give strict attention to the chapter read in the family in the morning, and to give an account of it; and have been astonished and alarmed at the wonderful power of memory exhibited on such occasions by children when but five or six years of age. I have known other children, in addition to most of the above performances, induced to learn additional hymns, chapters of Scripture, or to read certain books, by the promise of presents from their parents or friends.

The foregoing account fails to describe the amount of mental labor required of many children in intelligent and respectable families.

The injurious and sometimes fatal effects of such treatment have been already mentioned. But I cannot forbear again to state that I have myself seen many children who were supposed to possess almost miraculous mental powers, experiencing these effects and sinking under them. Some of them died early, when but six or eight years of age, but manifested, to the last, a maturity of understanding which only increased the agony of a separation. Their minds, like some of the fairest flowers, were no sooner blown than blasted.' Others have grown up to manhood, but with feeble bodies and a disordered nervous system which subjected them to hypochondriasis, dyspepsia, and all the Protean forms of nervous disease. Their minds, in some cases, remained active, but their earthly tenements were frail indeed. Others of the class of early prodigies, and I believe the most numerous portion, exhibit in manhood but small mental powers, and are the mere passive instruments of those who in early life were accounted far their inferiors. Of this fact I am assured, not only by the authority of books, and my

own observation, but by the testimony of several celebrated teachers of youth.

The history of the most distinguished men will, I believe, lead us to the conclusion, that early mental culture is not necessary, in order to produce the highest powers of mind. There is scarcely an instance of a great man, one who has accomplished great results, and has obtained the gratitude of mankind, who in early life received an education in reference to the wonderful labors which he afterwards performed. The greatest philosophers, warriors, and poets, those men who have stamped their own characters upon the age in which they lived, or who, as Cousin says, have been the true representatives of the spirit and ideas of their time,' have received no better education, when young, than their associates who were never known beyond their own neighborhood. In general their education was but small in early life. Self education, in after life, made them great, so far as education had any effect. For their elevation they were indebted to no early hot-house culture, but, like the towering oak, they grew up amid the storm and the tempest raging around. Parents, nurses, and early acquaintances, to be sure, relate many anecdotes of the childhood of distinguished men, and they are published and credited. But when the truth is known, it is ascertained that many, like Sir Isaac Newton, who, according to his own statement, was 'inattentive to study, and ranked very low in the school until the age of 12;' or, like Napoleon, who is described, by those who knew him intimately when a child, as having good health, and

in other respects was like other boys,' * do not owe their greatness to any early mental application or discipline. On the contrary, it often appears, that those who are kept from school by ill health or some other cause in early life, and left to follow their own inclination as respects study, manifest in after life powers of mind which make them the admiration of the world.+

Memoirs of the Dutchess of Abrantes. This lady says, 'My uncles have a thousand times assured me that Napoleon in his boyhood had none of that singularity of character attributed to him.'

+ Shakspeare, Moliere, Gibbon, T. Scott, Niebuhr, W. Scott, Byron, Franklin, Rittenhouse, R. Sherman, Prof. Lee, Gifford, Herder, Davy, Adam Clarke, &c. The last named person was a very unpromising child, and learned but little before he was eight or ten years old. But at this age he was uncommonly hardy,' and possessed bodily strength superior to most children. He was considered a grievous dunce,' and was seldom praised by his father but for his ability to roll large stones; an ability however which I conceive a parent should be prouder to have his son possess, previous to the age of seven or eight, than that which would enable him to recite all that is contained in all the Manuals, Magazines, and books for infants that have ever been published.

6

SECTION IV.

OPINIONS OF CELEBRATED PHYSICIANS RESPECTING EARLY MENTAL CULTIVATION.

Or the danger of developing the minds of children to a great degree at a very early age, I have no doubt from my own observation; but I cannot expect to produce a change in public sentiment on this subject by the publication of my own views and opinions, especially in those parts of the country where parents are, generally, strenuous advocates for infant schools and early mental excitement; but I request all who have the care of children, and are desirous of giving them sound minds and sound bodies, to consider attentively the observations of those whose situations in life, great learning, and experience, have eminently qualified them to be high authorities on this subject. Let us then inquire what are the opinions of learned and experienced medical men, as regards the cultivation of the infant mind.

and practical

The celebrated Tissot, a learne physician, honored by sovereigns, and the friend and intimate companion of Zimmerman, and Haller, and the most distinguished men of his time; published a work on the Health of Men of Letters, which has been greatly commended, and in Europe has had

great influence. In this work he says, 'The effects of study vary much, according to the age of the student. Long continued application, in infancy, destroys life. I have seen young children, of great mental activity, who manifested a passion for learning far above their age; and I foresaw, with grief, the fate that awaited them. They commenced their career as prodigies, and finished by becoming idiots, or persons of very weak minds. The age of infancy is consecrated by nature to those exercises which fortify and strengthen the body, and not to study, which enfeebles it, and prevents its proper increase and development.' After referring to instances observed by himself and others, of disease and death caused by great mental application in youth, he adds, 'I have elsewhere mentioned the injury that peasants do their children, by requiring of them more bodily labor than they ought to perform. But those injudicious parents who require from their children too much labor of the intellect, inflict upon them an injury far greater. No custom is more improper and cruel than that of some parents, who exact of their children much intellectual labor, and great progress in study. It is the tomb of their talents and of their health.' He concludes with this advice. 'The employments for which your children are destined in after life, should regulate their studies in youth; not requiring (as is the custom with many parents) the most study in early life, of those who are to be devoted to literary pursuits, but on the contrary, the least.' 'Of ten infants,' says he, 'destined for different vocations, I should prefer that the one who is to study through life, should be the least learned at the age of twelve.'