Such effects cannot, however, be produced by precepts alone. Children should be induced to practise the virtues which it is intended they shall possess, and by practice they should be endowed with good propensities and good habits. If parents would but feel that it is as essential to teach a child to practise the virtues that are desirable, as it is to cultivate the mind, and would give as much attention to the early development and proper exercise of the affections and passions, and take that pains to develope all the natural excellencies of his character they do to accelerate his progress in knowledge, we should soon see a great and pleasing change in the dispositions and conduct of men. But now, in very many families, the greatest praise is not bestowed upon those children that are merely good, but upon those whose minds are most active and premature. * In schools, much of the 6 * How many parents do we see, who, after teaching their sons, by example, everything which is licentious in manners, and layishing on them the means of similar licentiousness, are rigid only in one point-in the strictness of that intellectual discipline, which may prepare them for the worldly stations to which the parental ambition has been unceasingly looking for them, before the filial ambition was rendered sufficiently intent of itself! To such persons, the mind of the little creature whom they are training to worldly stations for worldly purposes, is an object of interest only as that without which it would be impossible to arrive at the dignities expected. It is a necessary instrument for becoming rich and powerful; and, if he could become powerful, and rich, and envied, without a soul, they would scarcely feel that he was a being less noble than now. In what they term education, they have never once thought, that the virtues were to be included as objects; and they would truly feel something very like astonishment, if they were told that the first and most essential part of the process of educating the moral being, whom Heaven had consigned to their charge, was yet to be begun-in the abandonment of their own vices, and the purification of their own heart, by better feelings than those which had corrupted it, without which primary self-amendment, the very authority which is implied in the noble office which they were to exercise, might be a source, not of good, but of evil, to him who was unfortunately born to be its subject.' — Brown's Philosophy Vol. 2. praise and censure, reward and punishment, connected with early mental culture is calculated to awaken rivalry, envy and hatred. Moral culture is sacrificed, in early life, to intellectual, and the bad passions are called forth to aid the mind's improvement; and then what originates from a faulty or neglected moral education is considered the fault of nature itself. But nature has not had fair play. Example is also of great importance in the education of children, in consequence of their natural propensity to imitation. The influence of this strong propensity is not sufficiently attended to by parents and teachers. Dugald Stewart has very ably treated this subject, and shown its great importance in education.* Not only should the propensity of the youth to imitation be regarded in teaching 'accomplishments, and everything connected with grace,' but in forming the moral character also. Every person knows that the imitation of any expression strongly marked by the countenance and gestures of another person, has a tendency to excite, in some degree, the corresponding * See his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Vol. 3. Chapter on the Principle of Law of Sympathetic Imitation. The whole chapter is very deserving of attention. After remarking that this principle has important effects in relation to our moral constitution, he adds, The reflection which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of Falstaff, with respect to the manners of Justice Shallow and his attendants, and which Sir John expresses with all the precision of a philosophical observer, and all the dignity of a moralist, may be extended to the most serious concerns of life. It is a wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his; they, by observing of him, do bear themselves like foolish Justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justice-like serving-man. Their spirits are so married in conjunction, with the participation of society, that they flock together in concert, like wild geese. It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take disease; therefore, let men take heed of their company.' passion in our own minds;'* and when it is considered how prone children are to imitation, we shall feel the importance of habitually exhibiting, both in looks and actions, only such feelings as we wish them to possess. Parents who are constantly manifesting fretful and unhappy dispositions, will do much towards producing like dispositions in their children. From these observations, those who have the care of educating children, cannot fail to see the importance of the examples they set them; they will also reflect that whatever is inculcated upon children by precept is of trifling consequence, compared with that which they learn by example; and if they wish to have their children possess a spirit of benevolence, kindness or humility, they must cherish an dcultivate these virtues in themselves, and be particularly careful not to let any contradiction exist between their expressed opinions of the value of these dispositions and their own habitual conduct. * Stewart. SECTION VII. THE CULTIVATION OF THE MIND AT A PROPER TIME OF THIS is evident, first from theory. In order to have good health, it is necessary that every organ of the body should not only be well developed, but should also be exercised. We know that if the muscles of the body are not exercised, they not only cease to grow, but that they shrink, and their power, energy, and activity are diminished. This is also the case with the brain, and every other organ of the body. If the functions of the brain are not exercised, the brain diminishes in size. Hence idiots usually have a diminished, atrophied brain.* When any organ diminishes for want of proper exercise, the whole system sympathizes, and thus the health becomes impaired. From this view of the subject I cannot doubt but that the exercise of the intellect tends to procure and perpetuate sound health. But this is also proved by facts. Literary men, says M. Brunaud in his Hygiene des gens des lettres, have in all countries usually been long-lived. The class of learned men who have lived more than seventy years, includes the most distinguished that have ever existed.† * Andral's Pathological Anatomy. t See Table at the end of the volume. Of one hundred and fifty-two savans, taken at hazard, one half from the Academy of Belles Lettres, the other from that of Sciences of Paris, it was found that the sum of years lived among them was 10,511, or above sixty-nine years to each man. Many of the most learned men now living, are very aged.* The general increase of knowledge and civilization, has greatly increased good health, and prolonged human life. The discovery of the kine pock, by Jenner, the invention of the safety lamp, by Sir H. Davy, and other scientific discoveries, undoubtedly save tens of thousands of human lives yearly. The increase of knowledge has also led men, in modern times, to build hospitals and charitable institutions for the sick, the young, and the aged; and thus life has been preserved and prolonged. The march of mind has also dispelled numerous superstitions, which formerly destroyed, in one way and another, an immense number of human beings.† Intellectual cultivation has contributed to the preservation of the lives of men, by giving a predominance to the reasoning powers over the sensual. Thus we find that the inhabitants of the most civilized countries live the longest. Savages are usually more feeble than * The declaration of American Independence was signed by 56 delegates 35 from the Northern, and 21 from the Southern States. But one survives, and only two have died from accident. The whole number of years lived by these delegates, not including the two mentioned, is 3,609; or 66 years and 9 months each. Those from the northern states average 70 years and a half, and those from the states at the south, a little less than 60. + It has been computed, that, in the course of one century, 100,000 human beings were put to death for witchcraft in Germany, 30,000 in England, and more in Scotland. This delusion respecting witches, was chiefly dispelled by the increase of science. See Scott, and others, on Witchcraft. |