Excerpt from Littell's Living Age, Vol. 2: From 10 August to 26 October, 1844; With a Complete Index The law of Nature, in Coleridge's words, has irrevocably decreed that the way to knowl edge shall be long, diflicult, winding, and often times returning upon itself. Thus to a vulgar apprehension, a child's mind will he apparently sailing away from its object, when in truth it is only following the devious current which securely leads to it. Of all the errors in education that of overmuch dependence upon teaching is most to be dreaded, because least to be rectified. On this account it is, that, even under the most judicious direction, regular series of lessons never do so much good aswhen a gap is left here and there for the mind's own Operations. There is a self development in what is involuntarily preferred and unconsciously chosen, which the regular habits of mechanical acquirement are indispensable to pro mote, but insufficient to attain there is a wisdom gained to the mind in being left to know both what it can do for itself and what it needs from others, which a continuous form of instruction may assist but can never impart; and those parents or teachers can know but little of the real nature of education, or of the being they have to educate, who hesitate to confess that, after all they may have taught him, the nicest art consists in know ing where to leave him to teach himself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.