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I have dwelt more at length upon this point because of my conviction of its practical importance.

In the course of my experience I have known of many cases where individual instruction in the case of idiots has been fairly tried. I have in former years suggested such a course in certain cases about whose management I had been consulted. But I am constrained to say that in almost every case the effort has proved a failure, even in the hands of intelligent and zealous teachers. The pupil seems to tire of instruction persistently aimed at him alone. The power of attention flags under its inevitable monotony. There is nothing to awaken the spirit of emulation or sympathy.

I have spoken briefly of the method of opening communication with the nervous centres, and of the use that may be made of the lower order of human attributes in our attempts to develop the higher. It remains to say a few words as to the mode of development of general will-power in our pupils.

We begin by eliciting volition with reference to a simple muscular movement, by means that vary with the peculiarities of each individual case, then in a succession of similar acts. Ultimately we can bring the pupil's will to bear upon combined movements, requiring the coordinated exercise of a more complicated muscular apparatus. In these early lessons the pupils' consciousness becomes more active, and some discriminative power is engendered as to the direction which their efforts should take. These efforts may be continued till a habit is formed of executing them with promptness and facility. In time discrimination and judgment will be brought in as factors in the performance of the prescribed actions.

As an illustration, take a pupil who at the outset cannot or does not hold anything in his hand, not from want of muscular power, but from an inertia of will that makes him incapable of grasping it. We have brought him by successive steps up to a point where he will catch a bean-bag, or similar object, when thrown at him, and will toss it back. By changing the weight of the bag, by varying the distance at which we stand to receive it, or the direction, he learns to modify the force and direction to have it reach us. This, that an ordinary child seems to do intuitively, can only be acquired in the case of some idiots by quite a process of training in which the successive steps have been made very gradual.

In connection with this brief notice of methods of training with the lowest grade of idiots, I might, did time permit, describe the modes by which even the lower motives of human action may be developed. But I will content myself with saying that in every case likely to be brought to an institution there are, at least, faint germs of all the human faculties that can be discovered by proper study.

Fortunately, with the average bodily and mental condition of those submitted to our care we can start on a higher plane of endeavor. And yet the physiological truths that have been presented have a practical bearing upon our entire course of instruction.

In all our institutions much stress is laid upon physical exercises. These, of course, conduce to health and strength, but that is not the main purpose. They are more strictly educational. By them are developed the power of attention and the faculty of imitation. Simple muscular movements prepare the way for more complicated ones and bring them into the sphere of secondary automatism. The steps are thence to the management and control of the vocal organs, to general dexterity and its application to various forms of useful employment. These exercises develop a power of will that may be brought to bear in mental acquisitions and the growth of intelligence, and, lastly, in proper self-control.

With this approach to the domain of ordinary elementary instruction, I may leave the topic for your further discussion.