The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Erskine, by Jacob Abbott

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Title: Mary Erskine

Author: Jacob Abbott

Release Date: December 26, 2004 [EBook #14475]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: MARY ERSKINE'S FARM]

MARY ERSKINE

A Franconia Story,

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE ROLLO BOOKS.

NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS. FRANKLIN SQUARE.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by HARPER &
BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

The development of the moral sentiments in the human heart, in early
life,--and every thing in fact which relates to the formation of
character,--is determined in a far greater degree by sympathy, and
by the influence of example, than by formal precepts and didactic
instruction. If a boy hears his father speaking kindly to a robin in
the spring,--welcoming its coming and offering it food,--there arises
at once in his own mind, a feeling of kindness toward the bird,
and toward all the animal creation, which is produced by a sort of
sympathetic action, a power somewhat similar to what in physical
philosophy is called _induction_. On the other hand, if the
father, instead of feeding the bird, goes eagerly for a gun, in order
that he may shoot it, the boy will sympathize in that desire, and
growing up under such an influence, there will be gradually formed
within him, through the mysterious tendency of the youthful heart to
vibrate in unison with hearts that are near, a disposition to kill and
destroy all helpless beings that come within his power. There is no
need of any formal instruction in either case. Of a thousand children
brought up under the former of the above-described influences, nearly
every one, when he sees a bird, will wish to go and get crumbs to feed
it, while in the latter case, nearly every one will just as certainly
look for a stone. Thus the growing up in the right atmosphere, rather
than the receiving of the right instruction, is the c