have been here, now, two or three months; quite long enough to judge whether you like our way of going on, or not. William. Why I like the school very much. T. The reason why I ask is, that I thought, when you first came, you looked rather sad and cast down. I have been here, myself, for several years, and I like it so well, that I rather wondered to see you so sorrowful at coming amongst us. W. Why, I can't say that I ever liked school before; and when my father and mother took me from my old school, I was glad, because I thought I should get rid of the trouble of learning, and the plague of going to school at all; but then, when they brought me here, I thought all my troubles were beginning again. 80? T. Well, and have not you found it W. No: I have not found half the trouble in learning, here, that I did in my other school. I remember that I usedt o read straight on; and, if I came to a hard word, and I could not read it, then I got scolded, or rapped on the pate; and, as this happened at almost every lesson, I hated my lesson, and was in a fright every time I went up to the master. T. Why that was the way to make you hate your lessons, to be sure. W. Yes, and I did not understand much about the meaning of the lessons either, so that I had no pleasure in them; and the school-time used to seem so long and so dull, that I thought it never would be over. T. I have heard almost all boys at other schools, say that their schoolhours appeared so very long; but I think, at our National Schools, the time seems to slip away fast enough, and the lessons don't seem so tiresome, as boys at other schools complain of. IV. No; because here we are always employed, constantly doing something; we are at reading, or writing, or arithmetic, all the time; and so we do not see how quickly the time passes. And, besides, we are made to understand every word we read, and so it is pleasant and agreeable: as we have always short lessons, and are questioned abo the meaning of every part of the lesson, it is not possible to help learning something upon this plan: that " questioning and answering" is, to be sure, a capital plan. T. Yes, I have always thought so. W. Why what can be the use of reading at all, if we do not understand what we are reading about? I have gone over lessons in the Bible, without understanding a word about what it all meant; but we can't do so here. And then we always were used to say one of Watts's Hymns; but as we were never asked the meaning of it, I always thought it a sort of task, and I did not like it at all. But now I delight in learning those hymus, and I think them quite beautiful. T. Why, certainly, nobody can like a thing that he does not understand. But now, William, as you talk of Watts's Hymns, suppose we ask one another a few questions in them, for the sake of practice: it may do us both good. W. Why, I should like it very well, Thomas. T. Suppose then we take the first nin. W. Come then; I will repeat the Hymn first, and then you shall question me. T. Very well. William repeats. 1. How glorious is our heavenly King, II. How great his pow'r is none can tell, Not angels that stand round the Lord But they perform his heav'nly word, IV. Then let me join this holy train, V. My heart resolves, my tongue obeys, To hear their mighty Maker's praise |