CHAPTER IV.
The Three Periods of Early Life.—Infancy.
It is assumed then that a family, retained for education at home, is actually enjoying, in some good measure, what has been stated as indispensable to the prosperous conduct of a domestic system of culture.
But in preparation for putting such a system in movement, and especially as preliminary to what concerns the culture of the faculties in a natural order, it is necessary to distinguish, with some degree of precision, the several epochs of mental development, to each of which a specific treatment is proper: and whereas the classification effected at school has regard, not so much to the real expansion of the powers, as to the accidental readiness of children in performing certain exercises; on the contrary, at home, and inasmuch as a more correct adaption of the processes of instruction to the capacity of the learner is intended, there is required a classification which, while it is altogether irrespective of mere cleverness, or promptitude in performing tasks, is founded upon the spontaneous evolution of the faculties, at certain periods of early life.
Although, at a first hearing, it may seem a solecism to speak of the classification of two, or three, or seven children, yet it is true that the substantial benefits of classification, which consist in the treatment of each according to his capacities, are available with a few as well as with many;
