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war this power brings a greater number of troops to a critical spot, and thus multiplies numbers. This in fact is the grand principle of war. An officer, that can march with his men, and partake of their fatigues, encourages and is adored. The epithet of Achilles, swift-footed, is therefore highly appropriate to a soldier.

At seasons of the year when exercises in the. open air are not convenient, the pupil may amuse himself within doors with carpenter's, smith's, and turner's tools. Much cannot be done at an early age with implements of any kind: but the child will by repeated trials acquire expertness and dexterity: whatever he thus learns, let him work ever so hard, will appear to him mere amusement. No great apparatus of tools should at first be provided; he would not be able to make use of them, and he would only acquire habits of waste and negligence. His whole stock in trade should consist at first only of a knife, a square, a small saw, and two or three gimlets, twenty or thirty waste ends of boards of different thicknesses, and a strong stool for a work-bench. With these a boy of seven or eight years old may employ himself very happily. He will make stools and chairs, window-frames and door-cases. By degrees, whatever tools he can manage should be added to his stock. But before his wants are supplied, they should be distinctly felt; he should

Sawing and splitting wood for firing has been found an exercise the most permanently agreeable to children, because they are continually advancing to some end, which they know to be useful; they perceive, that their little labour is really advantageous to their friends, they see a cheerful fire procured by their own exertions, and they are praised for contributing to the general comfort.

be reduced to that necessity, which is proverbially productive of invention*. Working in brass or iron is more easily practised by children than joinery. When a little crooked box, or a frail legged table, has been made, the materials are of no use, and the toy of no value. But with the addition of a vice, some files, hard wood, bits of tinned plates, and plate brass, and wire, a number of useful contrivances may be executed by boys of ten or twelve years old. A little workman may often be of service in a house to mend a lock or a hinge, and will be able to perform many a mechanical device, which will render his improvement in manual arts advantageous to his friends, and consequently valuable in his own estimation. Parents who perceive the impracticability and romance of Rousseau's general system of education are apt to condemn or neglect, without distinction, all that he recommends: but he often gives excellent counsel; for instance, when he advises that a young man should learn some mechanic art, by which he may secure independent support. This advice, is urged not only by the eloquent Rousseau but by the judicious Locke. In these days, when the fortunes of men of the most elevated rank have been so suddenly changed by revolution, many who were born to large incomes have been reduced to the necessity of maintaining themselves by the work of their own hands. Therefore arguments immediately applicable to the present times must occur to every prudent parent, in favour of this precautionary measure. But independently of this consideration, it must be particularly useful to an officer in the army or navy, to have a taste for some mechanical art, which may supply him with agreeable occupation in idle hours during peace, and in time of war, it will be highly advantageous,

to be able to do with his own hands in the exigence of the moment many things, for which gentlemen are usually forced to wait for the directions and assistance of ordinary workmen, and to officers belonging to the engineer or ordnance department, mechanical knowledge and expertness in the use of tools may be of essential service. To all men it is agreeable, as extending their power. The education of the eye, as well as of the hand, should be attended to. Children should be early taught to measure distances, and to judge of them by the eye. The estimating of distances at sight, which in some people seems an intuitive art, is in fact merely the result of habit; yet how few can judge with tolerable accuracy how far objects are from each other, or from their own eye! To estimate the angle, which objects make at the eye, is another practice of real utility to all men, and to military men in particular. This knowledge of the relative distance of objects, and of their distance from the eye, leads imperceptibly to the power of estimating the angle, which they subtend. Familiar objects may serve as measures for those, of which the size or distance is to be estimated; for instance, cattle or the height of a man. By teaching children to observe at what distance a cow, or a horse, or the human figure, appears of a certain size, they may be led to form a scale of comparison of the sizes of all other objects at given distances. This is peculiarly applicable to the education of young men for the navy.

Next to accuracy of eye, the power of representing faithfully to others what is seen should be taught. The art of drawing will be extremely useful to a military man, and abso

lutely necessary for a seaman; and the sooner the child begins to practise it the better. During long winter evenings, when a boy of seven or eight years old is at a loss for occupation, in one of those critical moments, when the pain of ennui has become insupportable, and consequently when any employment will be agreeable, put a pencil into his hand, and begin to teach him to draw parallel lines, first with a ruler, then without one; the use of the compasses should next be taught, and the pupil will soon proceed to drawing plans and elevations of houses. Sections should then be attempted. It will be easy to explain even to very young children the nature and use of sections by the common prints, in which the insides of rooms and houses are represented; for instance, in Gil Blas and in the Diable boiteux; in the latter especially, where sections of houses of several stories high are given for the amusement of the curious licentiate. Young people should be carefully practised in the imagining and representing sections of various objects. They should be frequently asked,—If such an object were cut in such or such a direction, what would you see of it, and how would you represent it in drawing? For want of being early familiarized to such simple ideas and easy practices, people are often puzzled by prints of machines or buildings, where sections are represented; or even if they understand the drawings of others, they are incapable of conveying their own ideas, or doing justice to their own inventions, by any intelligible delineation.

In The Microcosm there are many prints, which will amuse and instruct. children..

The names and the use of all the lines employed in mathematical diagrams should be early impressed upon your pupil's memory. The names of chord, sine, versed sine, cosine, tangent, &c. will not alarm or flutter his understanding when he first goes to a military academy, if he have been familiarized to them at home. After having learned the names, the child should imitate the lines, and by degrees should be led to comprehend, that the relations which they bear to each other are not limited to the particular figure, in which he has first seen them drawn; but that they may have different relative proportions, and yet retain the same denominations and properties. These fundamental rudiments of the science of geometry, and of the art of surveying and drawing, early acquired will give a clearness of idea, and a firmness of belief on these subjects, joined to an expertness of hand, which can seldom be acquired late in life. The particulars of infantile tuition may perhaps be soon effaced; but something remains, which facilitates future acquisition. The Platonists believed, that human knowledge is only reminiscence of what has passed in previous existence; in the same manner the aptitude, which sometimes appears in youths for certain arts or sciences, is frequently nothing more than the revival of obscure traces left by former instruction.

A boy intended for the army or navy should be as soon as possible initiated in geography; this may be begun very early, by means of dissected maps', which afford children

f These maps should be dissected by the boundaries of sea and land.

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