es--Hints to parents, and the application of
the whole system to children of every grade.
These lectures I am ready to deliver wherever it may be deemed
desirable, and to follow up the effect by the organization of schools.
The necessary apparatus may be obtained of myself.
CHAPTER V.
PRINCIPLES OF INFANT EDUCATION.
_Moral treatment--Importance of exercise--Play-ground
indispensable--The education of nature and human education should
be joined--Mental development, children should think for
themselves--Intellectual food adapted for children--A spirit
of inquiry should be excited--Gradual development of the young
mind--Neglect of moral treatment--Inefficacy of maxims learned by
wrote--Influence of love--The play-ground a field of observation--The
natural propensities there shew themselves--Respect of
private property inculcated--Force of conscience on the
alert--Anecdote--Advantages of a strict regard for truth--The simple
truths of the Bible fit for children_.
* * * * *
"The business of education, in respect of knowledge, is not, as I
think to perfect a learner in all or any one of the sciences, but to
give his mind that disposition, and those habits, that may enable
him to attain any part of knowledge he shall stand in need of in the
future coarse of his life."--_Locke_.
"When the obligations of morality are taught, let the sanctions of
Christianity, never be forgotten; by which it will be shewn not that
they give lustre and strength to each other: religion will appear to
be the voice of reason, and morality the will of God."--_Johnson_.
* * * * *
When Agesilaus, king of Sparta, was asked, "What should boys be
taught?" he answered, "What they ought to do when they become
men." Such a declaration was worthy of later times, since the most
intelligent now admit that the great end of all education is the
formation of solid, useful, and virtuous character. This work should
be, doubtless, commenced at the earliest possible period, to it the
system explained in this volume is considered to be adapted, and the
principles on which it proceeds are now to be illustrated. And here it
ought to be particularly observed that nothing is admissible, except
what is appropriate to the state of infancy, calculated to exercise
the physical energies, and likely, by their invigoration, to lay the
basis of a sound and powerful intellect. And yet all this
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