of these educational appliances, I may
content myself further by a few remarks upon what the education of
the senses means.
It means first an increase in the instrumental power of the organs
of special sensation, it means the imparting a knowledge of the various uses to which they may be applied; their scope and range not




HUMAN FACULTIES.                         17
theoretically but practically. It is to be remembered that in the
normal, well-endowed human being, the Creator has so ordered it,
that the intuitive use of them in childhood and the early lessons of
childish experience have the effect to give them this necessary power
and this practical knowledge of their appropriate application; assisted,
doubtless, measurably by parental training. This development of
sense-power and sense-use is in strict relation to individual needs.
Very marked exhibitions of these powers and applications are seen
in savage life. In higher social states, by means of superior instruction and earlier habits of inference there is less necessity for that
active, sharpened use of sense witnessed in the former. Again in the
superior social condition, the pleasure derived immediately from sensation is subordinated or sunk in the higher enjoyment realized from
the superstructure of the emotions.  It means enlarging the range of
sense-perceptions by observations of the qualities and relations of
various objects through the exercise of a single sense, in its own
sphere, as well as when acting vicariously for another sense; or still
again by applying several senses in combination to a single end.
This furnishes the mind with what are called acquired perceptions.
These secondary perceptions involve a certain degree of comparison
and inference and are therefore at the outset contingent.  In time and
through the influence of habit they follow sensation (or impressions on
the organs of sensation) with all the promptness and certainty of
original or primary perceptions. It is these secondary perceptions
that are the ones to be multiplied by the teacher's help. Time is
often to be saved by telling the pupil what these consequent. conclusions should be -not compelling him to re-discover everything for
himself; but demonstrating (if you please) one of a class of facts and
then letting him put faith in the remainder on the teacher's testimony.
It means, I may add summarily, the acquisition of all that rudimentary
knowledge, receivable through the senses, that can be stored in the
memory or assimilated by the child.
In this connection. I desire to notice a common error that many of
the advocates of what is called the " object system  of instruction "
have fallen into; and that is, an idea that the individual observations,
the facts and phenomena perceived or communicated in the development process, have a particularly practical value over and above the
corresponding means used in other educational systems.  In other
words, that they are one and all both mental steps and mental acquirements. But this is not true; for in that early stage of education, where such a system can alone be made serviceable, as in all
the higher, a thousand facts and ideas, having been used as steps in
the development process, may be laid aside and forgotten. For what
a miserable affair a man would, be if he could remember or did remember all the facts and ideas that have helped in his growth towards
manliness.
As to the mode and method of accomplishing these ends, I can only
speak briefly.
Experimentally, we discover that the first ideas from sensation are
general ideas.  They are based upon impressions made upon several
senses, or include in a single act of knowing the information derived




18                   DEVELOPMENT OF THE
from several senses or from a variety of impressions. By a process
of mental elimination in the infant mind, particulars are separated
from  the general.  The infant goes to one care-taker as well as
another.  He has but the idea that his wants are ministered to by
any one of human form and dress. In time, he distinguishes the particular nurse from the other members of the family-by difference in
tones and manner and dress-and cries for her alone.  He has observed, compared, decided, and seeks to carry his decision into effect.
Experimentally, we learn that there is a natural order in the development of the senses, and also in the succession in which different
properties are perceived through the medium of a particular sense.
We witness in succession, the exercise of touch, of taste, of smell.
and finally of hearing and of sight. We notice that distinctions of
form and size are perceived before those of color, &c. These distinctions at the outset, must be of the broadest character to be properly comprehended by the pupil, and to constitute the starting-point
in acquiring perceptions of lesser differences.  So when by the habitual exercise of the senses, the way is open for the reception of ideas,
then these will enter spontaneously or may be inculcated, in the form
of appreciations of the more palpable relations of the objects of
sense. Starting thence, a path, winding as the necessities of the case
require, leads upward to the region of nice discrimination.  The
value of this education of the senses lies in the fact, that upon the
correctness, precision and celerity with which they perform their
functions, depends the virtue of the higher and outgrowing mental
operations for which they furnish the materials.
Where the products of the first exercise become the factors of the
next, it is all-important to commence aright, that the errors may not
be multiplied and exaggerated in the later calculations.
It includes the necessity of accustoming the mind to make the proper inferences from the sensations; of noting the circumstances that
modify the impressions they convey to the mind. But in so doing it
is not to weaken confidence in their testimony-not to prevent the
all-absorbing credulity of childhood, but to assist the child, as he
grows older, in adjusting the balance between truth and error in the
notions thus acquired. Furthermore, it is not to crush the native
and budding imaginings of childhood, with great, outlandish and stony
facts.
For from the roots of vivid sense-perception naturally spring the
multiform and luxuriant growths of imagination, and these lively fancies and " happy thoughts " are frequent instruments, not only in the
acquisition of the every-day knowledge of childhood, but of scientific
discovery and art-invention. And thus, in another wise, than it is
commonly regarded, and in an important sense is it true, that " observation is the basis of knowledge.'
The innumerable and varied rewards and pleasures, a:sociated with
this healthy cultivation of the sense-perceptions, are the result of the
prescribed relation that exists bet.veen every fibre in the organization of man and the world into which he is introduced. And again,
from this child-like confidence in the information derived through the
senses, and this agreeable intimacy with nature, together with a sim



HUMAN FACULTIES.                             19
lar correspondence between mental truth and moral quality and one's
own higher nature, come belief and faith, and a happy assurance even
in " things unseen."
It has quite frequently occurred, when the cultivation of the powers
of observation has been made a leading end in early education, that
the exercises to that end have run directly into scientific instruction,
Thus lessons on form have passed into pure or mixed geometry; lessons on color into the science of color; lessons on the relations of
numbers into all the intricacies of higher arithmetic; and lessons on
language into grammatical analysis.*
But a proper education through the senses will avoid this. It will
not attempt to impart instruction in the sciences or in the sciences
diluted. That belongs to a later period, It may however, impart
in the child's own vernacular, or assist the child to acquire, just that
amount of scientific truth which has a practical bearing upon the
factsfalling within the child's own sphere of observation, or upon
kindred or related facts, furnished by the teacher or by reading.
The paramount object to be kept in view by the teacher is the development of the child's faculties, and acquirements are to be valued
only as they can be properly assimilated, that is incorporated into
the child's being to some useful end. And thus important truths derived from science may be imparted, because such truths may be apprehended by the child, even where the principles underlying are
entirely beyond his comprehension; and this by virtue of that allpervading adaptation and correspondence that Divine wisdom has
established between man the creature and the world his ordained
dwelling-place.
Science is defined as a " body of principles and deductions to explain the nature of some matter."
" Natural science is the knowledge of causes and effects and of the
laws of nature."  It includes extensive induction from phenomena
* In the brief discussion in the Association, that this address elicited, the superintendent of the public schools of Oswego, where this " object system " has been
introduced, arose and denied the fact that such a progression as I had described,
was a feature in their system. To whom the credit of misstatement belongs, the
reader may judge by the following quotation from a paper read before the educational convention at Oswego last winter, by Miss E. M. Jones of London. Miss
Jones, I hardly need to say, is an experienced teacher from the Normal School of
the Home and Colonial Society of London. She came out to this country expressly
to introduce their system of instruction into the Oswego schools, and has also conducted exclusively the training school for the Oswego teachers. She says, " We
ascend from form to geometry, from place to geography, from weight to mechanics,
from size to proportion in drawing and architectural designs, from number to
arithmetic and algebra, from color to chromatography, from plants to botany, from
animals to zoology, from human body to physiology, from objects to mineralogy,
chemistry, etc.; from actions to arts and manufactures, from language to grammar. "
A fit illustration of the results of this process was afforded by a class examination
that occurred at this same convention, just alluded to. A class of bright children
from nine to ten years of age, were introduced in an exercise in the harmony of
colors. In answer to questions propounded by the examining committee, it appeared that the pupils had been so confused by the attempt to learn the scientific
law underlying the harmony of colors, that they had absolutely lost the true idea,
that by " harmony of colors " was meant such an arrangement of colors as is most
pleasant to the eye.
2




20                    DEVELOPMENT OF THE
remote as well as near. It includes a comprehensive generalization.
It involves appropriate classification and a significant nomenclature.
It involves precise definitions. All these are beyond the range of
childish powers.  As a materialist would say, the physical structure of the brain is not yet sufficiently mature and consolidated to
perform these higher brain-functions. To be sure, some classification is necessary to assist the memory even in childhood; but it is a
classification growing out of and practically related to the child's
needs, for the time being. It is one that is to be superseded by another, in the growth of intelligence and in the extension of the field of
observation.
Let me -quote in confirmation of this, a sentence from Mill: "There
is no property of objects which may not be taken, if we please, as the
foundation for a classification or mental grouping of those objects;
and in our first attempt we are likely to select for that purpose, properties which are simple, easily conceived and perceptible on a Sirst
view, without any previous process of thought."  This is especially
true in childhood.  Memory then depends on the sense-perceptions;
in later life, upon association with a known principle. Of course
then, the power of memory, in the one case, depends upon the vividness of conception of the prominent features of the class, its ear
marks; in the other, upon the propriety of the classification. And
these two frame-works of collocation are so unlike each other, that
any attempt to associate them together only tends to confusion.
Science demands an appropriate and expressive nomenclature. It
makes use of words that in their very composition have a constant
relation to the phenomena they represent and the system of which
they are a part.  With us, unfortunately, the language of science
derives this idea-containing power only through a Greek or Latin
derivation, and to the uneducated mind, therefore, the thing signified
is in constant peril of being lost in the effort to retain the sign. Nor
is this scientific classification or nomenclature needed by the child.
For it has been well observed, that " the child growing up learns
along with the vocables of his mother tongue, that things which he
would have believed to be different are in important points the same.
Without any formal instruction, the language in which we grow up
teaches us all the common philosophy of the age." Science involves
definitions precise and comprehensive.  The natural language of
childhood is with figure and circumlocution.
I need not present further specifications, to show that the early
introduction of science is not in order, in relation to the child's stage
of mental development, nor is it yet in order viewed in relation to a
properly progressive arrangement of subjects of instruction, to meet
the child's practical needs, as it progresses towards youth.
I am aware that, in this declaration, I am apparently setting high
educational authorities at defiance. But this difference of opinion
will be found to be more apparent than real. I am speaking of primary school instruction. The authorities, who are supposed to hold
different views, have, as a general rule, in recommending the introduction of scientific studies, had in mind pupils at a more advanced
stage of intelligence, and to their views, with that understanding, I




HUMAN FACULTIES.                        21
could most cordially subscribe. And where they have in some instances, referred to younger pupils, they have defined and limited the
term science so as to mean only easily apprehended results of science;
that which Ruskin has called " the science of the aspects of things."
That observation is the basis of all natural knowledge is very true;
and so the perceptive faculties should be properly cultivated in the
school-room and elsewhere; by teacher and by parent; directly and
indirectly. But let it not be forgotten that there are certain elementary studies, that are equally fundamental to that conventional knowledge, which is essential to one's usefulness and success in civilized
society. Reading, writing and some acquaintance with the relations of
numbers are thus elementary. These are the main instruments by
which all further acquisitions are wrought out. These, therefore,
have been and will continue to be the main subjects of early school
instruction.  And these are the tokens, by which the correctness or
efficiency of any system of primary or common school education will
be tested and judged, by the parent and by the public, and rightly
too. The error of the old system was not only in neglecting entirely
the culture of the perceptive faculties, but in so teaching the elementary branches as to absolutely blunt them. The remedy is not
in substituting other subjects of instruction, but in educating the senses,
and through the senses the intelligence and will, and then applying
and subordinating these habits of accurate observation and this cultivated activity and power, to a proper method of acquiring the elementary studies and their out-growing attainments.
I come now to speak of the development of language. This is preeminently a human faculty. As Muller, in his work on Language has
well said: " What is it that man can do and of which we find no
signs, no rudiments in the whole brute world? I answer without
hesitation; the one great barrier between brute and man is language.
Man speaks and no brute has ever uttered a word. Language is our
Rubicon, and no brute will dare cross it."  This faculty of language
is essential to the full exercise of the other faculties; it is necessary
to man's condition as a social being. It was given and is to be cultivated, as a means of communication, as an aid to the memory, as a
means of thought, and lastly, as the instrument of thought. Whatever may be the correct view as to its origin, we know that children
having once got the idea of language, very often compound words,
often frame new words.  I know that idiots failing to remnenber
names, or unable to utter names that they do know, use for quite a
period and invariably, words of their own coining.
The first object of words in our system of training is to supply a
means of communication between teacher and pupil.
And thus we begin.  Remember if you please, that we have some
pupils, who, though hearing well, have no idea of language, not even
knowing their own names when called. We have many pupils, who,
though likewise hearing, have never attempted to make an articulate
sound, who are entirely mute.  These perhaps have ideas of language to a greater or less extent.  We have many more who speak
indistinctly. In fact we have very few who speak distinctly.
We have preliminary exercises awakening perceptions of distinc



22 IDEVELOPMENT OF THE
tions of sounds, and directing the attention of the pupil to the mouth
and vocal organs of the master. Just when the idea of language
dawns upon such a pupil, or in fact upon any young child, it is difficult to determine. At all events, one of the first evidences of an appreciation of a power in language, is in learning one's own name.
We take next words of command, like stand up, sit down! translate
ing the command into the natural language by the gesture of the
teacher; assisted by corresponding motions of the class. The aids
are gradually diminished till obedience follows the voice alone. The
command " Give me." " March," " Halt " are then taught; the attention of the pupil all the while being directed to the teacher's voice,
by various devices, loud tone and'soft, &c., &c.
Two articles (familiar to the pupil, like a plate and spoon), may
now be placed on a table, and the effort made to lead the pupil to
notice the difference in the names. This accomplished, the farther
progress in acquiring names is certain. Names of simple qualities
come next. In fact, the order in which language should be taught
should correspond precisely with the order of development of ideas.
Language is a practical faculty. Words are the conventional as well
as the natural embodiment of ideas. Language therefore does not
precede ideas, but follows them, often at a long interval. It should
be a living tongue, not in distinction from  what are usually called
dead languages, but living in its relation to the life of the persons
using it, and their actual stage of intellectual development. Note
how certain forcible but inelegant words creep into the child's vo.
cabulary in spite of parental cautions. Note how new and expressive,
but lawless words force themselves into our own language, as occasions demand, in spite of resisting lexicographers. In short, notice
the growth and death of the languages of the past, as they have kept
pace with the progress of ideas, or fallen behind in the way. Nor can
the use of words be long kept up, or be remembered by children, that
are above the current language of the circle in which they move.
I trust that I may be excused for now transcending a little, the
boundaries of my own peculiar province. That eminent educational
reformer, Pestalozzi, was at the outset of his labors, so opposed to
the senseless use of language (words before ideas), that he even
clamored against the art of printing, as contributing to it. But
even he was guilty of committing the same error in practice, as well
as inculcating it theoretically.' Observation " says he " is the absolute basis of all knowledge.
The first object then in education, must be to lead a child to observe
with accuracy; the second, to express with correctness the result of
his observations." It will be observed that this second conclusion is
a " non-sequitur" from  his premise. He says elsewhere, " out of
the observation of an object, the first thing that arises, is the necessity of naming it." Von Raumer, one of his biographers, comments
upon this among other notions of Pestalozzi, and well remarks:
" Language itself has nothing to do with observation. Why should
not I be able to form a perfectly correct notion of an object that has
no name, for instance, a newly discovered planet?" I would add,
that the uneducated deaf mute has such correct notions every day.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                        23
But Pestalozzi is not content with this.  In another connection,
after lauding the power of language, he adds: "Therefore I make
use of it, and endeavor by the guidance of its uttered sounds to reproduce in the child the self-same impressions, which in the human
race, have occasioned and formed these sounds. Great is the gift of
language. It gives to the child in one moment, what nature required
thousands of years to give to man."
This was so grievous a lapse from his own principles, that his colleagues and successors repudiated such precepts almost without exception. So, too, did those American educators who almost forty
years ago introduced into this country all that was valuable in the
reformed system of education, inaugurated by Pestalozzi. To this
point, let the early numbers of the American Annals of Education,
and the early proceedings of the American Institute bear witness.
In England however, it was otherwise* A Mr. Mayo, one of Pestalozzi's admirers, introduced his system into that country. He professes to have preserved Pestalozzi's ideas, but modified their form.
He professes to have discarded, in the books prepared at his suggestion, what in Pestalozzi's text-book, was insufferably tedious.
Through this man's agency, a system of schools has grown up in
England, known as the Home and Colonial Society System of Education, in which, the natural observation of childhood is so devitalized,
in part by this haste for naming, and a clumsy method of naming,
and in part by wrong principles of association; so subverted from
its ordained purpose of imparting power and warmth and vigor to
the whole spiritual nature, as to draw  upon itself the scorning
finger of the satirist.*
Pestalozzi's reason for this early and constant associating of names
with objects and ideas, was, that by repeating in language, the conception of objects and ideas, was, fixed so as not to be forgotten.
This is measurably true, only when the name given is one of frequent recurrence in the child's hearing, in the child's use-where it
is a familiar word.
There is this peculiarity about the German language, which enables one to extend this a little farther and say, that when the names
of qualities, and even what in our language are scientific terms, are
compounded from the most familiar words-or a class is designated
by the name of some well known individual-in.that case, if the term
used does not assist the memory of the quality or the class, it does
not, at all events, clog it by an additional burden.
Let me give a few illustrations of this sort.
In the German language the compounds and derivatives are formed
from native roots, and by analogies corresponding to the relations between the ideas to be expressed.
Not to speak of a class of words, that diminish the labor of acquiring the language used in the every day life of childhood, as finger hat
for thimble; hand shoes for gloves; leg garments for pantaloons, and
rain protector for umbrella, &c. &c., let us notice such as would be
used in an educational course.  An amalgam is a metal-mixture;
* See Dickens' Hard Times.




24                    DEVELOPMENT OF THE
transparency is through-seen-ness, or clearness; cylinder is roller.
The polygons are described by their number of angles; thus five-corners, six-corners, &c. Even the triangle and square are called threecorners and four-corners.
Then we have for qualifying terms, the following:
Opaque is dark or shady.       Elastic is springy.
Astringent is puckery.         Inflammable is burnable.
Adhesive is sticky or gluey.   Absorbent is up-sucking.
Odoriferous is pleasant-smelling.    Foreign is out-landish.
Pungent is biting or stinging.  Domestic is at-home-ish.
Acidulated is sourish.         Carnivorous is flesh-eating.
Acid is sour.                  Gramnivorous is grass-eating.
In all these cases, it will be observed the recollection of a new idea
is not hazarded by a brain-taxing misnomer.
It will be noticed that the second class of words, with the knowledge
of language possessed by children, is more in accordance with the
principles upon which all scientific language is constructed, i. e. more
idea-containing, and therefore more precise and comprehensive than
the first.
It will be noticed that the words themselves, when simple —and
that the roots in the case of the compound words, though originally
arbitrary and conventional, have come by constant and daily use to
be natural and spontaneous. They bear the same relation to gesture
or natural language that the acquired perceptions do to the primary
perceptions.
When occasion arises for their use, the application comes spontaneously.  Submit a pungent substance to the taste of a class of little
ones. Will they not all shout it bites or it stings? Now do you help
those children to any clearer idea of this quality, for the time being,
or do you make it longer remembered by saying, "Children that is
pungency?"
No one can doubt who reads the criticisms of Pestalozzi's colleagues
and successors, that he was most unfortunate in assigning the place
he did, to language, in his educational scheme. And this though the
nature of the German language is such as to obviate some of the evils
arising from his mistake. But in the English adaptation of Pestalozzi's system, the case is very different. Here we find his error
wofully exaggerated. The fact, that all our scientific terms and all
one technical terms are borrowed from the dead languages, involves
the necessity of loading the child down with words, that he never
hears elsewhere, but in the school-room, if names must accompany all
ideas. Besides this, in expressing the common and familiar qualities
of objects, there are two classes of words that may be used; the one
of Saxon birth, native and homely; the other of classic origin, exotic
and conventionally more elegant. Now in the English system, these
latter are invariably selected.
That I may do no injustice. let me quote from one of the English
text-books. I have before me a book, on the title page of which, I
read, " Lessons on Objects as given to children between the ages of
six and eight, in a Pestalozzian school.' It is the thirteenth edition,
imprint: London, 1853. It is written by Miss Mayo, also authoress
of the manual of instruction used in the schools of the Home and




HUMAN FACULTIES.                         25
Colonial Society. This book is also used as a text-book in the same
schools.
On page seventy-six, lesson forty-five, I find an article described in
this wise: It is fibrous, knotty, sapid, rough, jagged, inanimate, vegetable, tropical, foreign, aromatic, pungent, dry, dull, solid, hard,
conservative, light, yellowish-brown, pulverable, medicinal, stimulating, wholesome, opaque and inflammable.
Now remember Pestalozzi's definition of a definition.  "A definition " he says, "is the simplest expression of clear ideas" (I give but
a part of it), and now, pray tell me, what this object is, thus described.
Or let me rather say, guess what the object is!
Here is another specimen of the abuse of language taken from the
Society's Manual.  The pupils have had pointed out to them all the
features of a geometrical solid, known as the rhombic dodecahedron.
At the close of the exercise they are required to repeat the following
and to treasure it up in their memories: " The rhombic dodecahedron
is a solid bounded by twelve equal rhombs; it has eight solid angles,
each of them formed by three obtuse plane angles, and six solid angles,
each of them formed by four acute plane angles; it has twenty-four
equal edges."
Now I ask, will this memorized definition recall the peculiar features
of the solid in question, if the conception of the solid is once lost by
the child? Has this definition any utility, as a test of the child's correct appreciation of the form of this solid? Will this definition enable
the child to communicate to another any clear idea of the shape of
such a solid, without the assistance of the solid itself? Has then,
this verbal description any practical value to the child, as an acquirement? Finally is there any greater virtue, as a'mental exercise, in
learning by rote this complicated formula, than in committing any
other dozen or more hard words arranged, I might almost say, without
reference to their meaning?
The authoress, in her experience, has evidently found herself embarrassed by the difficulty on the part of the pupil, of retaining this
outlandish and difficult terminology, and so she adopts a remedy.
That remedy is (in the case of children from the ages of six to eight,
and as yet ignorant of their own tongue), giving them the derivation
of the word, from the Latin or Greek source.
Thus when they hesitate at cylindrical, they are told it is derived
immediately from  cylinder-primarily from  the Greek  kulindo, I
roll, or kylindo, as it is felicitously transformed. When they open
their eyes at semi-transparent, they are told that it is derived from
semi, half, trans, beyond, and parens, appearing.  When adhesive
sticks in their throat, the passage is facilitated, by being told that it
is derived from ad, meaning to, hcerere. to stick (perfect hcesi); and
so on, to the extent of two or three hundred terms.
They are further told in this same book. that foreign is an accidental quality, and that pungent and aromatic are essential qualities,
in mace.
"Observation is the absolute basis of all knowledge," says Pestalozzi, and then he draws two practical conclusions therefrom: " The
first object then, in education, must be to lead a child to observe with




26                    DEVELOPMENT OF THE
accuracy; the second, to express with correcttess the result of his
observations," As I have before said, this second conclusion has no
relation to the premise.
In the English system these two conclusions are made foundation
stones; and the second is made paramount. But the method adopted
is more faulty than the principle. The error is in presenting names
(or the conventional signs of ideas), above the child's capacity, and
then attempting to simplify these terms, by reference to dead languages about which they know nothing.
Bear in mind, that in childhood the simple name of any object,
quality or relation (the name being conventional and secondary), is
always remembered by virtue of a vivid sensuous perception of the
same.  It is here proposed to secure the remembrance of the object,
quality or relation, by a name, which itself can only be recalled
through a confusing and complicated mental process.
Observe, too, that the moment the teacher attempts to impart to the
child this precise and technical phraseology, from another tongue,
the exercise ceases to be a development exercise, at least, to the extent of that share of it, which relates to the language used. For it is
essential to the principle of the so-called " object lesson;" it is essential to those "development exercises," that the child himself (from
within) shall be the suggesting and originating source of the discovery
of the knowledge to be derived from the objects presented by the teacher.
Now, all this kind of language must, from the nature of the case, be
communicated by the teacher (that, is from without).  It is not development; it is reception only. I admit that children will learn
and perhaps remember, for a -time, just such absurd and senseless
lessons. I admit that children will even develop mentally, under just
such unfavorable circumstances of instruction (and so do children of
the poor in our great cities live and thrive and grow, though ill fed,
half clothed and breathing the reeking atmosphere of subterranean
lodgings); but I deny that these exercises referred to, possess any real
virtue as a means of mental discipline, or any true value as intellectual acquirements, We must not forget, that the professed aim of the
book is not to instruct in language, but to cultivate the powers of
observation. As one of Pestalozzi's commentators has well observed:
" In the field of objective knowledge the acquaintance with the literal
sign, representing the clearness and definiteness of the knowledge,
adds nothing whatever for the student himself, it only helps him to
communicate it to another, which is a totally different matter."  He
further adds: "We are even of the opinion that this perception of
observation should precede the acquaintance with the literal sign, and
that the opposite way leads directly to that world of fog and shadows
and to that early use of the tongue, both of which are so justly hateful to Pestalozzi.'
I would not have ventured on this digression, but that just now,
many earnest teachers in this country, dissatisfied with a routine system of instruction, that has had possession of our primary schools,
and groping for an improvement —any improvement-are proposing
to transplant on our shores, without any effort at acclimation, what
I regard, as a misshapen, dry and fruitless production of English soil.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                            27
This system does not embody the views or practice of the best educationalists of England, any more than the primers of the Sunday School
Union, represent the highest talent of the American school book compilers. But rely upon it. no system of education, however humane
its design, however complete its organization, or however successful
its apparent results, can ultimate in any permanent good, with such
dogmatic principles and such questionable methods.
But to return. Speech in the case of ordinary children, lingering
behind a little, is in the main developed, step by step, with the apprehension of language, It is, however, another matter entirely. It depends upon the degree of the control of the mind over the vocal organs,
and this, through the agency of the nerves supplying the vocal apparatus.  Accordingly, in the case of idiots, as I have before mentioned,
we have to contend with a variety of abnormal manifestations. To
meet these difficulties, we commence with exercises in imitation, and
also exercises, by which the muscles of the lips and tongue are brought
uuder the control of the will.  Now come exercises in articulation
proper.  In these we begin with the sounds that experience teaches
us are the truly elementary with children learning to speak.* These
do not correspond, in point of order, with what are called elementary
sounds in the phonetic charts. We are compelled to follow the order
of nature, in attempts to teach a proper utterance, as in all other
matters, if we hope for success.
We apply a few simple rules laid down by my friend Dr. Seguin:
" 1st. That the lesson in speech should commence with consonants
and not with vowels.
2d. That the syllables composed of a consonant with a vowel following, should be articulated first.
3d. That the labials should precede all others.
4th. That single syllables are less easily articulated than repeated
syllables."
He fortifies these practical rules by the following suggestions:
" The vowel sounds as emitted by the child are inarticulate. Infants
alwaiys commence by uttering pa, ma, bo, &c, and not ap, am, ob, &c.
The motions of the lips are more readily seen than any other used
in speech. The connection between the brain and lips is more early
established.
Infants repeat all their syllables."
The imitation of the simple sounds by the pupils once acquired we
proceed with slow  steps through  all the sounds of the language.
* These exercises, at the outset, are somewhat empirical in individual instances.
In the case of the voice, which is one of the natural and intuitive modes of expressing feeling by the child, but yet dependent upon certain muscular movements for
its higher manifestations, the efforts at articulation are at first experimental. Thus,
there is a natural animal cry that passes into articulate sounds, as the vocal apparatus is brought under the control of the will, by continued efforts, just as any other
purposeless action of infancy, caused by pain or otherwise, passes empirically into
determinate and intelligent action, to avoid the cause of pain or gratify desire.
The teacher of idiots, as well as the child's narse, is to take advantage of these accidental successes of the pupil or child, and then lead them on through cognate
sounds to complete speech. Suggestions may sometimes be made to the child, in
the way of articulation, by an actual molding of the vocal organs into a position
necessary for producing required sounds.




28                     DEVELOPMENT OF THE
The principle is to begin with sounds most natural and easy of emission and most palpable to eye and ear.
I may now briefly describe our method of imparting to pupils a
knowledge of written language, or the ability to read. And let me
first clear the work from some of the impediments, with which it is
too commonly loaded.
Reading does not include, necessarily, a knowledge of the arbitrary
nalnes of the letters of the English alphabet, nor of any phonetic signs.
It does not include exercises on the various sounds of the letters;
what are called the elementary sounds of the language. It does not
include instruction in emphasis or inflection. It does not include the
acquisition of useful knowledge.  Reading is simply the ability to
receive ideas, through the printed or written conventional signs of
words.
I have mentioned already that gesture, or the natural signs for
ideas, precedes the knowledge of spoken language, which is in the
main arbitrary; and also that we availed ourselves of this precedence
in the early lessons in language. So in learning the printed or written character, which is conventional, we have recourse, as introductory, to what Lord Bacon  ras called one of the congruous signs of
things; i. e., pictures or hieroglyphics.
The pupil has already acquired some ideas of form and color. He
is now taught to see in pictures the objects there represented. There
are thus associated together, the object itself, its pictorial representation and its verbal name.
The appreciation of this relation assists the child to grasp the idea
of the next step, which is adding the printed or graphic sign as the
representation of an object. This step it will be noticed, is no more
abrupt than the first one, by which the name is acquired. We commence thus, with words representing simple objects, associated with
pictures, without any reference to their number of syllables, the mode
of spelling or the pupil's ability to utter them  distinctly.  We take
two words printed on separate cards, of very different aspect, say eye
and wheel-barrow; we trust to the child's vivid perception of the
marked distinction between the two, to assist his memory in associating with each the object it represents, its image and verbal sign.
From this starting point and in the same way, we proceed to teach
numerous other names of objects; then words expressive of the simpier qualities of objects; as good and bad, &c.; next words denoting
action, and so on through the different parts of speech. This is continued, till the number of words begins to burden the child's memory,
or he begins to be confused by dawning resemblances in words. Now
we change our tactics.  We have thus far relied upon differences of
form in the sign, to assist us in our efforts. We now call the pupils'
attention to certain resemblances, that exist between some of the
words, that have fallen under their observation.* We show in what
* It may be observed generally, that in education, notions and ideas of difference
precede those of resemblance. I am aware that Pestalozzi is quoted as holding a
different opinion; thus-" In the exercise of the perceptive faculty, the perception
of likeness precedes the perception of difference."  This view must have been imparted to him in one of his moments of inspiration, as he called them; for it could
hardly have been derived from any observation of childhood.




HUMAN FACULTIES.                       29
the resemblance consists, and in what the difference. Then we add
other words of the same character till we form a class. Then analogous classes. By this means, the pupil is brought to know the force
practically, of the several letters in words of three letters, without ever
having been taught the names of the letters or their elementary
sounds. This last, you will observe, they have acquired in the main of
themselves. I should mention, that we do not give the pupils the
capitals till they are quite advanced in reading. It will be perceived
that when we do bring the principle of classification to our aid, the
pupil has already a stock of individual words, well-memorized by the
intuitive methods of association, with which, to connect his new acquirements in proper categories.  He has probably learned, meanwhile. quite unconsciously, to distinguishthe different letters by sight.
I need not trace the process farther. This will depend somewhat
upon the views or habits of the teacher and the obstacles presented
by the peculiar mental constitution of the pupil or the individual
members of the class.
The main difficulties are, however, passed. Though I may have
failed to do justice, by this brief verbal description, to the merits of a
method, which I did not originate, still I am sure that it has been successful in the teaching many to read, who could not be taught by the
ordinary processes. But let me test it farther, by comparison. It is
a fundamental principle in education, to proceed from the simple to
the complex. Tried by this rule, is not the course thus described
more correct than that sanctioned by the customs of our schools?
Is it not more correct than that royal road, recommended by the Home
and Colonial Society as " Reading Made Easy?"    A method by which
they propose to make the " threshold of knowledge, no longer a source
of continual sorrow and disgust."
Let us examine their improvement briefly.
They say with Pestalozzi that " the work of the Educator should
be analytical; " that " the Educator should bring down the subject of
instruction to its lowest elements, that the learner may understand
their nature and with these construct for himself." Another rule
enunciated in this connection, is that " only one difficulty at a time
should be presented to the infant mind." The pupils are first taught
to distinguish by the eye all the Roman capitals, next to distinguish
clumsy imitations of these, as many as can be formed by straight
lines.  Next similar imitations of the remainder, formed by one
straight line and one curved. A similar plan is then adopted in
teaching the forms of the small letters. The pupil is practised in
repeating the forty elementary sounds of the language. He is next
taught to form uncouth imitations of the spurious capitals, with
pieces of lath, then to print them on the slate. He is next taught to
connect with twenty-six conventional forms, as many arbitrary names
of letters. These are next applied to the small letters. He is now
exercised in the sounds of vowels and diphthongs; not, however, their
power in composition. He is next taught the power of the consonants in words. lie is then taught to spell classes of words of one
syllable. Only at this point do any proper exercises in reading begin
and even then, they are in accordance with a rather clumsy phonic




30                     DEVELOPMENT OF THE
method.*  For example, in the first line of the first lesson of the
Reading Boards, the letter g occurs twice; a consonant, which should
not be introduced at an early stage, because of its two-fold sound.
The whole process from beginning to end, I must confess, seems to
me intensely stupid.  But examine it for yourselves.  I pray you
notice the ingenuity of its helps in detail. The teacher prints "The"
on the slate; the children make the word in the air with the finger.
Here is the recipe for preventing that continued drawl (as they express it), which is so common in schools. The words, on the reading
boards, that are to be emphasized, are printed in larger type. One
would have supposed, that professed Pestalozzians might have attempted to secure a proper emphasis and intonation in a simpler way;
by seeing that the child have some idea of what he is reading about,
and not by teaching him to read mechanically, and by rule. I would
as soon attempt to teach a child to interpret the messages, that come
over the telegraph wires, by the click of the instrument, as to read
by such a method.
I have now fulfilled, in a very imperfect way, the triple task, that
I was invited by your executive committee to perform, viz: to pre.
sent some of the results of my observations in a peculiar field of educational effort, bearing upon the question of the natural order in the
development of the human faculties; to give a description of some of
the peculiar methods of elementary instruction, applied in the institution under my charge, and also in connection therewith, to notice
incidentally, a few of the objectionable features of that " Object system of instruction," just now, so much written about and spoken of.
I accepted the invitation because I was unwilling to forego any opportunity to draw attention, to even a single aspect of a work, in
which I am deeply interested. Nor did I feel at liberty to refuse to
state publicly some of the objections to the new Object system, which
I had made in private. I have done this last in no mere spirit of
opposition, but in the earnest hope, that the suggestions offered might
influence, as far as they were entitled to, your efforts for the improvement of primary school education; so that a pressing public want
may be met by a more substantial ministering, than is afforded by an
imported infant-school system of instruction, now urged upon American educators, by an advocacy more zealous than considerate.
I remember the reform inaugurated in education, in this country,
more than thirty years ago. I would render full justice to the good resuits accomplished by those early labors. They have left an enduring
impress upon what may be justly termed, the American educational
system. It is witnessed in the sounder principles and more correct
methods of instruction that have since prevailed. It is seen especially,
in the superiority of our school books to those of any other country., Speaking of a similar phonic method used in the German schools, the late
Horace Mann, in one of his reports, used the following language: " There are two
reasons why this phonic method is less adapted to the English language than to the
German; first, because our vowels have more sounds than theirs, and secondly,
because we have more silent letters than they. This is an argument not against
their method of teaching, but in favor of our commencing to teach by giving words
before letters."




HUMAN FACULTIES.                        31
But as applied to the improvement of the primary schools, they
were comparatively inoperative.
In that respect, the cause of failure then is obvious and admonitory.
The principles laid down by the reformers were in the main appropriated from German sources. They were sound, judicious and practicable. But routine, the bane of the system to be supplanted, took
possession of the new.
The teachers who engaged in the work practically, found it easier
to adopt blindly the absurd details of an English infant-school system,
fitted to their hands and professedly built on the same principles, than
to apply the principles themselves, to the varying circumstances of
childhood and child character. The experiment failed then; it will
fail now, if a similar error is committed.
To recur, to the point from whence I started to address you. Man,
the two-handed of zoology, is deprived by education, of the partial use
of one of these two specific characteristics. We should take heed
that we do not also, by injudicious labors of instruction, paralyze a
moiety of those other and higher endowments, that constitute his real
superiority to the brutes that perish.