he
precious human buds sacrificed to the same mistaken zeal that led to the
destruction of the roses which had been expected with so much pleasure
by their little owner. Perhaps a few hints, suggested--not by fanciful
theory, but by practical experience in the mental training of
children--may help to rescue some little ones from the blighting
influences to which they are too often exposed.

The laws by which the physical development of every infant, during the
earliest period of its existence, is regulated, seem to afford a
striking lesson by the analogy they bear to these laws on which the
subsequent mental development depends; and by the wise arrangement of an
ever-kind Providence, this lesson is made immediately to precede the
period during which it should be carried into practice. On the babe's
first entrance into the world, it must be fed only with food suitable to
its delicate organs of digestion; on this depends its healthful growth,
and likewise the gradual strengthening of those organs. Its senses must
at first be acted upon very gently: too strong a light, or too loud a
noise, may impair its sight or hearing for life.

The little limbs of a young infant must not be allowed to support the
body before they have acquired firmness sufficient for that task,
otherwise they will become deformed, and the whole system weakened; and
last, not least, fresh and pure air must be constantly inhaled by the
lungs, in order that they may supply vigor to the whole frame. All
enlightened parents are acquainted with these laws of nature, and
generally act on them; but when, owing to judicious management, their
children emerge from babyhood in full enjoyment of all the animal
organs, and with muscles and sinews growing firmer every day in
consequence of the exercise which their little owners delight in giving
them, is the same judicious management extended to the mind, of which
the body, which has been so carefully nourished, is only the outer case?
In too many cases it is not. Too often the tender mind is loaded with
information which it has no power of assimilating, and which,
consequently, can not nourish it. The mental faculties, instead of being
gradually exercised, are overwhelmed: parents who would check with
displeasure the efforts of a nurse who should attempt to make their
infant walk at too early a period, are ready eagerly to embrace any
system of so-called education which offers to do the same violence to
the intell