"Mrs Wesley thus describes her peculiar method (of teaching her children to read,) in a letter to her son John, (the founder of the Wesleyan Methodists.) "None of them were taught to read till five years old, except Kezzy, in whose case I was overruled; and she was more years in learning than any of the rest had been months. The way of teaching was this: The day before a child began to learn, the house was set in order, every one's work appointed them, and a charge given that none should come into the room from nine till twelve, or from two till five, which were our school hours. One day was allowed the child wherein to learn its letters, and each of them did in that time know all its letters, great and small, except Molly and Nancy, who were a day and a half before they knew them perfectly, for which I then thought them very dull; but the reason why I thought them so, was because the rest learned them so readily; and your brother Samuel, who was the first child I ever taught, learnt the alphabet in a few hours. He was five years old the 10th of February; the next day he began to learn; and as soon as he knew the letters, began at the 1st chapter of Genesis. He was taught to spell the 1st verse, then to read it over and over till he could read it off hand without any hesitation;--so on to the second, &c. till he took ten verses to a lesson, which he quickly did. Easter fell low that year, and by Whitsuntide he could read a chapter very well; for he read continually, and had such a prodigious memory, that I cannot remember ever to have told him the same word twice. What was yet stranger, any word he had learnt in his lesson, he knew wherever he saw it, either in his Bible or any other book, by which means he learnt very soon to read an English author well. "The same method was observed with them all. As soon as they knew the letters, they were first put to spell and read one line, then a verse, never leaving till perfect in their lesson, were it shorter or longer. So one or other continued reading at school, time about, without any intermission; and before we left school, each child read what he had learned that morning, and ere we parted in the afternoon, what he had learned that day."--_Southey's Life of Wesley_, Note, p. 429. In the above simple narrative, there is a distinct reference to the principles of "Reiteration," and "Individuation," and hence Mrs Wesley's great success.