Object-lessons should not only be carried on after quite a different fashion from that commonly pursued, but should be extended to a range of things far wider, and continued to a period far later, than now.  They should not be limited to the contents of the house; but should include those of the fields and the hedges, the quarry and the sea-shore.  They should not cease with early childhood; but should be so kept up during youth, as insensibly to merge into the investigations of the naturalist and the man of science.  Here again we have but to follow Nature’s leadings.  Where can be seen an intenser delight than that of children picking up new flowers and watching new insects; or hoarding pebbles and shells?  And who is there but perceives that by sympathising with them they may be led on to any extent of inquiry into the qualities and structures of these things?  Every botanist who has had children with him in the woods and lanes must have noticed how eagerly they joined in his pursuits, how keenly they searched out plants for him, how intently they watched while he examined them, how they overwhelmed him with questions.  The consistent follower of Bacon—­the “servant and interpreter of nature,” will see that we ought modestly to adopt the course of culture thus indicated.  Having become familiar with the simpler properties of inorganic objects, the child should by the same process be led on to an exhaustive examination of the things it picks up in its daily walks—­the less complex facts they present being alone noticed at first:  in plants, the colours, numbers, and forms of the petals, and shapes of the stalks and leaves; in insects, the numbers of the wings, legs, and antennae, and their colours.  As these become fully appreciated and invariably observed, further facts may be successively introduced:  in the one case, the numbers of stamens and pistils, the forms of the flowers, whether radial or bilateral in symmetry, the arrangement and character of the leaves, whether opposite or alternate, stalked or sessile, smooth or hairy, serrated, toothed, or crenate; in the other, the divisions of the body, the segments of the abdomen, the markings of the wings, the number of joints in the legs, and the forms of the smaller organs—­the system pursued throughout being that of making it the child’s ambition to say respecting everything it finds all that can be said.  Then when a fit age has been reached, the means of preserving these plants, which have become so interesting in virtue of the knowledge obtained of them, may as a great favour be supplied; and eventually, as a still greater favour, may also be supplied the apparatus needful for keeping the larvae of our common butterflies and moths through their transformations—­a practice which, as we can personally testify, yields the highest gratification; is continued with ardour for years; when joined with the formation of an entomological collection, adds immense interest to Saturday-afternoon rambles; and forms an admirable introduction to the study of physiology.