So far, however, is this from being true, that we have taken nature for our guide.

We deprecate strongly, most strongly, that unnatural system, which gives children tasks so far beyond their powers, and for which their infantile faculties are not qualified;--we would lead them on in the path which nature has marked out--step by step--taking care that one thing should be thoroughly mastered before another is attempted.
The mental powers of children are far stronger than is generally supposed.

No one who looks back to his early childhood, can fail of recollecting, that, at times, his thoughts would even then reach the very limits of human thought.

All the powers of mind that are exercised in after-life display themselves in infancy, and therefore they all ought to be quietly and easily brought into exercise.

This maybe done by any object,--even a toy.