CHAPTER I. Of the Responsibility of Parents and of Society for the Education and Training of Children. "Oh! if when we oppress and grind our fellow-creatures, we bestowed but one thought on the dark evidence of human errors, which like dense clouds are rising, slowly, it is true, but surely, to heaven, to pour their after vengeance on our heads-if we heard but one instant in imagination the deep testimony of dead men's voices which no power can stifle, and no pride shut out-where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and worry that each day's life brings with it?"-DICKENS. UNCEASING change and progressive development is the condition of all natural objects. Physically and morally the world presents a diorama of advancing phenomena and events, in which man is not a spectator only, but an actor also; he is not allowed to originate a single being or force, but it is his province and privilege to influence and determine the progress and course of many of them. It is remarkable that while man is the only known intelligent modifier of nature's work, he is also the only discovered agent to whom is B entrusted the power to reverse, delay, or prevent, the naturally forward movement of creation. Herein consists the great distinction between man and other creatures, in the prerogative of will, or the faculty of choice and of rule, influenced not by instinct but by reason, and limited by responsibility. Another important feature in human operation is the unalterable character of its results. This may be due to the rapid march of the phenomena on which man operates, which presenting themselves only for a short season, pass away from him for ever, improved or deteriorated by his influence, and extending the good or evil thereof throughout the tides of eternity. Nescit vox missa reverti. From the smallest and meanest operation of the human will to the highest, there is some addition made to the growth and condition of the operator and of the surroundings on which he acts; for weal or for woe, for beauty or deformity, an impulse has been given, which must go on spreading its undulating waves wider and wider to the last day-" And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Dickens writes-"We need be careful how we deal with those about us, for every death carries with it to some small circle of survivors thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done, of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired, that such recollections are among the bitterest we can have. There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this is the time." Hence the responsibility of human will and action. We cannot be neutral, the only question is, what shall be the imperishable mark that we leave on the objects of our responsibility? What developments in the future shall greet us? Shall we view on the beings around us the jagged and unsightly scars of rebellion against the dictates of reason and conscience, and be appalled by the overwhelming maturities of error and wrong, that like the haunting spirits of murdered men may never leave us-or shall we see the fruit and blossom of good grafts and careful culture, and enjoy the beauty and harmony of God's uninjured and perfected creation? There is no domain of human power and responsibility to which such reflections apply with more force and feeling than to that of childmind. In this chief work of creation we are presented in the aggregate to the phenomenon of a great cloud of nascent spirits, reminding us in their beauty and innocence that they come as gifts from the bosom of the Perfect; they rest with us for a time, and expand in our presence into the intellectual strength of the man, and the moral power of the Christian; or they are blighted in the germ, or deformed, or diseased in their growth, by our bad example and neglect; or by our false and vicious teaching they acquire the tastes and habits of the brute or demon. In either case the season of childmind passes by and leaves us to perpetuate the good or evil acquired by association with us. The budding faculties of the child-mind, like green shoots springing straight up for light and air, are quick and grateful for the care we bestow on them, and the goodness of the conditions by which we surround them. We have no right to plead the doctrine of original sin as an excuse for supineness in cultivating the moral faculties of children; it is not the business of parents or of any human authority to predict the failure of human effort, on the contrary, we must work as if the results were under the control of our good and careful management. Our Saviour said "Even so it is. not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." From seven years of age to fifteen marks a period in which more can be done to secure the future hope and promise of a life than at any other. The mind is then full of inquiry, the memory active, the observing faculties strong, the influence of example and of habit immense. It is the season of intellectual and moral seedsowing, for at this period the mind is most receptive of instruction, and takes the impress of the order in which the fruit and flower shall flourish. The reflective faculties, like the power of habit, strengthen as they go on. Thus it is that, at the beginning, good habits are as easily acquired as bad; but, later on, habit acquires more and more strength, until at last it appears to be incorporated in the very nature, and to be almost incapable of alteration. Horace says Nunc adhibe puro Pectore verba puer: nunc te melioribus offer. What a momentous period for the child-mind! On the degree of care, and the kind of surroundings afforded by its human guardians, depends its future happiness or misery! By neglect and ill-treatment it may be cast out of the parental nest, like the fledgling with imperfect wings and undeveloped beak and claws, |