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Among the novel features of the Infant School System, that of geometrical lessons is the most peculiar.  How it happened that a mode of instruction so evidently calculated for the infant mind was so long overlooked, I cannot imagine; and it is still more surprising that, having been once thought of, there should be any doubt as to its utility.  Certain it is that the various forms of bodies is one of the first items of natural education, and we cannot err when treading in the steps of Nature.  It is undeniable that geometrical knowledge is of great service in many of the mechanic arts, and, therefore, proper to be taught children who are likely to be employed in some of those arts; but, independently of this, we cannot adopt a better method of exciting and strengthening their powers of observation.  I have seen a thousand instances, moreover, in the conduct of the children, which have assured me, that it is a very pleasing as well as useful branch of instruction.  The children, being taught the first elements of form, and the terms used to express the various figures of bodies, find in its application to objects around them an inexhaustible source of amusement.  Streets, houses, rooms, fields, ponds, plates, dishes, tables; in short, every thing they see calls for observation, and affords an opportunity for the application of their geometrical knowledge.  Let it not, then, be said that it is beyond their capacity, for it is the simplest and most comprehensible to them of all knowledge;—­let it not be said that it is useless, since its application to the useful arts is great and indisputable; nor is it to be asserted that it is unpleasing to them, since it has been shewn to add greatly to their happiness.

It is essential in this, as in every other branch of education, to begin with the first principles, and proceed slowly to their application, and the complicated forms arising therefrom.  The next thing is to promote that application of which we have before spoken, to the various objects around them.  It is this, and this alone, which forms the distinction between a school lesson and practical knowledge; and so far will the children be found from being averse from this exertion, that it makes the acquirement of knowledge a pleasure instead of a task.  With these prefatory remarks I shall introduce a description of the method I have pursued, and a few examples of geometrical lessons.

We will suppose that the whole of the children are seated in the gallery, and that the teacher (provided with a brass instrument formed for the purpose, which is merely a series of joints like those to a counting-house candlestick, from which I borrowed the idea,[A] and which may be altered as required, in a moment,) points to a straight line, asking, What is this?  A. A straight line.  Q. Why did you not call it a crooked line?  A. Because it is not crooked, but straight.  Q. What are these?  A. Curved lines.