Jean Jacques.  My dear Emile, what shall we do get out?

Emile.  I am sure I do not know.  I am tired, I am hungry, I am thirsty.  I cannot go any further.

Jean Jacques.  Do you suppose I am any better off?  I would cry too if I could make my breakfast off tears.  Crying is no use, we must look about us.  Let us see your watch; what time is it?

Emile.  It is noon and I am so hungry!

Jean Jacques.  Just so; it is noon and I am so hungry too.

Emile.  You must be very hungry indeed.

Jean Jacques.  Unluckily my dinner won’t come to find me.  It is twelve o’clock.  This time yesterday we were observing the position of the forest from Montmorency.  If only we could see the position of Montmorency from the forest.

Emile.  But yesterday we could see the forest, and here we cannot see the town.

Jean Jacques.  That is just it.  If we could only find it without seeing it.

Emile.  Oh! my dear friend!

Jean Jacques.  Did not we say the forest was...

Emile.  North of Montmorency.

Jean Jacques.  Then Montmorency must lie...

Emile.  South of the forest.

Jean Jacques.  We know how to find the north at midday.

Emile.  Yes, by the direction of the shadows.

Jean Jacques.  But the south?

Emile.  What shall we do?

Jean Jacques.  The south is opposite the north.

Emile.  That is true; we need only find the opposite of the shadows.  That is the south!  That is the south!  Montmorency must be over there!  Let us look for it there!

Jean Jacques.  Perhaps you are right; let us follow this path through the wood.

Emile. (Clapping his hands.) Oh, I can see Montmorency! there it is, quite plain, just in front of us!  Come to luncheon, come to dinner, make haste!  Astronomy is some use after all.

Be sure that he thinks this if he does not say it; no matter which, provided I do not say it myself.  He will certainly never forget this day’s lesson as long as he lives, while if I had only led him to think of all this at home, my lecture would have been forgotten the next day.  Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing is out of the question.

The reader will not expect me to have such a poor opinion of him as to supply him with an example of every kind of study; but, whatever is taught, I cannot too strongly urge the tutor to adapt his instances to the capacity of his scholar; for once more I repeat the risk is not in what he does not know, but in what he thinks he knows.