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Article ESSAYS ON EDUCATION. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Essays On Education.
writings have counselled matrons to nourish their children with their own substance ; while so prevalent has this laudable custom now become , that the wonder amongst mothers themselves is only how there can he any willing to transfer the practice of so sweet a duty to strange and salaried individuals . Indeed , so strongly implanted is this feeling in the hearts of all good mothers , that they view with pity the woman who is compelledfrom peculiar circumstancesto have recourse to an
alter-, , native so painful , while they hold in the light of a stepmother her , who being able to fulfil her ministry , commits , nevertheless , to a stranger ' s bosom the child to which she has herself given birth . There are still , however , some mothers who fancy they have done all that is required of them when they place their tender offspring at their breast , and without giving it a further thought , deliver it over to a hireling ' s care , not to behold it again until the moment when it becomes necessary to
readminister to its alimentary wants . And is this , forsooth , the course which Nature prescribes to a parent ? I am unwilling to believe that a notion so preposterous should be for a moment entertained ; neither can I persuade myself that there be any incapable of understanding both the importance and the extent of this duty * . although , at the same , time , how few—comparatively few , are there to be found , willing to deprive themselves of what are called social leasuresto ive themselves
p , g up entirely to the pleasing duties of maternity ! Admitting even that there exist some trifling penalties inseparable from the exercise of so delicate an office , yet how sweet , how pure are the rewards by which those penalties are counterbalanced !—how then blot them from the memory I Can there , in truth , he aught more
grateful to a mother than the smiles and caresses of her infant ? or can she prefer to these the noisy pleasures of society , teeming with the fulsome adulations of hypocrisy ? Again , can a mother rcasonablg expect from one whom she hires for lucre , that which she herself fails to perform from an impulse of nature ? Does she not feel tormented , in the midst of a brilliant assembly , by the incertitude of what may befall her offspring during her absence ? or can she fancy that she hears
his cries , and yet reflect not that those cries are the harbingers of necessities which it is expedient , on the instant , to relieve ? M ay they not also have been occasioned by the caprice or neglect of the individual to whom the heedless mother has assigned her tender charge ? Can she , I say , sit for a moment and imagine this , and yet rush not through the assembled crowd to the succour of her helpless child ? But it is not alone the hysical preservation of her infantfrom the
p , moment he has left her sight , which should engross a mother ' s thoughts and cause to heave with anxiety her breast : she should think also of his mental preservation . Long before he can be supposed to know the meaning of passion , or of vice , or that he can be corrected—for correction at this tender age is little short of barbarity—his character having been perverted , he becomes by degrees choleric , violent , and eventually viciousand hence it is perfectlobvious that all the duties of this first
; y period of education are to be comprised in vigilance and precaution . What has hitherto been said of this early stage of life as requisite to be known during the term of the lactantia , is equally applicable to the whole duration of what is generally denominated the pristine age : — nevertheless , it is necessary for us to augment in vigilance in proportion as the child ' s intellectual faculties progress in their developement . Up to this time , indeed , little is required beyond the practice of precaution
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Essays On Education.
writings have counselled matrons to nourish their children with their own substance ; while so prevalent has this laudable custom now become , that the wonder amongst mothers themselves is only how there can he any willing to transfer the practice of so sweet a duty to strange and salaried individuals . Indeed , so strongly implanted is this feeling in the hearts of all good mothers , that they view with pity the woman who is compelledfrom peculiar circumstancesto have recourse to an
alter-, , native so painful , while they hold in the light of a stepmother her , who being able to fulfil her ministry , commits , nevertheless , to a stranger ' s bosom the child to which she has herself given birth . There are still , however , some mothers who fancy they have done all that is required of them when they place their tender offspring at their breast , and without giving it a further thought , deliver it over to a hireling ' s care , not to behold it again until the moment when it becomes necessary to
readminister to its alimentary wants . And is this , forsooth , the course which Nature prescribes to a parent ? I am unwilling to believe that a notion so preposterous should be for a moment entertained ; neither can I persuade myself that there be any incapable of understanding both the importance and the extent of this duty * . although , at the same , time , how few—comparatively few , are there to be found , willing to deprive themselves of what are called social leasuresto ive themselves
p , g up entirely to the pleasing duties of maternity ! Admitting even that there exist some trifling penalties inseparable from the exercise of so delicate an office , yet how sweet , how pure are the rewards by which those penalties are counterbalanced !—how then blot them from the memory I Can there , in truth , he aught more
grateful to a mother than the smiles and caresses of her infant ? or can she prefer to these the noisy pleasures of society , teeming with the fulsome adulations of hypocrisy ? Again , can a mother rcasonablg expect from one whom she hires for lucre , that which she herself fails to perform from an impulse of nature ? Does she not feel tormented , in the midst of a brilliant assembly , by the incertitude of what may befall her offspring during her absence ? or can she fancy that she hears
his cries , and yet reflect not that those cries are the harbingers of necessities which it is expedient , on the instant , to relieve ? M ay they not also have been occasioned by the caprice or neglect of the individual to whom the heedless mother has assigned her tender charge ? Can she , I say , sit for a moment and imagine this , and yet rush not through the assembled crowd to the succour of her helpless child ? But it is not alone the hysical preservation of her infantfrom the
p , moment he has left her sight , which should engross a mother ' s thoughts and cause to heave with anxiety her breast : she should think also of his mental preservation . Long before he can be supposed to know the meaning of passion , or of vice , or that he can be corrected—for correction at this tender age is little short of barbarity—his character having been perverted , he becomes by degrees choleric , violent , and eventually viciousand hence it is perfectlobvious that all the duties of this first
; y period of education are to be comprised in vigilance and precaution . What has hitherto been said of this early stage of life as requisite to be known during the term of the lactantia , is equally applicable to the whole duration of what is generally denominated the pristine age : — nevertheless , it is necessary for us to augment in vigilance in proportion as the child ' s intellectual faculties progress in their developement . Up to this time , indeed , little is required beyond the practice of precaution