de of treatment adopted as sound
judgment of character may dictate. Wherever this is forgotten, some
evils will arise. The orders which are given to any other power than
those of sympathy and imitation, are not likely to be obeyed by the
untrained babe; the fact is, that as yet it has no other means of
obedience, and for this on higher principles we must wait till nature
furnishes instruments and opportunities for their exercise. When,
however, success is gained thus far, the way is prepared for
further development and culture, and the powers of observation and
discrimination, then gradually tasked, will accomplish all that is
desired. Thus the infant sits or rises, repeats or is silent, at
first, because those about him do so; afterwards he perceives a reason
for doing so: for example, that, when in the gallery, he can see
what he could not any where else, and, therefore, that he must march
thither, and then he judges that one thing is wrong because the doing
it was forbidden, and that another is right because it was commanded,
or because the one makes him happy and the other the contrary.

Under the old system of education, I must candidly say, _moral_
treatment has been often altogether omitted, and still more frequently
has it been erroneous, and consequently inefficient. Let me
ask,--would it promote a child's health to teach it to repeat certain
maxims on the benefits resulting from exercise? The answer is obvious.
Neither can it be of any service to the moral health of the child, to
teach it to repeat the best maxims of virtue, unless we have taken
care to urge the practical observance of those precepts. And yet this
has rarely been the case. How frequently do we hear persons remark
on the ill conduct of children, "It is surprising they should do
so;--they have been taught better things!" Very likely; and they may
have all the golden rules of virtue alluded to, carefully stored up in
their memories; but they are like the hoarded treasures of the miser,
the disposition to use them is wanted. It is this which we must strive
to produce and promote in the child. Indeed, if we can but be the
instruments of exciting a love of goodness, it will not err, nor lack
the knowledge how to do good, even though we were to forget to give it
any rules or maxims. It is to the heart we must turn our attention in
the moral treatment of children. We must carefully endeavour to elicit
and train out the moral feelings implanted within;