Undoubtedly, the best of all ways of
learning anything is to have a competent master to dole out a fixed
quantity every day, just sufficient to be taken in, and no more; the
pupils to apply themselves to the matter so imparted, and to do nothing
else. The singleness of aim is favourable to the greatest rapidity of
acquirement; and any defects are to be left out of account, until one
thread of ideas is firmly set in the mind. Not unfrequently, however,
and not improperly, the teacher has a text-book in aid of his oral
instructions. To make this a help, and not a hindrance, demands the
greatest delicacy; the sole consideration being that the pupil must
be kept _in one single line of thought_, and never be required to
comprehend, on the same point, conflicting or varying statements.
Even the foot-notes to a work may have to be disregarded, in the first
instance. They may act like a second author, and keep up an irritating
friction. There is, doubtless, a consummate power of annotation that
anticipates difficulties, and clears away haze, without distracting the
mind. There is also an art of bringing out relief by an accompaniment,
like the two images of the stereoscope.
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