Excerpt from Natural Philosophy: For Common and High Schools The great aim of this little book is to present the most elementary facts of Natural. Philosophy, in such a way as to exercise the child constantly in observing phenomena and in drawing inferences from what he observes. Whenever a child is old enough to ask such questions, as, "What makes the thunder," or, "Where does the rain come from," or to exclaim "How pretty the clouds are this evening," it is old enough to begin the study of natural philosophy. When such questions are asked the mind is awake to see the phenomena of nature, and is ready to receive instruction. They show the presence of a desire to know, and the absence of power to learn without assistance; and in this way they lead us to believe that the time has come when the work of instruction should begin. Moreover, the study of natural philosophy is easy, and interesting to young pupils, because, when properly presented, it brings new sights to the eye, and new sounds the ear, in a way to be especially pleasant to children. The simplest experiments awaken enthusiasm in the mind of a child, and such as be may he able to repeat by himself are the source of the greatest delight. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.