at once, such as grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, poetic, Greek, etc., in one year (cf. the previous chapter, Principle 4).
Sixth Principle
31. Nature does not hurry, but advances slowly.
For example, a bird does not place its eggs in the fire, in order to hatch them quickly, but lets them develope slowly under the influence of natural warmth. Neither, later on, does it cram its chickens with food that they may mature quickly (for this would only choke them), but it selects their food with care and gives it to them gradually in the quantities that their weak digestion can support.
32. Imitation.—The builder, too, does not erect the walls on the foundations with undue haste and then straightway put on the roof; since, unless the foundations were given time to dry and become firm, they would sink under the superincumbent weight, and the whole building would tumble down. Large stone buildings, therefore, cannot be finished within one year, but must have a suitable length of time allotted for their construction.
33. Nor does the gardener expect a plant to grow large in the first month, or to bear fruit at the end of the first year. He does not, therefore, tend and water it every day, nor does he warm it with fire or with quicklime, but is content with the moisture that comes from heaven and with the warmth that the sun provides.
34. Deviation.—For the young, therefore, it is torture
(i) If they are compelled to receive six, seven, or eight hours’ class instruction daily, and private lessons in addition.
(ii) If they are overburdened with dictations, with exercises, and with the lessons that they have to commit to memory, until nausea and, in some cases, insanity is produced.
If we take a jar with a narrow mouth (for to this we may compare a boy’s intellect) and attempt to pour a quantity of water into it violently, instead of allowing it to trickle in drop by drop, what will be the result? Without
