ngth_ of children,
depends upon their being duly and daily washed, when well, in cold water
from head to foot. Their cries testify to what a degree they _dislike_
this. They squall and kick and twist about at a fine rate; and many
mothers, too many, neglect this, partly from reluctance to encounter the
squalling, and partly, and _much too often_, from what I will not call
_idleness_, but to which I cannot apply a milder term than _neglect_.
Well and duly performed, it is an hour's good tight work; for, besides
the bodily labour, which is not very slight when the child gets to be
five or six months old, there is the _singing_ to _overpower the voice
of the child_. The moment the stripping of the child used to begin, the
singing used to begin, and the latter never ceased till the former had
ceased. After having heard this go on with all my children, ROUSSEAU
taught me the _philosophy_ of it. I happened, by accident, to look into
his EMILE, and there I found him saying, that the nurse subdued the
voice of the child and made it quiet, _by drowning its voice in hers_,
and thereby making it perceive that it could _not be heard_, and that to
continue to cry _was of no avail_. 'Here, Nancy,' said I (going to her
with the book in my hand), 'you have been a great philosopher all your
life, without either of us knowing it.' A _silent_ nurse is a poor soul.
It is a great disadvantage to the child, if the mother be of a very
silent, placid, quiet turn. The singing, the talking to, the tossing and
rolling about, that mothers in general practise, are very beneficial to
the children: they give them exercise, awaken their attention, animate
them, and rouse them to action. It is very bad to have a child even
carried about by a dull, inanimate, silent servant, who will never talk,
sing or chirrup to it; who will but just carry it about, always kept in
the same attitude, and seeing and hearing nothing to give it life and
spirit. It requires nothing but a dull creature like this, and the
washing and dressing left to her, to give a child the rickets, and make
it, instead of being a strong straight person, tup-shinned, bow-kneed,
or hump-backed; besides other ailments not visible to the eye.
By-and-by, when the deformity begins to appear, the doctor is called in,
but it is too late: the mischief is done; and a few months of neglect
are punished by a life of mortification and sorrow, not wholly
unaccompanied with shame.

258. It is, therefore,