McMillan tells BR that his book is "splendid" and states that she is not a Montessorian in education but follows Seguin, especially on "defectives".

[William Bruneau comments:] This would almost certainly be a reference to Edouard Seguin (1812-1880). Seguin followed the paternal tradition of his French medical family, becoming a doctor. He knew and learned from Itard and Esquirol, and eventually became a specialist in the treatment of children classed as "mental defectives". He moved in 1850 to the United States, not being welcome under the régime of Napoleon III—and anglicized his name to Edward in the mid-1850s (or thereabouts). His best-known books were written and published in English, although Seguin also had a significant publishing career in French before he was forced to emigrate. Seguin after 1850 wrote much on ordinary and gifted children. Seguin thought the body and mind were a unity, and that "it is impossible to deal with the muscular apparatus without acting on the nerves, bones, etc., as it is equally impossible to bring into action these special instruments of activity without exercising also a reflex action on the intellect and the will." And: "The education of the activity should precede that of intelligence, and the education of intelligence that of the will; because man moves and feels before he knows, and he knows a long time before he has any consciousness of the morality of his acts and ideas. Thus, "the physiological education of the senses must precede the psychological education of the mind."