facts.  Not perceiving the enormous value of that spontaneous education which goes on in early years—­not perceiving that a child’s restless observation, instead of being ignored or checked, should be diligently ministered to, and made as accurate and complete as possible; they insist on occupying its eyes and thoughts with things that are, for the time being, incomprehensible and repugnant.  Possessed by a superstition which worships the symbols of knowledge instead of the knowledge itself, they do not see that only when his acquaintance with the objects and processes of the household, the streets, and the fields, is becoming tolerably exhaustive—­only then should a child be introduced to the new sources of information which books supply:  and this, not only because immediate cognition is of far greater value than mediate cognition; but also, because the words contained in books can be rightly interpreted into ideas, only in proportion to the antecedent experience of things.  Observe next, that this formal instruction, far too soon commenced, is carried on with but little reference to the laws of mental development.  Intellectual progress is of necessity from the concrete to the abstract.  But regardless of this, highly abstract studies, such as grammar, which should come quite late, are begun quite early.  Political geography, dead and uninteresting to a child, and which should be an appendage of sociological studies, is commenced betimes; while physical geography, comprehensible and comparatively attractive to a child, is in great part passed over.  Nearly every subject dealt with is arranged in abnormal order:  definitions and rules and principles being put first, instead of being disclosed, as they are in the order of nature, through the study of cases.  And then, pervading the whole, is the vicious system of rote learning—­a system of sacrificing the spirit to the letter.  See the results.  What with perceptions unnaturally dulled by early thwarting, and a coerced attention to books—­what with the mental confusion produced by teaching subjects before they can be understood, and in each of them giving generalisations before the facts of which they are the generalisations—­what with making the pupil a mere passive recipient of other’s ideas, and not in the least leading him to be an active inquirer or self-instructor—­and what with taxing the faculties to excess; there are very few minds that become as efficient as they might be.  Examinations being once passed, books are laid aside; the greater part of what has been acquired, being unorganised, soon drops out of recollection; what remains is mostly inert—­the art of applying knowledge not having been cultivated; and there is but little power either of accurate observation or independent thinking.  To all which add, that while much of the information gained is of relatively small value, an immense mass of information of transcendent value is entirely passed over.