In this way they may be led to discover the nature of addition, somewhat in the following manner. : These exercises should be varied and modified according to the progress of children and as soon as they have clear and distinct ideas of units in the formation or composition of numbers, and can declare the variety of forms in which they can produce the numbers 5, 7, 10, 12, &c. they should be led to the decomposition or subtraction of numbers by visible objects; thus, Thirdly. &c. 3 Fourthly. 1 and 11 from 3 remains 0 111 and 11 from 5 remains 0 Continue these subtraction exercises in every variety of form, and when children can answer with precision such questions as the teacher may propose, their minds will be fully prepared to commence with the exercises given on the simple unit table. 7 Previous to the commencement of this exercise, it is essential to inform children, who have no knowledge of numbers, that as calculations can, and may be proposed too great for the mind to comprehend without some assistance, certain characters invented by the Arabs, which are supposed to have been introduced into this country about the middle of the eleventh century, are now used in every part of the civilized world, namely, 1, one; 2, two; 3, three ; 4, four ; 5, five ; 6, six : 7, seven ; 8, eight; 9, nine ; 0, cipher. Either of these figures, except the cipher, when standing alone, as 3, or 5, or 7, &c. represents a number of persons, places, or things, &c. as 3 men 3 sheep, 3 gardens, 3 ships, 3 towns, 3 towers, &c. or 5 women, 5 birds, 5 trees, 5 apples, 5 fingers, 5 toes, &c. or 7 girls, 7 boys, 7 books, 7 slates, pens, 7 balls, &c. But when a child has to note down a number which may require two, three, or more figures, that is to say, tens, hundreds, &c. as for example, 89, eighty-nine; or 890, eight hundred and ninety; he will require some explanation of the value of each figure. In these two numbers the figure 8 denotes in each the number eight, and the figure 9, the number nine; but in the former, the 8 standing in the second place on the left, it designates 8 tons, or eighty; but in the latter, where it stands in the third place on the left, it denotes eight hundred : and in the former, the 9 standing in the right-hand place, signifies nine places, persons, or things, &c. but in the latter, standing in the second place at the left, it designates nine tens or ninety. Hence the use of the cipher is obvious, for notwithstanding it shows there is No efficient number standing in the units place, yet it must be written in order to bring the significant figures into their proper places. Every figure placed on the left of another increases in value tenfold; consequently, we require three figures to express one hundred (100,) six to designate a hundred thousand (100,000), nine to denote one hundred million (100.000,000), and so on to billions, trillions, &c.; marking them off into periods of six figures each by a semicolon, and into half periods of three each by a comma. The name of hundred is given to tens; of thousand to ten hundreds; of million to ten hundred thousand; of billion to ten hundred millions; of trillion to ten hundred billions, &c. Here it may be necessary to observe, that the facility with which we can represent the highest numbers, and perform every arithmetical calculation on them, has occasioned an insensibility to the enormous magnitude of the numbers of which we speak. One billion is very easily mentioned, and easily written with a unit, followed by twelve ciphers; thus, 1,000,000,000, 000. A child also can multiply or divide that number. But children will, no doubt, be greatly surprised if you were to give them some knowledge of this immense number, by informing them that there is not a billion of seconds in thirty thousand years; though there are 60 seconds in every minute, 60 minutes in every hour, 24 hours in every day, and in a solar year 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and about 48 seconds. At that calculation the precise number of seconds in 30,000 years is only 946,707;840,000, or above fifty thousand millions less that one billion. It is only by considerations of this kind that children can form any conception of such immense numbers. It is needless to comment on the superiority of this method, it must speak for itself: indeed the whole of the section on Arithmetic is admirable, and we regret our limits prevent us from giving it entire. We now come to the section which treats on the important subject of Rewards and Punishments. With regard to rewards, the Author appears to have gained a tolerable knowledge of the human heart, which he manifests by a controversy with another writer on Infant Education.* "The distribution of rewards and punishments resorted to in many schools, I conceive in many respects defective and improper. It is generally thought, that in order to make a child dutiful and obedient, fond of his school, and attentive to his studies, that cither reward or punishment should be resorted to, as the nature of the case may dictate: but in both these instances, the good effect which is anticipated is absolutely often defeated by its immediate tendency either to excite the springs of self-love by reward, or to immolate the passions in the gloomy recesses of jealousy and revenge by condemnation and punishment. "By steering in a middle course, which is the safest aud the best, we shall avoid shipwreck." A child, gifted by nature with a good capacity, will readily take his learning, surmount every task exacted from him, and of course receives the reward. Another child, not gifted with so good a capacity (but equally emulous of obtaining knowledge) will manifest more dulness, and require a longer period of time ere he can attain his tasks: this child, under an imputation of supposed negligence and inattention, will be punished for failings which are beyond his controul; this raises a degree of hatred in the mind of the latter, while the feelings of self-love are excited in the former, who imagines himself very superior to all his feilows. The consequence of this is, that the children imbibe a spirit of discontent and mutual animosity, which will be frequently manifested on the most frivolous occasions, to the extinction of that tender and benevolent feeling, which is generally peculiar to the infant mind. It may be anticipated from the above remarks, that the rewards and punishments in general use, are not approved of at the Infant School in Bristol. It is true, monitors are placed over the children, it is also true that they are • Mr. Wilderspin. taught to look up to such monitors with due respect, but no badge of superiority is allowed; no crosses at the button holes, no first and second places, or trials of ability before a public audience, no penny a week, &e. &c.; for what are all these, but so many dangerous stimulants, which tend more to harrow up the passions, to puff up the mind with an undue consequence of its own superiority,and thus to feed its impure self-love, rather than to cherish that spirit of conscious humility, which should always accompany the possession of eminent talents. The children are therefore taught to do good for its own sake; if some have better capacities than their little companions, they are told that they were not given to make them more vain, but more useful, and to afford with pleasure their aid to their less gifted but equally meritorious school-fellows : they are told further, that God never withholds a blessing from any one, and that although they may be quicker at their books than their companions, yet they, on their part may excel in some other employment better adapted to their genius. They are told, lastly, that the Lord gives us talents according to the station we are designed to fill in society, and that without them we should not be qualified to perform the various duties assigned us. By these methods, self-love, the root of all evil, is kept in subjection to neighbourly love: malevolence is supplanted by urbanity and kindness, and the children thus become a band of brethren and sisters, who look up to their master and mistress as to their common parents for every information. "The usual lazy and short way by chastisement and the rod" (says Mr. Locke)" which is the only instrument of government that tutors generally know, or ever think of, is the most unfit of any to be used in education." We disagree in toto with the Author's adoption of "Stocks and Handcuffs" and we were not a little pleased to find at the close of the Section, that, through the perusal of the Rev. Mr. Wilson's system of Infant Schools, he has laid them aside altogether. The concluding observations which are from the pen of Mr. Robert Dale Owen, are truly excellent, but we have not space to quote them. An Appendix consisting of hymns and poems, is subjoined, concerning the hymns, the Author says, at the conclusion of the section on singing, in a former part of the work, "The hymns used in the Bristol Infant School, have been altered, and often, materially so, from the originals, both in order to render them more intelligible to such very young children, and also to prevent their expressing sentiments, which might be deemed by any christian, irreconcileable with Gospel Truth." The Author also acknowledges in page 6 of the Advertisement that a lady is the "Authoress of most of the Poems found in the Appendix." We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of transscribing one of these poems as a specimen. I Have slept very well all the night I am sure, Then I'll try to be good, so now to begin, I'll pray to this dear heavenly father and friend, But who are his creatures? why children like me, If I see the poor donkey sink under his load, And when I have finished the work of the day, And tried to be good both at school and at home; Then I'll look to my dear heavenly Father and friend, The whole is wound up by the recommendations of several eminent gentlemen. We certainly consider the work as a valuable and important addition to the Infant System. We warmly and cordially recommend it to the notice of our readers, conceiving it useful not only to Infant Schools, but to every mother who has a family under her own superintendance, and certainly it ought to be in the hands of every committee. It is enriched with five illustrative Engravings. Miscellanea. PETER STREET CHURCH, MANCHESTER. On Wednesday, November 2, 1825, a general meeting of the members of the above church took place in the Lecture Room adjoining the said church, for the purpose of presenting to the Rev. Richard Jones, his PORTRAIT and a SILVER ĈUP, as testimonies of the respect and esteem of his congregation. The testimonials presented to Mr. Jones were voted by his congregation at a public meeting, and the expenses were defrayed by subscription. The portrait, which is an excellent likeness, is a half-length, finely painted by Mr. R. B. Faulkner, of London; the expense of which was £47. 10s. The cup is of a large size, and elegantly ornamented -it bears the following inscription: "To the Rev. Richard Jones, Minister of the New Jerusalem Church, Peter Street, Manchester, THIS CUP, with its Stand, was presented by his congregation, in testimony of their attachment and esteem for his character as a man and a Christian; of gratitude for his disinterested services as minister of this congregation for more than twenty years; and for his unwearied exertions for the establishment and welfare of the New Church at large during a mnch longer period. October, 1825." The cup cost £41. and the presentation of these took place on the day above-mentioned, when friends to the number of upwards of one hundred and twenty attended. A report of the proceedings of the committee was read, and the chairman of the meeting, Mr. William Lockett, then read the following ADDRESS. MR. JONES, Sir,-The brief report just made to the friends now assembled will have put you in possession of the leading circumstances connected with the occasion of our present meeting; and it is now my duty to endeavour to give expression to the feelings with which we have been actuated in offering for your aceeptance a memorial of our regard and attachment. When we review your labours in the service of the church, whether as regards its external concerns or the individual welfare of its members, we cannot too highly appreciate their value. At the time you undertook the office of its minister, the external affairs of this place of worship presented the most discouraging aspect :-such indeed was the state of the church, that, but for your firmness and perseverance, there is every reason to conclude we should not at this day have retained possession of it. Chiefly through your instrumentality, its finances have been brought into so flourishing a state, that a few years of further perseverance in the same course will place it in the situation to meet every probable future difficulty. But, Sir, it is not to these benefits, great as they are, that we would attach the most importance. In you, Sir, it has been our happiness to find a safe and sure guide in all that concerns us as a body of New Church Christians, the sound and consistent expounder of New Church doctrine. When we reflect, Sir, on the persevering industry with which, amidst other avocations, you have devoted so many years to the service of the church; when we consider that these labours have not only been gratuitous and disinterested, but that they have included many duties besides your public ministrations-we feel it difficult to decide whether the benefits already derived, or those which such an example may hereafter produce, are most to be estimated. In the infancy of the church such examples are invaluable, and will hereafter be held up as worthy of imitation. In recording that example to future generations, we would recommend with earnestness the consideration of some circumstances in addition to those already referred to ;-we would suggest, Sir, that the high qualifications for your office were attained withont advantages of any unusual kind; -that, besides a thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of this new dispensation, you had made yourself familiar with those languages in which the word of truth was originally written ;-that, by a rare habbit of application and reflection, the hidden treasures of that Word have been made, in your bands, intelligible to the commonest understanding. That, although the brightness and novelty of some of the views of the New Church might have afforded attractive themes for the display of a speaker, you had, in your public addresses and private intercourse, ever kept your hearers impressed with the important fact that knowledge was the means and not the end of religious attainments. We would further impress upon them, that, in the course of your ministry, you had, at an early period, made all the intellectual resources of your mind subservient to the illustration of truth for practical more than speculative purposes;-that at length, after many years of experience, you had given proof that doctrines which have by some been termed abstruse, were, in reality, plain, obvious, practical, and harmonious. That whilst you conveyed to us an enlarged view of "the ways of God to men," as recorded in his Holy Word you had, by a happy mode of analysis, shewn the practical application of all its precepts, and thus developed the wonders of its hidden treasures. We would further add that your door was ever open to the sincere inquirer after truth, and the humblest of your hearers was ever a |