The Discovery Of The Child

32 THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD

" And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the fleslj came up upon
them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath
in them.

" Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy,
Son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God;
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live.

" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came
into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceed-
ing great army.

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our
hope is lost: we are cut off from our parts."

Indeed the words, " I will cause breath to enter into you, and
ye shall live," seem to refer directly to the individual work of the
teacher, who encourages, incites, and helps the pupil and prepares
him for education.

And the other words—" I will lay sinews upon you, and will
bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin/9 recall the funda-
mental sentences in which is summed up Seguin's method: " To
lead the child as it were by the hand of the education of the muscular
system and that of the nervous system and the senses," with which
Seguin teaches idiots to walk, to keep their balance in the most
difficult movements of the body, like mounting a staircase, jumping,
etc.; and at last, teaching them to feel, beginning with the educa-
tion of the muscular, tactile and heat sensations, and ending with
those of the special senses. But these are simply made adaptable
to the physical life. " Prophesy unto the wind," says the prophet;
" and the breath came into them and they lived." Seguin indeed
led the idiot from the physical life to the life of the spirit, " from
the education of the senses to notions, from notions to ideas,
from ideas to morality **. But when such a marvellous work is
accomplished, and by means of detailed physiological analysis
and a gradually progressive method the idiot has become a man,
he is always only an inferior among other men, an individual