In such cases, when my instructions were not disturbed by untoward circumstances, the result has always been a desirable one.

But how much patience and perseverance has this required! I have reflected much and have often spoken, both seriously and playfully, of the slow advancement of my pupils.

Allow me here to describe five phases or stages of human development.
_First Stage._ In the first two or three years, man is far behind the animal, whose quick instinct distinguishes the good from the bad, the useful from the injurious.

The child, without hesitation, rolls off the table, or knocks his brains out, or destroys himself with poisonous herbs or arsenic.

Nevertheless, let him at that age hear plenty of pure sounds, music, singing, &c.