A constant variety, of which these three methods should be the elements, is unquestionably the best mode.

We not only, by this means, secure in a great degree the advantages which each is fitted to produce, but we gain also the additional advantage and interest of variety.
By these, and perhaps by other means, it is the duty of the teacher to satisfy himself that his pupils are really attentive to their duties.
It is not perhaps necessary that every individual should be every day minutely examined; this is, in many cases, impossible; but the system of examination should be so framed and so administered as to be daily felt by all, and to bring upon every one a daily responsibility.
* * * * * We come now to consider the second general head which was to be discussed in this chapter.
The study of books alone is insufficient to give knowledge to the young.
In the first stage, learning to read a book is of no use whatever without the voice of the living teacher.

The child can not take a step alone.

As the pupil, however, advances in his course, his dependence upon his teacher for guidance and help continually diminishes, until at last the scholar sits in his solitary study, with no companion but his books, and desiring, for a solution of every difficulty, nothing but a larger library.

In schools, however, the pupils have made so little progress in this course, that they all need more or less of the oral assistance of a teacher.