re the following:

1. Walking, as I have already intimated, is one of the most HEALTHY
modes of exercise in the world. It is nature's exercise; and was
unquestionably in exclusive use long before universal dominion was given
to man, if not for many centuries afterward; and I believe it would be
very difficult to prove that it interfered at all with human longevity;
for the first of our race lived almost a thousand years.

2. Young children, in riding on horseback, are rather apt to acquire,
rapidly, the habit of domineering over animals. It seems almost needless
to say how easy the transition is, in such cases, should opportunity
offer, from tyranny over the brute slave, to tyranny over the human
being. There are slave-holders in the family and in the school, as well
as elsewhere. It is the SPIRIT of a person which makes him either a
tyrant or slave-holder. And let us beware how we foster this spirit in
the children whom God has given us.

CHAPTER XI.

AMUSEMENTS.

Universal need of amusements. Why so necessary. Error of schools. Error
of families. Infant schools, as often conducted, particularly injurious.
Lessons, or tasks, should be short. Mistakes of some manual labor
schools. Of particular amusements in the nursery. With small wooden
cubes--pictures--shuttlecock--the rocking horse--tops and
marbles--backgammon--checkers--morrice--dice--nine-pins--skipping the
rope--trundling the hoop--playing at ball--kites--skating and
swimming--dissected maps--black boards--elements of letters--dissected
pictures.

However heterodox the concession may be, I am one of those who believe
amusements of some sort or other to be universally necessary. Indeed I
cannot possibly conceive of an individual in health, whatever may be the
age, sex, condition, or employment, who does not need them, in a greater
or less degree.

Now if by the term amusement, I merely meant employment, nobody would
probably differ from me--at least in theory. Every one is ready to admit
the importance of being constantly employed. A mind unemployed is a
VACANT mind. And a vacant or idle mind is "the devil's work-shop;" so
says the proverb.

By amusement, however, I mean something more than mere employment; for
the more constantly an adult individual is employed, the greater,
generally, is his demand for amusement. Indolent persons have less need
of being amused than others; but perhaps there are few if any persons to
be found, who are so indol