NOTES OF LESSONS, IN THEIR PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION, FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS AND PUPIL TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. BY G. SYDENHAM, C.M., MASTER OF THE CANNOCK ENDOWED NATIONAL SCHOOL. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. 185 6. 260.9.227. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY HATHERTON. MY LADY, With your Ladyship's permission I commit this little work to your patronage, in the hope that an effort, however humble, to facilitate the task of the Teacher will not be altogether uninteresting to one whose active benevolence has ever been directed to the advantage of Christian education, and to whose unfailing readiness to help and encourage all who are striving to do their duty no one is more beholden than, My Lady, Your Ladyship's obliged and very grateful servant, A GEO. SYDENHAM. PREFACE. "NECESSITY is the mother of invention," declares a trite old proverb, and experience teaches us that there is much truth embodied in these words. King Alfred's candle waned away too rapidly before the fitful breeze as it penetrated the crevices of his humble cabin, and necessitated the invention of the lantern. Many were the attempts doubtless made to remedy the inconvenience, many the failures, before the useful article assumed a definite shape; but there was a positive want to be supplied, and the Saxon king braced up the energies of his active mind to discover some means of supplying the desideratum: perseverance overcame the difficulties with which he had to contend, and the desired article richly rewarded his exertions. So has it ever been since the experienced want has ever been speedily supplied. The want of information upon "Notes of Lessons" has been experienced by Teachers since the recent important changes in this country in the system of Elementary Teaching, as a cursory glance at our School Periodicals will testify. The Schoolmasters of our boyhood were generally satisfied with a certain amount of rote learning on the part of their pupils-principles were of course too abstruse for the comprehension of juvenile minds; those little machines which gave such annoyance to the venerable Dominie could not be |