Education from the PRINCESS OUROUSSOk^ E THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Ex Lihris SIR MICHAEL SADLER ACQUIRED I94S WITH THE HELP OF ALUMNI OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION I'VkKIU .V (J /to , /f f^ - EDUCATION FROM THE CRADLE. TO YOUNG WOMEN. EDUCATION FROM THE CRADLE. BY PRINCESS MARY OUROUSSOV. TRANSLATED BY MRS. E. FIELDING. "The child is father of the man." — IVordsworth. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1890. ClilSWICK press:— C. WHITTINGHAM and CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 1115 PREFACE. I DO not pretend to have done anything original — if this word is synonymous with new. It merely seems to me that the books treating of this important question of early childhood are for the most part inaccessible, and I have tried to con- dense into a iew pages that which it is really indispensable to know on this subject. I hope that within proportions thus restricted, and with a total avoidance of everything for the comprehen- sion of which scientific knowledge is required, these pages may be put into the hands of young girls and mothers, no matter what may be their education or position. I address myself chiefly to the masses, who are plunged in an absolute ignorance which it is time to enlicrhten. GGiiG77 CONTENTS. Introduction. PAGE To Young Women i Chapter I. The Nature of the Child — Heredity — Importance of Early Care — Warmth — Air 1 1 Chapter II. Food — Bathing and Friction — Sleep — Clothing during the First Year — Brain — Judicious Management . . 26 Chapter III. Weaning — The Danger of young Children carrying Babies — Danger of leaving them alone — Obedience — Unselfishness — Good Manners — Habits to be ac- quired from the Cradle — The Force of Habit — Example 41 Chapter IV. Punishment — The Danger of causing Fear — Nurses . 56 Chapter V. The Importance of respecting Individual Characteris- tics — Faults treated as Diseases — Violent Temper — Sulkiness — Imperiousness — Wise Inaction ... 72 CONTENTS. Chapter VI. PAGE All Impressions at an Early Age External — Advantage to be gained from the Liveliness of these Impressions to Impart a Sense of the Beautiful — Simple Means of Attaining this 89 Chapter VII. Playthings — Costly Clothes — Luxur)', injurious and harmless — Money and Charity — Games — All Re- marks on the Appearance and Character to be avoided 103 Chapter VIII. Difference between Education and Instruction — Cases in which the Child should be prepared for Higher Studies — Development of the Limbs — Agility — Skill — Knowing how to use the Senses for Observation — Elements of Music and Drawing indispensable to all i iS Chapter IX. Observation to be developed by Interest in the Things of Nature — All Teaching to be avoided which is not strictly true — The Marvellous — Family, Religion — Teaching of the Muses — Books 136 Chapter X. Knowledge of Hygiene indispensable to all — Preven- tive Medicine — Results which true Education should produce 153 Conclusion 165 EDUCATION. INTRODUCTION. TO YOUNG WOMEN. T AM going to speak to you about the most J- simple, ordinary and necessary thing in the life of each one of you, the utility of which is much more indisputable than all the studies to which you have devoted yourselves. I will even say that these studies should chiefly tend to facilitate the task that awaits each one of you — that of under- standing the care of children. If, according to the natural law, you marry and become mothers, the importance of this question is clear to you. But every woman is destined to be occupied with children ; it is her natural vocation and the real interest of her life. As elder sisters in a large family, as relations where death, sickness, or an excess of work, deprives your little relatives of their mother — in fact, all over the world, where thousands of orphans and forsaken children need EDUCATION. maternal care, you will soon find that there is always rather a lack than an excess of people devoting themselves to children. The most beautiful dream of every generous heart, for the realization of which I hope in spite of all things, is, that the day will come when there will be no more orphans in the sense of abandonment which the word expresses. If Christ, in proclaiming us all brothers, intended to express by this word that none of us should be wanting in ministrations, affection or charity, who has greater need thereof than these countless little beings around us, thou- sands of whom perish daily for want of a little love and care? How many women pass their lives sad, lonely and without interest, when there are so many children to be saved ; assuredly they might save many and by this means complete an existence which is often a useless burden to themselves. But they have not from their youth comprehended the importance of this question. They have not seen that here was really productive work, a source of in- exhaustible happiness. It is for this reason that I address myself to you who are entering upon life, you who have no old habits to overcome, you to INTRODUCTION. whom it is easy to learn and for whom it is still possible to overcome self and to develop an interest in mankind. The more I think on this subject, the more I see that there is only one way of doing the thing well, and that is to educate oneself; it is the youth of to-day who alone will be capable of rearing the children of to-morrow. We must be prepared for that, and it is in order to help you therein that I wish to communicate to you what I have observed and compiled on this subject. Strange to relate, it is one about which there is the most ignorance, and it is nevertheless the most interesting of all. Will not the child of to-day be, in very deed, the well-doer or the social scourge, the source of joy or of sorrow to many others in the future, and the cause on which will depend all the physical and moral health of generations yet unborn ? It is, therefore, this health which ought to be the aim of all our care, of all our efforts, and as every child saved is a truly incal- culable good, such work is not lost, however discou- raging it may sometimes appear. Observe that under the word health, I comprise without dividing them, both moral and physical health. Even in ancient EDUCATION. times there was a saying that a healthy mind was found in a healthy body. Nothing is more true, and my conviction on this subject, based on much research and experience, is so strong that I am most anxious to share it with you. When once this truth is adopted as basis we must arrive at a know- ledge of what constitutes a healthy condition in a human being, and of the means of bringing it about for the greatest possible number of children. The prisons are full of individuals who have all been children, and the greater number owe their sad fate to heredity, neglect, or disease. How many of these unfortunates might have been saved had their childhood been different ! For this reason I say to you, *' Never turn away from a child ! " Except in very rare cases of disease (as such I also characterize hereditary vices), so imbedded in the constitution that the victim is condemned to perish thereby, no child is absolutely lost. To reform a man is a very difficult task, and beyond ordinary powers ; to bring up a child is within the means of all, and it is, of all social reforms, the only one of which the result is certain. Laws, instruction and culture eftect nothing in comparison with early education. INTRODUCTION. or that care given to the health of the human being from its cradle. Look how noble and attractive is this aim. You all wish to do good in this world — you are ready to devote your efforts to doing it, especially if the result is certain. Very well, you have not far to search — the good to be done is beside you at every step, at every moment. Whatever your social position, you can, you ought to accomplish this duty. Minister to the child ; apply your heart, your intelligence, and your strength in doing so, and you will then see that you will not have passed through this world with- out having been useful in the largest acceptation of the word. Your heart will always be full of living interests, you will never be without family ties, or without an object of affection. You only need to rescue a dog about to be drowned, and to feed it, in order to become attached to it. What then must it be with every human being whom you shall save from penal servitude, disease and despair, and convert into a healthy member of society ? What renders this kind of devotion doubly interesting is, that it is not the individual alone whom you save EDUCATION. in caring for these young beings, you perform a deed of endless good which spreads through all the ages ; and I am persuaded that nothing satisfies our mysterious aspirations as human beings like contributing as much as possible to this future progress which we shall not see. For it is a very evident fact, to which not enough thought is given, that all human beings are united with one another ; every act, every word of one of them has its response in the present and often in the future, and this union results from the actual bonds which connect us with one another in an in- dissoluble chain. This union proves the impor- tance of each individual, not as regards himself, but in his relations with others. When Christ says "you are all brothers," it is not merely an abstract idea, a law of lofty morality which he enunciates, but an undisputed physical fact. Here is a proof of it, of which few people think — viz., the immense number of individuals whose blood runs in our veins. Only consider it ! Each of you knows that she has two grandfathers and two grandmothers; do any of you think of your eight great-grandparents and your sixteen great- INTRODUCTION. great-grandparents ? Merely take the nearest rela- tives, the brothers and sisters of these progenitors with their descendants, and see what a number of individuals stand in actual relationship with you. You perceive therefore that everybody is in the position of a relation by nature, and that ignorance joined with brutal selfishness can alone produce the idea that there are strangers among us. The children of your neighbour of to-day are inevitably destined in the future to be united with yours or to be intermingled in the common interests of life. Do not therefore imagine you are rendering a purely disinterested service to posterity by occupying your- self with children in general. You will love your descendants in accordance with the law of nature, and will wish them well, but their well-being will depend on their surroundings. If they are thrown into the society of diseased people or of criminals, all their personal virtues will not prevent their destruction ; for isolation, even in virtue, is useless. We depend on one another to a terrible degree. An evil action is almost always punished in the person of an innocent being ; every human being to whom a helping hand is not stretched out in 8 EDUCATION. time, becomes the direct cause of endless evil for us and especially for those who come after us. If the house next door is on fire, your own is seriously threatened, believe me, and we are so thrown into the world, that to isolate ourselves and separate our interests from those of others, is impossible. We are therefore actually working for our own good when we fail in being happy because those around us are not so. We are so bound up with one another, that we cannot, whatever we may do, exist without one another. These same conditions will last as long as humanity ; consequently the more we succeed in doing good to those who will one day compose humanity, the greater the service we render to our nearest relatives, and I do not hesitate to say that we shall be much more useful to our children, in preparing for them a healthy and happy social centre, than by working to leave them a large fortune. The latter is a doubtful and in any case a fragile happiness — the former is at least certain and durable. To attain an end, however, it is not enough to have good will, nor even generous and lofty senti- ments ; it is necessary to add to these a profound INTRODUCTION. Study of the subject to which we devote ourselves, and a minute research into everything that can guide us in this task. I will not, therefore, confine myself to pointing out what you have to do ; I desire to tell you why and how I think it ought to be done, and, as far as possible, I shall strengthen my advice by observations or examples taken from facts. If I have succeeded in making you understand the importance of the question of which we are now treating, I have no doubt about the result of my coun- sel, if only in making you see clearly the gross errors on which rules have been founded down to our times. The solution of the great social problem which now touches you so closely, in which all of you, your brothers and your sons are concerned, whether you wish it or not — is, I repeat, clearly this : " take care of the child from its birth." There is no science in the world of which the first principles must not be studied and perfectly understood, before arriving at the most difficult problems ; there is no building which can resist time and accident, if its very first basis is not solidly estab- lished and has not been constructed with more care than all the rest. Such too is human life : on its EDUCATION. beginning depends all that it will become ; this work, therefore, should be undertaken on the first day. I know that it takes time to propagate the simplest idea, but this does not discourage me. If only a few of you adopt it with heart and mind, I shall bid them to have courage, and still persevere, however difficult it may seem. Each one of you who succeeds in rearing three or four children under conditions which I consider sound, will save thousands of beings in the future. You may perhaps feel isolated at first in the work of regenerating the world ; but if the idea that guides you is true, it will at last become universal and triumphant, because what is eternally true always survives in the end. Much time is always required to popularize the most simple truths, and I count on you to do that. Two or three generations brought up on these ideas will make them universal, and to attain this we want neither savants nor philosophers but all the young women of our day, without ex- ception or distinction. What I want to say to you is within reach of everybody, and, if you desire it, I am persuaded that great progress may result from these simple studies. CHAPTER I. The Nature of the Child— Heredity— Importance of Early Care — Warmth — Air — Cleanliness. WE are about to occupy ourselves with child- hood, that is to say with the whole of hu- manity, in as far as it is capable of improvement. Let us first of all consider what the child is. He is the product, the result of the generations which have preceded him, he is the visible link which connects the past with the future. He bears within himself the consequences of all that has gone before him ; in him are sown good and bad seed. The sole aim of education is to try to develop what is good and to combat what is evil. The child will transmit to his successors whatever is strongest in his personality, and our work is merely to facilitate in him as far as possible the growth of beneficent strength. In the same way that medicine should attempt to sustain the efforts of nature, in her struggle against the disease that she is powerless to root out, so should education EDUCATION. bring all its efforts to bear in sustaining the good side of human nature, which is also in continual conflict with the evil. Education is not to be cir- cumscribed within certain limits ; it begins at the cradle with the manner in which the bodily powers are prepared for the struggle which begins for every individual at birth. To be rational, education should consist in a wise employment of the resources to be found in nature herself, and above all should not be the instrument of the will or fancies of the educator. If we want to succeed we must, on this subject, put aside every kind of purely personal desire or prejudice, and look at the question from the point of view of the absolute interest of the child. To wish to impose on a child one's own tastes, occupations, or ideas, is a puerile and selfish way of contemplating childhood, and sometimes leads to struggles which are dan- gerous to the character and surroundings. The first indispensable condition is to forget oneself— the ego — with all its errors, prejudices and fre- quently unreasonable desires, and only to consider the undeniable good of the child. And from the beginning we shall see that we must ourselves THE NATURE OF THE CHILD. 13 practise self-renunciation to attain it. The only good is, as we have said, a healthy condition. We will, therefore, begin by occupying ourselves with the means of attaining this, and presently we shall see the positive results of these httle ministrations, which although apparently small, none the less serve to promote development in the future. I have already spoken of the indivisibility, in my opinion, of the moral and physical well-being. Pray give marked attention to this fact, as the greater number of mistakes in education spring from the idea of their divisibility. Both should be equally cared for from birth, but it is by care- fully tending the body in the earliest years that the mind is made healthy. That which is bad for the health harms the character also, and consequently the moral nature. Thus it is evident that if you give to a very small child (of four or six months), an object for which he cries, he will employ this argument every time that he wishes for anything ; and if some day you cannot positively give him what he desires, he will cry until he is ill, losing his voice, his sleep, and his appetite ; his little face will be 14 EDUCATION. marred with anger and violence, and his over- excited nervous system will develop the bad side of his moral nature, all budding as it is. If, on the contrary, after having once said " No " to a child, you never yield on that point, he will very quickly understand (you would be astonished to see how quickly), the uselessness of his cries, because the power represented in you to him never changes in idea. Moreover, such is the extreme mobility of childhood, that it is easy to distract his attention from the coveted object, but always on the condition that you have never given way to his fancies ; other- wise his persistence in wanting the impossible is very remarkable and precocious. By yielding to him, you confound his first notions of morality, and he does not feel the authority which is necessary for his tranquillity. I have given this example in order to prove to you that education really begins at the cradle, and in all respects at one and the same time. At birth, of all the beings in creation, man is the most helpless. All the others at least know immediately how to find the means of nourishment. But the new-born baby would lie beside his THE NATURE OF THE CHILD. 15 mother with no idea of seeking the breast unless it were offered to him ; he cannot even creep to the corner of the bed for warmth, and would perish on the first day. I suppose nature has so willed it, because, with the intellectual superiority of the human being over every other, he has knowledge enough to occupy himself entirely with his progeny. An infant's first necessities are purely animal, but it is of the utmost importance that they should be provided for by a reasonable being, and supplied with intelligence and affection. Such is the child, naked, shivering, feeble, and famishing in this world of misery, as it must truly appear to him on the day of his entrance into it. His existence at that time is most precarious and requires the most minute care. Half the human race dies during the first year, thanks to ignorance and a want of care. The poorer and less civilized the country the greater the number who succumb. In Europe, Russia has the largest number of births, and among the poorer classes where mothers of twenty children are no exception, it is seldom that more than three or four arrive at man's estate ; they frequently all die in early youth. With an 1 6 EDUCATION. increase of comfort this mortality diminishes, and it would be still less if new-born children were cared for in a more reasonable way. But in the most civilized countries, such as France, the care- lessness on this point is inconceivable. I have often heard this great mortality proclaimed as an advantage for a State. The strong only survive, and the weak are better out of the way, it is said. I consider this opinion as absolute folly, not based upon an idea, but on one of those delusive appear- ances which too often become law in human axioms. In the first place, because a child seems feeble in the beginning of his life, there is no reason whatever why he should remain sickly all his life ; and then, those who resist the terrible conditions of their infancy are far from becoming invariably healthy and strong individuals. They often vegetate miserably for a certain number of years, and leave sickly children. These off-shoots of misery present a deplorable aspect ; a general decay seems to take place in those who survive and who ought, according to the reasoning which I oppose, become giants of strength and re- produce strong and healthy children. Epidemics THE NATURE OF THE CHILD. 17 are far from exclusively attacking sickly children; the strong are often suddenly carried off, whilst the weak survive, destined to an existence of endless suffering. Proofs abound of children who, snatched from death by good nursing, have become strong and remark- able individuals. The great French poet, Victor Hugo, who died at eighty-three, after an old age absolutely free from pain and more flourishing than many a youth, was declared to be dead at his birth, and during the first few months of his life, his mother hourly fought against the end which seemed inevitable. History is full of countless examples of this kind. We ought, therefore, scrupulously to watch over every new-bom child, for with him we are actually in the presence of the greatest and most interesting mystery of the unknown. What will he be in the future ? We know not ! Let us spare nothing, then, in preserving him from harm — he may be one of those whose memory posterity will bless ! The only conditions under which it is almost desirable that children should not live, are those in which they are born of consumptive or drunken parents. I do not wish that you should have such c l8 EDUCATION. children to care for ; you could not do it. Here is required the superintendence of people with advanced scientific knowledge, and up to the present day these hereditary tendencies show them- selves stronger than anything that medical science has found to combat them. Consumption makes more victims than any other disease in the world, for it sweeps away whole races. As for drunkards, statistics prove that their offspring supply the greater number of criminals, epileptics, and insane people. We shall see the diminution in these when men are brought up in such a way that they no longer seek in drink the brutalizing enjoyment they delight in. I have touched on this question of phthisis and alcoholism to prove to you, in the most convincing way, the role played by heredity in the nature of the child. Heredity exists throughout creation, and is in harmony with the only law by which we can explain to ourselves that an apple-tree always produces apples, a cow calves, etc., and that every distinction of species will be reproduced in its descendants. In the human being it is more difficult to recognize the immutability of this HEREDITY. 19 law, because it is much more complicated than in other creatures, and the number of here- ditary influences in man is so great. Man, for in- stance, possesses what no animals possess, tradition, that is to say memory, transmitted by the words, acts and gestures of those who have lived before him. Consequently the number of causes which consti- tute his personality is incalculable. It is easy for us to understand why a Newfoundland dog so closely resembles his parents, that no sooner has he attained his full development than he becomes like them in all his principal characteristics of taste, habits, appearance, etc. ; it is that his parents, although they have been able to teach him what is indispensable to his existence as a Newfoundland, have not been able to communicate anything more to him, and abandon him as soon as he is strong enough to do without them, not even remem- bering that they themselves ever had parents. Their compass of memory, impressions, and recollections, is very limited, and the only thing that proves to man (for the animals themselves know nothing of it), that a horse or a dog is descended from any celebrated ancestor, is a spot, a shape, or some EDUCATION. instinct of coursing or hunting which proves to us the existence among animals of special hereditary qualities. But the case is quite different with man. You each have a father and a mother, differing very much in character, health and appearance ; in you are combined the natures of both. And in your parents is the same double influence of their parents, and so on. Observe of how many direct and often contrary influences you are the result ! It is, therefore, absolutely impossible to trace the origin of all the peculiarities of a child, as this work would be beyond the power of a single individual ; but whatever fault, qualities or pecu- liarities you find in him, be assured that all are hereditary and have their cause in his ancestry. This principle, once carefully studied and accepted, will be a great help to you in avoiding all kinds of mistakes, and will prevent you from considering differences in character as personal or voluntary anomalies. A little information about the health and the character of the parents, and even the grand- parents, is easily obtained, and will be of the greatest EARLY CARE. use. If ever you have children yourselves, I would advise you to know yourselves thoroughly, in order to find out what there will be to encourage and what to combat in them. In honestly study- ing your own nature, you will see how complex it is ; so it is in every individual ; countless different tendencies meet and jostle one another in you, and if no one can say that he is entirely good, none can declare himself wholly bad. And in reality this mass of dissimilar germs constitutes a happy circumstance ; for it enables us to hope that, by judicious management, there will always be good to be cultivated. Thus we shall not be alarmed at seeing so much of ourselves in these little ones, and may hope that what is good in us will also be developed in them. Let us begin by giving the most simple but detailed care to the new-born child. At first he is always cold. Everything in his body is frail and delicate ; members, organs and skin. The cries which he utters on his entrance into the world are a sign of strength and an excellent exercise for accustoming the lungs to their new function, of breathing without pain. At his birth he is very EDUCATION. delicate, and we must not hesitate in supplying him with artificial heat, for his very life depends on it. In my own family, I have seen extremely deli- cate twins become very strong children ; and I owe their development as such to the care of an ex- cellent doctor, who surrounded them with stone- ware bottles filled with water at 99° Fahrenheit, whilst the room was kept at 68°. Their faces were kept uncovered in order to accustom them quickly to breathe the normal air. This regime was con- tinued for six weeks; then the heat of the water was gradually diminished ; but up to two years of age they never had any baths which were not very hot ; this did not prevent them later on from becoming accustomed to cold water and always using it. It is a great mistake to be in a hurry to harden the new-born child ; let us first give him strength and he will be able to bear everything. Nothing is easier than to keep him warm, for he can always be wrapped up, at the sacrifice of one's own cloak, even if not surrounded with hot water bottles. Unfortunately the other condition of existence, which is quite as indispensable, is much more difficult to fulfil ; pure and continually renewed air FRESH AIR. 23 is comparatively a luxury of the few. Almost all the human race are obliged to swarm in an atmosphere vitiated by the most unhealthy causes. The want of money is most felt in the deprivation of air, space and light ; but careless- ness is as much the cause of this evil as poverty. Ignorance of the most vital necessities can alone explain the scandalous poisoning of the poorer classes in their habitations, pestilential centres where the germs of disease are developed under conditions which are most favourable to them. Let the windows be open ! Pure air, even when cold, never does harm, provided that the body be sufficiently covered ; on the contrary, it is the great benefactor — it is health itself. Curtains and carpets which are not frequently beaten and washed be- come a source of disease ; banish them therefore — which is easier in most cases than cleaning them. The mortality of children in the country is as great as in towns ; one might expect it to be less, but alas ! the same enemies of cold on the one hand, and vitiated air on the other, pursue them there. When a family of six or seven persons (and often domestic animals into the bargain), live in one 24 EDUCATION. apartment, the air of which is never renewed during whole months in cold climates, it is not astonishing that epidemics seize upon this ready prey, and the youngest, that is to say the weakest, is the first to be carried off. But even where easy circumstances would permit other arrangements, people are far from watching sufficiently the state of the air in the children's rooms, and I emphatically conclude this chapter by saying, that warmth of body and purity of air would save many more children than doctors can do in case of illness. If we could persuade people that preventing illness is much easier than curing it, the teaching of these simple laws of hygiene would not be neglected. Neglect of these early attentions may cause an evil greater than death, that of making the child sickly during the whole of its youth ; surely happiness does not consist in living, but in being in good health. Give that good to the child ; it is the only real one. Uo not spare expense for that at his birth ; it is better than leaving him money, which is no con- solation for bad health. And do not imagine that much money is required for the ministrations I recommend to you. Generally speaking money is CLEANLINESS. 25 not SO powerful as is believed \ care, love and the knowledge of the necessary vital conditions are all that is indispensable. To renew the air, clean the room, and remove from it objects that harbour fatal germs, does not demand any outlay, but may save results, the economy of which would be less assured. CHAPTER II. Food— Bathing and Friction — Clothing during the First Year — Sleep — The Brain — Early Management. WARMTH and air, these two best safe- guards of childhood during the early days being insured, we must now think of the feeding. The only perfect nourishment is the mother's milk. Every woman who, without absolute neces- sity, withdraws herself from this natural service, does a great injury to her child. In every case woman's milk is preferable to all feeding bottles and artificial means of nourishment, which require a minuteness of care very difficult to obtain ; whereas the mother's milk is always in the normal condition of warmth, and of the quality necessary for the being she has just brought into the world. Of course, if the mother be very sickly, or has not sufficient milk, she will not be allowed to continue to suckle, but she is almost always able to do so in the beginning ; if the doctor declares it to be im- possible, a healthy wet-nurse should be sent for. FOOD. 27 Above all, the child should not be sent away to be reared ; it is thus that thousands of children, es- pecially in France, perish every year. In case of its being absolutely impossible to find a good wet- nurse to live in the house, recourse must be had to artificial feeding, but it is always a poor sub- stitute. The greatest cleanliness, the most rigid punctuality, uniformity of temperature, must be en- forced night and day, and I would have you observe that it is very difficult to fulfil all these conditions in the majority of cases, as wealth alone can pro- cure the indispensable attention. Let every mother try to suckle her babe. If it has become so diffi- cult in our day, it is because we are not reasonable in the way we proceed to nourish a child. Except in the very beginning, when he is too weak to suck sufficient at a time, he should never be fed more often than every two hours, and at three months old, every three hours, and never awoke in the night to be fed. " He who sleeps, sups," is es- pecially applicable to this age. Very soon he will not require feeding at all in the night, from mid- night till seven o'clock — except in case of illness. A mother or a wet-nurse should sleep well herself 28 EDUCATION. as much in the interest of the child as in her own. The milk of a woman who is always tired and worn out by loss of sleep, becomes unwholesome and indigestible. Nature never intended that suckling should become a cause of exhaustion to the mother. On the contrary, properly regulated, it should be beneficial to her health, since it is a perfectly na- tural action. The new-born child has not only to be fed and cared for ; he will also require his mother in many other ways later on — and besides, he is not the only child ; all the children have need of her. It is the imperative duty of the mother to guard her health, and not to injure it by false ideas of devo- tion. This is the time to put pure reason in the place of feeling, and to resist the desire to pacify the cries of the child by offering him the breast on every occasion. Whilst procuring for him warmth, air, and nourish- ment, attention must be given to his being kept clean. He must never be left in soiled or wet linen. If we never fail from the beginning in at- tending to its immediate change, not only will he demand this care by crying for it, but his education in this respect will be much easier by-and-by; BA THING. 29 whereas the child who has been neglected is often very difficult to correct of dirty habits. Then we are angry with him and punish him, although the cause of the fault is in ourselves. Daily baths are excellent, but care must be taken in giving them to avoid a chill, and for this I recommend, im- mediately after the bath, gentle but continuous friction with a flannel until the body becomes red. I consider that friction is the best medicament for all ages, especially that of childhood. Colic, cold, and the general indispositions to which chil- dren are subject, should be treated by friction with a dry flannel. All diseases begin by a lowering of the inward temperature ; by friction you restore rapid circulation to the blood ; now that you know that heat and motion are the same thing, therefore you understand how valuable this treatment is, whether it be preventive or curative, and it is within the reach of everyone. As soon as cold water ablutions are employed, which should not be the case until the child has cut its first teeth and is quite strong, it is indispensable that his whole body should be rubbed quickly with a coarse towel or a brush. Whatever garments are used for the new-born 30 EDUCATION. child, they should be large and convenient, easily taken off, and not hampering to his movements. He should be able to move his arms and his legs as much as he likes, his muscles and limbs thus developing naturally ; the idea of wrapping him in swathing bands is absurd, for it deprives him of the only natural means of circulating the blood and growing strong. Tight swaddling, so common in France among the poorer classes, and until lately general everywhere, as we see in pictures of the last century, is a habit tenaciously preserved from nomadic times, when we were obliged to carry children great distances ; under such circumstances it was certainly more convenient to have them bound up, but their limbs became atrophied and deformed. I detest all those infantine elegancies of dresses fastening with hooks and buttons. They were invented to please our own vanity. A little chemise of old soft linen, fastened at the side with one or two strings, and a loose, long garment of flannel which is easily taken off and put on, leaving the legs free, seems to me the toilet which will please the baby himself best. A large waterproof sheet in the cradle to prevent any QUIET. 31 moisture from penetrating to the mattress, will complete the comfort necessary to his well-being. If the room is not damp he can be quickly accus- tomed to having his head uncovered ; in any case it ought always to be much less covered than the rest of his body, as the blood rushes quickly to it when he cries. Nevertheless, I recommend, during the first months, a cap of thin old linen, which will prevent his ears from being doubled up as he lies, and becoming like bats' wings, which is very ugly and may affect the development of the hearing, and even of the brain. The organs of hearing and sight are very delicate at birth, and they should be gradually prepared for their functions. Silence should be preserved about a new-born child, especially during his sleep, and he should be kept in the dark. Talking to him, even in a low voice, should be avoided, as well as whispering when he is asleep. For at least a month his senses cannot bear much light or noise. If there are other children in the house they must not be put with him, for they will inevitably disturb him. It is advisable to leave him with his mother, who at this period also requires silence, dim 32 EDUCATION. light, and, above all, perfect quiet. A sensible woman always nurses herself for at least three weeks, and after this period the new-born child can be gradually accustomed to the ordinary conditions of life, but it is always advisable to avoid too much noise. His first instinctive movement is in search of the light; it ought, therefore, never to be behind him, nor in such a position as to cause him to squint or make faces in order to see it. While sleeping, his head should be towards the light, the brightness of which should be softened by a curtain or a screen. If he faces too bright a light, he may easily lose his sight ; though this accident, so fre- quent in early childhood, is more often caused by a cold or want of cleanliness. If the eyes are not well washed, they discharge humour ; the least cold causes inflammation — ophthalmia — which is the cause, for the most part, of blindness in the first year (being born blind, as they say), which is only found among the poor classes. The bed or cradle should be raised from the ground to avoid the draughts, which are always strongest on the floor of a room, because the warm THE BRAIN. 33 air has a tendency to rise, so that the floor is the coldest place. You will ascertain this by lying on the floor and then on a raised object in the same room. Do not attach curtains to the cradle, but cover the infant with warm blankets all over. I con- demn all cradles, absolutely, which can be rocked, and all motion in putting a child to sleep. I know that there are no wet-nurses, and but few mothers or nurses, who agree with me in this. I have, however, good reason for asserting it, and I wish I could prove it to you, for I am convinced that the poetical idea of rocking a child really represents a remnant of savage custom, most fatal to infantine hygiene. Of all parts of the organism, the brain is the most irritable and the weakest at this age. It is extremely delicate. Do not forget that, in the early years, the skull is not solid, and that car- tilage alone unites its two portions. At this age the brain is not required to act otherwise than instinctively. On the other hand, it will in the future be the most important of all the organs ; for, without entering into any discussion on the obscure question of the origin of ideas, sentiments, and D 34 EDUCATION. passions, we know positively that it is by diseases of the brain that we lose all that makes the human being — the faculty of feeling, reason, memory, mind, the very spirit itself. If this organ is once disordered all those attributes cease, and our animal life alone continues, without enjoyment, without aim — in fact, in the most terrible condition possible, that of a corpse that eats, sleeps, and moves. Therefore no part of our organism re- quires so much care as this nervous centre ; by understanding the part it plays in the body, it becomes clear that we should know whatever may shatter or disorder it, in order to avoid it. Now these repeated shocks, lasting for hours, caused by rocking the child in the arms or the cradle, act directly on the brain, and exhaust it to stupor. But evidently this numbing produces an agreeable sensation, like many narcotics, which are none the less poisons, and once he is accustomed to it the child demands it by persistent crying. Do not allow yourself, through weakness or misplaced pity, to use this false means of lulling the child, but, if he cries instead of sleeping, be sure that he is in some sort of discomfort, and carefully seek for the cause. CAUSES OF CRYING. 35 The natural condition of a new-born child is to sleep during the greater part of his time. He never wakes but to be fed, to stretch himself, or to play with his arms and legs. He cries because he is hungry, or to complain of something ; if he is well, make him comfortable, give him enough food to quiet him, and he quickly falls asleep again. When he screams to exercise his lungs, his face is not convulsed, and you may let him cry. But if he persists in crying for hours together when he is in health, you may be sure that something troubles him. His only means of expressing pain is by crying ; he feels instinctively that he needs help. There is nothing more touching and sad than to see the little creature exhausting himself to ask for help, and yet so absolutely powerless to explain his wants. His face purple, his mouth and throat dry, his cheeks flooded with tears, he looks strangely like an old man. No child of that age cries from temper. Do not believe any nurse who is foolish enough to assert this. Set all your intelligence to work to discover the cause of his trouble, and with patience you will find it out. 36 EDUCATION. First see whether he is cold, whether his clothes are too tight, or if there is a pin pricking him anywhere; examine his condition generally. If everything about him is in order, he may be unwell, or cold, or what very frequently happens — he may have the stomach-ache. There may be faults in the way he is fed, or he may perhaps be constipated — he must not be left for twenty-four hours in this condition. Do not, however, give him purgatives, but use an enema with warm water. If his cries continue when all this has been tried, what is to be done then, you will ask ? I then return to the advice I have already given — try friction. Rub his stomach, for there will be the seat of the mischief if his digestion be troublesome ; rub, gently but firmly, the back, the legs, and the chest. You will find that that will calm him if it be a passing indisposition. But do not rock him, and feed him through thick and thin ; he has a stomach-ache, and you stuff him ! It is just as if, during an attack of indigestion, you were made to suck sugar-plums, thus fatiguing the very organ which imperatively demands rest. As soon as the weather permits it, the child SITTING UP. 37 should be taken into the open air. He should be warmly wrapped up, his face covered with a veil or a handkerchief. A parasol should be opened over his head against the sun, and he should never be out-of-doors at the time of its rising or setting. In summer-time, when it is fine, his cradle may be put out for him to sleep in the open air. The more he is in the air, the better he will thrive. Before the child can hold up his head, it is prudent to keep him in the horizontal position, and when the spine is sufficiently strong for him to hold up his head, his back should be well supported against the chest and arms of the person holding him, even in sitting him up on one's knee. If his body is allowed to bend without support, he may easily displace the spine or grow round- backed. Nature is our best guide in this. As soon as the child is strong enough to remain sitting, he will do it all alone, without difficulty, and we can let him do it. If, when left to himself, he remains lying down, it shows that the condition of his strength and his muscles require it. In this position he will begin making all sorts of movements; he will turn from side to side, on 38 EDUCATION. to his stomach or his back. Thanks to the extreme flexibility of his limbs, he can bend them in all directions ; he will put his foot in his mouth for his amusement — all this is natural and beneficial. But, although his limbs are flexible, we must never forget how fragile they are. It happens more often than people think, that a child breaks or dislocates an arm, either while being dressed in those low-necked robes which are a torture to him, or by being pulled with unintentional rough- ness. And the consequence of such an accident is very serious. The weakness or atrophy of a limb may be the result for the rest of his life. It is best, therefore, to touch him as little as pos- sible. Calmness and tranquillity are his best nurses. Shouts, laughter, violent noises of all kinds, act too strongly on his nervous system. From over- excitement originate violent temper and caprice, which destroy the equilibrium, and by weakening him make him a prey to diseases and dangers of all sorts, which threaten his feeble existence. Instinct soon tells him if he has in his surroundings the support which he needs, and in which he wants HAPPY CHILDHOOD. 39 nothing more than to confide. It is the first moral necessity of his life, and even at this age we can see by his face if he is happy. Look at the gay and charming expression of the healthy infant; he smiles, coos, and sleeps so peacefully, that we involuntarily think of the old legend which says that the child talks with the angels in his sleep. You can almost always predict a happy future for him when he preserves this expression long; it is the result of the harmony and equi- librium given by a calm and healthy existence. What a contrast to the stupid, capricious, suffering look of the child whose early days have been passed among ignorant or careless people, who say that at that age nothing is of importance. But, poor unfortunate ! his whole future depends on the condition in which he is at that time. If you understand the importance of this early care, you will not find these minute details puerile. They would be wearisome in the extreme if one did not look beyond their apparent unimportance to the great aim at which they point. I firmly beUeve that all who practise these little acts of devotion unceasingly, will be largely rewarded, by 40 EDUCATION. seeing the accomplishment of real miracles by small means, and by the ease with which that problem of education — thought so terrible — will be solved, on ground suitably prepared. CHAPTER III. Weaning — The Danger of young Children carrying Babies — Danger of leaving them alone — Obedience — Unselfishness —Good Manners— The Force of Habit— Example. AS long as a child has no teeth, the only proper food for him is woman's milk, but as soon as the teeth pierce the gum he must be gradually accustomed to other food, for their appearance is the sign that they are to be employed. At first he must have pap and gruel given him, to accustom him gradually to general food. When the time of weaning arrives, he ought to be able to bear the change of diet without suffering from it. As soon as he begins to crawl, he must be put on the ground on a carpet, and everything by which he could hurt himself must be removed out of his reach, and he should be carried as little as possible. In many establishments with small means, the elder sisters may be seen carrying about a great baby of two or three years of age. Nothing does more harm to a young growing girl than to carry about such a weight ; it may cause the most serious 42 EDUCATION. injury to her constitution, and is no less hurtful to the child. He runs a thousand dangers, the worst of which is a fall, and the greater number of humpbacks owe their sad deformity to some such accident. Moreover, the spine is not in its normal position when the child remains in the arms for hours. Nature points out in this, as in everything, what ought to be done. As he is strong enough to crawl, let him practise this exercise. When he is on the ground he cannot fall, nor can he deform any limb ; when he wishes to rest he lies down, and when he wants to move he can do so. It is the same with walking. You may be sure that as soon as the spine, the loins, and the legs are strong enough to bear him, his greatest pleasure will be to show you that he can use his legs. All machines for making children walk are contrary to common sense? If he does not walk of his own accord at the usual time, it is because of his health ; we should not therefore force him to walk, but remedy the cause that prevents him from doing so. As soon as the child begins to crawl, between six and nine months of age, his long clothes must LEAVING CHILDREN ALONE. 43 be curtailed, but he must be more warmly dressed, because the air is colder on the floor than on your knees or in his cradle. The foolish custom of uncovering the arms and legs is the source of many infantine disorders, principally of the sto- mach, which so often accompany teething and weaning. In a short garment of thick flannel, well covering his shoulders and arms, long warm stockings and comfortable shoes, he may be left free to all the movements suitable t,o his age. Never forget that there is real danger in leaving a baby of this age alone, or with other young children. On every side you hear of stories, un- fortunately too true, of countless catastrophes caused by this want of care. Sometimes the parents are not entirely responsible, as they are often obliged to leave their children, in order to work to maintain them. In a village, the women ought to arrange among themselves that one of them by turns shall take care of all the children together — as is done in creches. This is a matter of absolute necessity, for, not only may the children hurt themselves when left unwatched,but, as we too often 44 EDUCATION. see, they may set fire to a whole house. Here is a striking example of the advantage of the spirit of associating for mutual aid. I take care of your children one day, and you watch mine the next day; thus each one can carry on her necessary work, and in the end will be interested in the children of others as in her own. During the first year the development goes on, in every way, with extraordinary rapidity. A year-old child has already a great store of expe- rience. He knows how to distinguish most of the objects around him, and even their uses. If his education has been well conducted, he also knows that he cannot disobey with impunity. I have already pointed out to you that it is easy to prevent him from ever crying for an object, if those who take care of him never depart from the principle of not yielding to him. It is a thousand times better to give him immediately the most unreasonable things than ever to concede to his cries. In the same way, it is easy to accustom him to a prompt obedience, all the more indispensable because the child at this age can have no idea of the dangers which surround him. To explain to FIRMNESS. 45 him the reasons of your prohibitions, before he is five or six years old, is perfectly useless ; his obedience must be absolutely passive until his mind is sufficiently developed for him to com- prehend the reason of an order. Generally, dis- obedience is encouraged by the fault of those who control him ; he is either interfered with, right and left, in what he is doing, or he is laughed at, and actual disobedience allowed to pass. This con- fuses his ideas. Once having commanded a thing, you must persist in it to the end, but before com- manding be sure that what you have required is necessary for him. To allow a thing one day, which on the morrow you forbid, will only inspire him with mediocre confidence in you. I have been struck by the way in which, at a tender age, the child understands the tone or the look of the person who manages him. He knows remarkably well if she is serious in what she demands ; he observes the least shades of expression, and under- stands the sense of the puerile comedies played before him. He surprises the look of admiration, the disguised smile which one gives aside, just as he is about to commit some little iniquity, to 46 EDUCATION. take the forbidden object, or to climb up to the place from which he has just been told to come down, etc. Do not think that you can bring up a child well with these little duplicities; it is another way of confusing his ideas about every- thing, and doubt about those who manage him is quick to rise in his heart. You very often hear little children make the following remark, "Oh! to-day mamma, papa, or nurse is in a bad temper ; we will wait till it is over to ask for such and such a thing;" or the contrary remark, "To-day papa and mamma are in a good humour ; we can make a noise, go to the larder, eat the preserves in the cupboard," etc. And observe that these remarks are perfectly true, and based upon a perfect knowledge of their elders. How can you expect them to take seriously orders or prohibi- tions which spring from the varying humour of those who manage them, in whom they no longer have that unlimited confidence, which, I do not hesitate in saying, is never refused where it is deserved, and which is certainly the most powerful means of education? If you show by a gentle firmness that you mean what you say; if you never THOUGHT FOR OTHERS. 47 allow yourself, owing to the condition of your own nerves, to change your ideas, to pass from anger to weakness, from severity to gaiety, he will give you that unlimited confidence which is always inspired by a just person. Whilst allowing children the utmost liberty compatible with their health and safety, I denounce it as a crime to treat them like playthings, and to allow them to follow all their inclinations when discipline is their only safe- guard. One cannot inculcate too soon in the child the habit of respecting the will or the property of others ; he is thus prepared to understand the unity of his interests with those which surround him. Every child imagines himself to be all- important, and the idea that others are at least as important as himself is not developed at an early age. It is the savage instinct of all animals ; we therefore see that primitive peoples have col- lectively obeyed this very limited instinct of self- preservation, which they are at last obliged to renounce, just as individuals must — for experience teaches everybody that in order to live we must let others live. The first lesson in life is that 48 EDUCATION. which teaches us not to think exclusively of carrying out our own ideas, without considering in what way it may be agreeable or disagreeable to others, and this is easy to inculcate if we are not weak enough to fear " giving pain " to the child. It is no misfortune for him not to be able to do everything that pleases him, and the sooner he learns this lesson, which can be gently taught to him at this age, the fewer blows and cuffs he will have by-and-by, for it will certainly be taught him ! His happiness, like that of a grown-up person, is not found in seeking to live at the expense of those with whom he lives. To break and destroy what belongs to those about him is not necessary for his health or his re- pose, and in the beginning temptation must be put out of the way ; if that cannot be done, he must be forbidden to touch, and must be occupied with something else. We are inclined to think every- thing pretty in a very little child, and to allow him to acquire habits which by-and-by will make us shudder with horror, and require severe correction. At one time he will torment a fly or a patient dog ; at another he will strike his nurse, or even UNSELFISHNESS. 49 his mother, in a rage. It is advisable to show him that these diversions, which he finds so amusing, would not appear quite so funny if he himself were the object of them. It is easy to awake his good feelings by making him understand the pleasure of overcoming his own fancies, in order to do a service to somebody else. If his mother or his nurse is poorly, he must be taught not to make a noise in the room in which she is. I myself have seen the proud and happy look of a little one to whom his mother said : " I have slept well, and my head no longer aches, because you have taken good care of me, and not made a noise." He will never forget it ; and his satisfaction, even at that age, will be far greater than that given by a silly toy trumpet, such as I heard another baby blowing, while seated on his sick mother's bed, she not able to decide on preventing her precious treasure from thus martyrizing her. With an only child, above all, care must be taken not to make him into a little monster by treating him as an idolized fetish. His fate is particularly unfortunate, for unless his parents are sufficiently enlightened to understand the harm so EDUCATION. they are doing him, he is treated during his child- hood as a personage of such importance that he runs great risk of becoming unbearable all his life as son, husband, father, citizen, etc. In this dis- advantageous position redoubled care must be taken to develop in him unselfishness and thought for others, beginning with those nearest to him. When there are several children, the task is much easier. The elder yield to the younger, and they can be trained to try not to tease them ; but they are too young to sacrifice themselves entirely, as grown-up people do, to the demands of the little ones ; and herein lies a chance for the latter. The elder ones treasure their toys, and do not like the Baby to destroy their books just for his fancy, and the Baby in his turn is compelled to yield, in order to escape a slap. This little world is indeed the image of that great one into which he will one day enter. Each individual seeks a " life's path " and educates himself accordingly, and the best plan is to let them arrange their affairs among themselves, which will be so much the easier if the elder ones have been trained in the path of self-denial and kindness. FAVOURITISM. 51 I trust that if you have several children to manage, you will never allow yourself to show those disastrous preferences which make the object of them a monster of selfishness, and the others, who observe this preference, into jealous and sometimes hateful characters. Still, I do not hesitate in saying that the persecuted child almost always has better chances of becoming an estimable being than the favourite. The latter is destined to future execration ; he will always be hard and sel- fish, and the one who will cause most grief to his friends ; whilst the story of Cinderella will be for ever true, and will continue to repeat itself in favour of the disinherited. It is impossible not to experience sometimes stronger sympathy with one child than with another, but all have a right to the same care of all kinds, and the younger ones being the weaker should be protected in the in- fantine republic, where " might " is generally " right." All the early education consists in forming habits ; habits of cleanliness, of docility — above all, of good manners, so that to be ill-behaved should be unhappiness. Let it be impossible for 52 EDUCATION. the children to be happy if those around them are not so. It is indeed true that habit is second nature. All that we are is only the result of habit. Do you perhaps think that we now have other natures, superior to those of our fathers so near to us in time ? No, indeed; for they were capable of generous acts, of impulses of all sorts, of great deeds, which we rarely find among our contem- poraries; yet they constantly bore the sight of things which we could no longer endure, because custom was so strong in them that, without thinking about it, they submitted to real iniquities. Thus slavery, serfdom, torture, persecution for religious opinions or scientific discoveries seemed quite natural at that time. Now the most ignorant and least developed individual could not endure these things, because the custom of seeing them has died out, and the human conscience reproves them, by the generalization of ideas which were formerly only the inheritance of a limited and select few. It is no longer a merit, as it was formerly, to turn with horror from the tortures of a refined cruelty, from legal injustice,— it has become quite a natural thing to the people of our GOOD MANNERS. 53 time, and an auto-da-fe to celebrate a fete would be absolutely impossible in our days. Here, then, is second nature, which has become the real one for us. You have all heard it said that such and such a person has the appearance and the manners of an individual of good birth. What does that mean ? Simply, that the ease and simplicity with which he is polite, gentle, and affectionate, prove that such has been his custom since his birth, and that he has been accustomed to see it in those around him ; that such manners are as easy to him as coarseness and affectation are to others. Such manners have become his by heredity — so much part of his very nature that it would be impossible for him to be otherwise, because it would be suffering to him. It is very easy to perceive if the education has become the nature of the individual, or if it is only a worldly polish, by the state of satisfaction and well- being which he experiences from it. Politeness and consideration superficially acquired, are a painful effort accomplished in the society of the world, in order to gain the reputation of being a well-bred man ; all the attentions, all the good manners are devoted 54 EDUCATION. to strangers, to commonplace acquaintances. For intimate society impoliteness and bad temper are reserved, and the expressions " not to put oneself out of the way," "to be free with one's friends," perfectly describe the reason of this condition of things ; it is because good manners are a restraint, an artificial nature put on like a coat for the occa- sion, while the real nature remains uncultivated and coarse — and no one is at his ease but in his natural condition. A savage accustomed to eat as such, will take the trouble, whilst cursing it, to use a knife and fork in company ; it can be taught him like a troublesome lesson, but once he is in his own home again, where he does not put himself out, his real pleasure will be to replace them with his ten fingers and to be as dirty as his inclination prompts him. Things pass in this way every day before our eyes. Smiling, painfully polite in society, the man who is only civilized on the surface takes his ease in coarseness and disorder as soon as he can. If habit is such a power, you will understand how the early years arc a precious time in which to prepare the future man to find his repose, EFFECT OF EXAMPLE. 55 his pleasure, his ease, in what is good, in what is physically and morally correct, refined, and agree- able. Let him find his pleasure in the plea- sure of those around him, for we only do well what pleases us. It is seldom that we can play an assumed part for long, whereas what is natural to us and does not aim at effect, alone will last. Habit is formed by example. Never be rude or impolite before a child : you may see how soon a child, accustomed to politeness, will be painfully struck by its absence. All principles taught in an abstract way, as sermon or lesson not accompanied by example, are evil rather than good. The child will always be sceptical about him who does not practise what he preaches. CHAPTER IV. Salutary Punishment — Unwise Punishment — The Danger of causing Fear — Causes of Deceitfulness — Nurses. THE habit of obedience, acquired young, avoids the trouble of punishment, to which I attach small value as a means of education. Its necessity proves that it is too late to resort to it, and that early training has been neglected on the pretext that the child is too young. If we admit that you give no other orders than those that are necessary for the well-being of the child, the punishment will come to him of itself, as the consequence of his fault ; but of course at that age we must not allow that, but prevent him from hurting himself In cer- tain cases it is necessary to act with great energy and promptitude. Take, for instance, a child who cries for naughtiness, till he becomes purple in the face, and seems in danger of convulsions — the simplest plan is to turn him over and give him two good slaps behind. I have often seen this species of mustard plaster act almost instantaneously ; the PERNICIOUS PUNISHMENTS. 57 blood leaves the head, and after a sob or two the little rogue falls asleep quietly. We must not get angry, but act calmly, at the moment when the excitement of the child threatens to become dangerous. It is not a punishment, but a remedy, and it can only be applied to very little children who are as yet beyond our moral influence. As soon as they can lisp a word, this ought not to be necessary. As for shutting them up in dark rooms, de- priving them of food, etc., it is extremely dangerous. Food is the most indispensable thing at that age, and ought never to be used as a means of punish- ment or reward. In the first instance, it is cruel, and shows an ignorance of the first laws of hygiene; in the second, it develops greediness. The dark room was invented to cause fear of the dark. It is a tradition which we owe to nurses who brought children up in the name of a Bogey, and of the ogre who devours little children. Think what a monstrous idea it is to inspire fear of the dark, when we ought to do the exact opposite ! It is easy to accustom a child always to sleep without a light, and this custom will render the presence of a candle or a night-light disagreeable. I know 58 EDUCATION. grown-up people who even in their old age cannot sleep in the dark. They owe this to the habits of their childhood. Without considering the very real danger of fire when a light burns in the room of a person asleep, it shows an insane fear — of what ? Of an ordinary, natural thing ; the night which no animal fears. The most important rule to observe in educa- tion is this : Never cause fear ! Of all human feelings, it is the worst. It is the origin of lying, cowardice, crime, and all the horrors of all time, — in fact, of the most intolerable mental torment. A character grounded upon fear is incapable of anything good, noble, or sincere. And yet very few people recognize the harm they do to children by frightening them. They never imagine that the best system is that which consists in constantly teaching fearlessness in everything. For he who succeeds in overcoming this vile sentiment is indeed master of the world and of himself ; he will never be untruthful, hard, servile, or insolent ; he will have within himself the strength necessary for life, and death will not inspire him with those terrors which poison so many existences. EFFECTS OF FEAR. 59 This is such an important point for the future that I am going to speak of it a little in detail, for it is the foundation stone of the whole cha- racter and life. It is impossible to imagine, without having seen, the disastrous consequences of the silly threats or lies which are employed to frighten children, under pretext of making them good. To overcome fear requires a great deal of personal courage, of calm reasoning, as well as vigorous nerves ; to make it almost un- known is easy, if in the very beginning of life we make a point of avoiding everything that pro- vokes it. It is exactly the contrary which is done. We take advantage of the child's weakness of mind to terrify him with solitude, the churchyard, darkness, or the threat of a black man who will carry him away. The imagination is very strong and reason absent at an early age, so that it is even difficult later on to understand the amount of suffering inflicted by these vain terrors. They may disorder the brain, cause inflammation, con- vulsions, and diseases of the nerves. They poison sleep, that first condition of well-being ; they create a disturbance in his whole nature — a 6o EDUCATION. shattered condition, which re-acts on his whole character. But even without committing the crime of terri- fying with chimseras, punishment is a great deal too much employed in the hope of making the child obedient from the fear which it inspires. I think it is absolutely hurtful to obtain anything whatever by the threat of punishment. You may see every day that, where fear is the only bridle, the child becomes accustomed to duplicity and lying, and he profits by the first opportunity to disobey when he can do so with impunity. It is always the fault of those who take care of him, if they are obliged to have recourse to this de- testable system ; they have not inspired him, by firmness and gentleness, with that confidence that makes a word or a look sufficient. The affection of which he ought to feel sure is a very different power from that of fear, and, if you have a rea- sonable affection for him, he will not fail to return it. Everything done through fear remains without real result; for this reason laws and the police have never been able to annihilate crime and stop bad actions, whereas habits acquired early, and EFFECTS OF FEAR. 6i supported later on by persuasion and affection, effect that which force would be powerless to do for the character. I know that in principle all people desire the good of their children, but it is without result and without discernment, for we must seek not only to establish the appearance of good, but also to make it beloved. By making the child timid, his nature becomes corrupted, since it makes him a coward, and perhaps a hypocrite. We recognize, in an abstract way, that to be insincere is the worst fault he can have, and yet we seem to be taking all the trouble possible to make him so. Do not protest : I am going to prove to you how many people become liars owing only to their early education. The little child is disobedient ; he is punished, and threatened with more severe punish- ment if he offends again. His one idea, then, is to do the forbidden thing secretly, and, if he is discovered, to deny it. Generally, the first lie is so stupid that it is immediately discovered, and he is severely punished. The next time he manages it with more cunning and wit, and if he is suc- cessful in deceiving those who question him, he 62 EDUCATION. has started on a road which will lead perhaps to the complete corruption of his nature. His only aim in lying is to avoid punishment. He is much too young to have any glimmering of the moral gravity of lying. On some occasion somebody has not been quite truthful with him, and it is quite sufficient for him to discover that once, to make him attach slight importance to what is said to him on the subject. It is quite useless to lecture a child. For many years it is an absolute loss of time. He does not even listen to you ; he cannot. His mind follows a fly or a ray of light, a mere nothing which is an instantaneous reality, and what you are saying only seems to him an empty sound. But you can perfectly well accustom him to be sincere, if you never punish him for a fault frankly con- fessed, or if you never forbid him to tell you exactly what he thinks. Most people punish without discrimination, not for disobedience, but for its consequence. A child will touch your clock in spite of your prohibition ; you will content yourself with removing it, and telling him not to touch it ; he will break it by accidetit (for he never CORRECTION OF FAULTS. 63 would do it on purpose), and you whip him soundly, because it affects you personally, and concerns you much more than his education. Instead of threatening the child, commend him every time he tells you what he has done. If he has com- mitted a bad action, express your regret about it, and as the strongest incentive in nature is the desire to please, he will be very much affected, especially if he has not been hardened by punish- ment and anger. Of course, while he is quite little, he must be firmly and forcibly prevented from hurting himself, and if he is very determined in wanting a forbidden thing, let him see for himself the danger of dis- obeying you. If he wants to play with the matches, let him burn his finger a little, and that will take away his desire to play with fire. One of the most tiresome of children's habits is that of touching everything. Everything must be removed by which they could hurt themselves, or which they might spoil, but give them a variety of very simple objects with which to occupy their hands, eyes, and attention. For the first three or four years every scrap of wood or string is a plaything. When 64 EDUCATION. they are tall enough to reach anything lying on the table, the foundation of their education should be laid. A simple prohibition ought to suffice to prevent a child from disobeying you ; for if these foundations are laid upon reason and affection, you will inspire him with respect. When we respect a person, a certain fear, not of punishment, but of displeasing him, is mingled with this feeling, which makes us seek his approbation as a con- firmation of the verdict of our conscience. This is not the fear of the slave or the dog who expects blows for having offended his master, and it is this debasing sentiment which develops fear of the individual, of his character, his threats, and his punishment. Now respect and affection are not feelings made to order. All the sermons and commands of heaven and earth can only obtain imitations of these feelings. They are voluntary, and the child knows very well how to give them only where they are merited. How many people, speaking even of God, make Him an object of terror ! To represent the Great Unknown as one of ourselves, only harder and more cruel, is a wicked action, for, ignorant as we are on this subject, we might TRAINING. f>^ at least refrain from abusing the confidence of these Httle beings, by inspiring them with fear, where they should have only admiration and love. Moral fear is much more pernicious than phy- sical fear ; it is evidently necessary to prove to a child of two or three the dangers of fire, of leaning out of the window, or of falling into the water, not only for his own sake, but for that of his little brothers and sisters. This will never make him a coward. Cowardice springs from imaginary fears, and especially from the fear of some person. One of the most important ways of avoiding this danger is in the choice of those who are to be with the child. The most ordinary being would not confide his horse to one who was not a groom by profession, but people do not require any special training in those persons to whom they entrust their children. Ask a sportsman if he would allow any chance stranger to rear his dogs. He will tell you, "Certainly not," and will explain to you that it is from their very birth that they must be checked from eating game or tearing at it when they pick it up. Such people agree as to the importance in education of early habit, but they F 66 EDUCATION. are blind on this point as far as their children are concerned. When a woman cannot get a place as a cook or a sempstress, she becomes a nurse. And you will find that parents, who would laugh in your face if you suggested that their coachman should mind their garden, do not hesitate in en- trusting their children to people without any idea of hygiene or of morals, without education them- selves, and therefore quite incapable of giving any. The apprenticeship which is demanded in the least intellectual trades is in no way considered necessary here. After that, what is there surprising in nurses giving opium to make the children sleep, or indeed beating them when their parents are out of the way, and silencing them by threats, or relating to them things which they believe them- selves, and which will make the children cowards for the rest of their lives ? The level of education is generally so low, that a strict watch should be kept over all the surroundings of a child. The society of ser- vants is injurious for this reason ; they are accus- tomed to gossip, to use coarse words, and, as we have just seen, to be untruthful and TRAINED NURSES. 67 deceitful. We cannot find fault with them, nor require of those who have no idea of principle that they should impart it to others. But does not this universal neglect strike you as it does me ? The only possible nurses should be those who, having passed their Uves in this employment, have arrived at understanding something about it, and have at least acquired a little experience in hygiene; but they are rare, and it is difficult to find any in whom one can trust entirely. This want is making itself felt more and more. You see how important it is that every woman should study what I have spoken of in these lessons. If every woman under- stood these early requirements of children, each would be able to be mother or nurse, as the case might be. Whatever may be her other functions, maternity is the most natural, and it is simply disgraceful not to possess the practical knowledge which will enable her to direct a nurse, or to replace her if necessary. Instead of looking upon the position of nurse as inferior or humiliating, I should like to see more young girls make it the object of their lives. The first requirement would be a voca- 68 EDUCATION. tion for it, interest in children and the faculty of devoting oneself to them. Everywhere there is an excess of governesses. Many persons who have passed their examinations brilliantly cannot find employment because there are too many of them, and they will not become nurses because they think themselves too well-educated for that. Such is the general ignorance on this question, that the care of little children is looked on as beneath one's dignity, and the position of nurse as a degrading one. What a strange mistake ! I consider that to watch and guide a child from the cradle is the highest and most interesting of occu- pations, and a much less thankless one than that of governess. The latter undertakes an already in- corrigible child, whose character has been formed under influences indestructible in the future. But the new-born child is entirely in your hands until his school-days arrive ; everything you do for him is interesting and personal, and has its reward. The better educated the woman is, the more suitable she is for this position. The personal care that one gives these little beings cannot appear menial or humiliating. For a well-educated TRAINED NURSES. 69 person, it is, on the contrary, so interesting and important, that this means of livelihood ought to become an object of choice. A mother can only properly attend to the new-born child. As soon as there are several children, help must be called in, to save the others from being neglected ; and a nurse should not be an inferior, or a kind of servant, but the acolyte of the mother in every respect, and occasionally her guide. There is nothing to hinder an accomplished person from continuing as governess what she has begun as nurse. The task will be all the easier to her, because she will know thoroughly the individuals with whom she is occupied, and will not confine herself solely to teaching them. I seriously advise those among you who are preparing to earn their living to choose this pro- fession. The more enlightened you become, the more it will appeal to your sympathies, and you can be very sure of the usefulness of your work. As this early education is at present managed, I see mothers and nurses in conflict with great difficulties, which would not exist if they looked 70 EDUCATION. at things in their proper light. Many people do not consider the nature of children in general before arriving at the particular details of which we shall treat later on. Where the domestic ar- rangements are such that the children and grown- up people are constantly together, the greater number of scoldings spring from very innocent causes. The little ones make a noise; they are roguish, mischievous ; they tire you ; you order them to be quiet, to sit still, — in fact, to be the contrary of everything imperiously required at their age for their health. Go away from the Babel if it tires you, but do not allow yourself to grow irritable, and to find, in what is annoying to you, a subject for scolding or punishment. "Model children," who never commit follies, who never break anything from liveliness, and who do not like noisy games, are either ill or victims. You may consider this statement exaggerated, but I assure you that there is an age when these wild movements, these shouts and this uproar, are as indispensable to happiness as tranquillity or repose will be by-and-by. For this reason I should like children to have young nurses, for they are less YOUNG NURSES. 71 worried by this exuberance of spirits, and can even take part in it themselves with pleasure. They are more in harmony with the child than an elderly woman worn out with the fatigues of life. They will more readily understand that only that which is really dangerous need be stopped, and they will laugh at most things which would be trying to an older person. CHAPTER V. The Importance of respecting Individual Characteristics — Faults treated as Diseases— Violent Temper — Sulkiness — Imperiousness — Wise Inaction. I NOW require all your attention on the subject of individuality. This admirable diversity of human beings among themselves is often opposed or voluntarily crushed out. For this reason I denounce as useless all treatises, especially the scientific ones, of pedagogues, where the child is treated as an abstract phenomenon, placed in invariable conditions, and consequently to be man- aged in one way only. Nothing better proves our ignorance than pretension of knowing better than Nature herself what is necessary, and the desire to put aside that most mysterious and incompre- hensible thing — individuality — in the endeavour to make a human being who will be pleasing to ourselves. You ignore the propensities, con- stitution and cerebral conditions of the child, and you want to fashion him according to the image INDIVIDUALITY. 73 you have formed of what you wish him to be. It is useless — you may master him by fear, to a certain extent, but you can never give him what Nature has withheld. You will certainly succeed in making him unhappy by preventing the gradual and normal development in him of that which is unknown to you, and which you combat with all kinds of reasons, totally foreign to the only aim which ought to guide you — that of preparing him to be as happy as possible. I shall try to prove to you how sacred a thing is individuality, and how much it ought to be respected and left free. In this we perceive how much we are surrounded by prejudices and errors in everything we do. Certain wants are general to all mankind, but it is the primitive and common elements alone which are always subjected to the same laws, and there are numerous cases, even in the purely physical re- quirements, where the wants are varied according to the individual nature. There is no fixed rule to apply to everybody, and we shall avoid many grave errors if we have no preconceived ideas on countless questions about which parents torment themselves vainly. 74 EDUCATION. Thus it is a mistake to force a child to eat. Whims of appetite depend on the whole constitution, and, far from subduing them by force, reason will lead you to consider these dislikes or preferences as valuable information on the constitution of which we are ignorant. Distaste for meat, so common among children, and a preference for regetables, milk-food and a cooling diet, are instincts ; and if they are not deprived of real appetite by senseless sweetmeats devoured at all hours, their dislike of any particular food is a warning, not a whim. If a child be well, there is no necessity for anxiety because he eats less than another. The differences in the requirements of feeding are as great as in other peculiarities of his nature. If he is ill and failing, and has no appetite, it is not by forcing him to eat that you will restore his health. Except in an acute crisis — such as diphtheria, for instance, in which the child must be sustained at all costs, but which does not last — compulsory feeding will never remedy any of those hidden causes of weak- ness, which should only be combated by a generaland continued treatment. As far as regards the general health, I think that each of us, if he be not half- PREDILECTIONS. 75 Starved, eats more than is necessary ; therefore great eagerness or greediness in a child shows a greater weakness than moderation would show. I here again insist on leaving the individual free, as far as possible, for the natural law in every being is to seek out the conditions most favourable to its organism ; and in children this law is very strong, as all their actions are more instinctive than in the adult. Animals possess this instinct in the highest degree ; in man it has been syste- matically stifled by centuries of false medical science, which has never taken into account the valuable indications expressed for us in our instinc- tive preferences and dislikes, and is always wishing to impose its own personal ideas on everybody. Doctors are now beginning to be guided by these peculiarities. Hitherto they have believed them- selves to be fulfilling their duty by prescribing what suited their own constitutions. Now in proportion as we see how many things are incomprehensible in ourselves, we shall hesitate in forcing the nature of another. For instance, we severely combat left-handedness. Now I am persuaded that Nature here seeks to correct the partial weakness of certain 76 EDUCATION. muscles, and that no inconvenience can arise from the habit. It is, moreover, an absurd conven- tionality to develop, as we do, one member at the expense of another. It is a positive evil, for both arms and both hands are intended to be employed, just as both feet are, and our traditional follies must be deeply rooted in us to make us persist in systematically atrophying one member. The left hand ought to do exacdy what the right hand does. I mean it literally; that is, we should teach both hands at the same time, even making the here- ditarily weakened left hand work a little more at writing, drawing, work of all kinds, cutting, shaping, sewing, etc. This would be more in- telligent than punishing a child because it uses its left hand when Nature suggests it. As soon as we occupy ourselves with the tastes, character, or development, we encounter a thou- sand different personal distinctions, of which we not only ought to take account, but which we may turn to some advantage. Nature does not require radical changes, but adaptation to the surroundings, leaving her as much as possible to follow her own promptings. We constantly see around us every- INFLUENCE OF HEALTH ON TEMPER. 77 thing carefully stifled which is peculiar or original, and a uniformity adopted in which individuality counts for nothing. Before correcting, it is neces- sary, it seems to me, to observe (a less active, but very important, course apparently), in order to understand the nature with which we are dealing, and to know what really requires our interference. Everything which is not hurtful to health, from our double point of view, is not worth the trouble we take to combat it. The real criterion for our conscience is this : "Is such and such a thing hurtful to the health or the character of the child?" If it is, we must combat it with energy — and real energy is patience. Defects arise either from hereditary causee, or from the health and the surroundings of the child. The degree in which temper corresponds to the physical condition is everywhere recognized. In speaking of grown-up persons, you often say that it is a good or a bad day with them, or that they have risen from bed on the wrong side, in order to explain any difference from their usual temper. We attribute these changes to a state of the health, and we ought to explain in the same 78 EDUCATION. way anything that seems unusual in children. Every mother of a large family will tell you that one of her children, who has been morose up to a certain age, became gay, and vice versa ; that the idle or indolent one was transformed into an active worker ; and that the one whose temper was most unbearable has now become the easiest to live with ; or she may be surprised to see him whose character seemed perfect, change to be irritable, melancholy, or cross. These changes are caused by the state of health. Medical knowledge is still so rudimentary that it is difficult, if not im- possible, to prove exactly what is the physical cause of every moral disorder; but by recognizing this explanation as the only one possible, we no longer seek a remedy in punishments and menaces \ we try, with all our power, to understand the cause of the mischief, and to remedy it by treating it as an illness. We shall require much more patience by this slow method than by the other, but I am sure that it is the only rational one. There is no such thing as wickedness or evil intention in the little child ; it is very doubtful whether, even in the most depraved of men, there is GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES. 79 any determination to be bad. But the human being at an early age has no idea of morality ; he is guided by his instincts, and these are purely physical. Owing to heredity there are in him certain domi- nant dispositions, and if they are diseased — that is to say, outside the laws of a well-balanced con- stitution — they tend to develop and to choke the good seed. We constantly forget the unhealthy con- dition in which the great majority of people Hve ; good health seems on the decrease, and it is, alas ! sickly parents who are the most numerous. We thus have almost always to combat hereditary disorders, born with the child. If it be true that every drug contains good or bad qualities according to the dose administered, we can also recognize that every disposition contains its good and bad side, that every fault goes with some good quality, and we ought to direct all our attention to de- veloping the latter and diminishing the former. Thus, gentleness is often combined with timidity, which harshness immediately turns into deceit ; generosity goes with violence, selfishness with amiability, and a touchy temper and sensitiveness are sisters. 8o EDUCATION. The fact once admitted that there is not the possibility in nature, of a determination to be wicked, no one, I suppose, will be angry with a disease. I do not say that one may not often feel irritated with it. The most common maladies are annoying when they do not yield quickly to treatment, but at least let us not mistake how they ought to be treated. You do not punish a child because he is anaemic or weak, but you punish him because he is capricious or passionate; and yet I maintain that he is no more to blame for his disposition than for the quality of his blood. If the child be anaemic, you try to strengthen him by dieting, by medicines suitable for his condition, perhaps by a change of air or scene — a cure which is often much prolonged, for you know without being told, that it is not a violent medicine taken once, that will render him healthy and strong. Very well ! Diseased dispositions of character ought to be treated in the same way. Violence, capriciousness, perpetual discontent, and idleness are evils to be combated by treatment and gentle attentions, as decided and constant as those you would give in an ordinary condition of sickness. EARLY CORRECTION. 8l When I talk of respecting the individuality, I do not mean that defects are not to be corrected. That would be as absurd as to say that, if a child were scrofulous, he should be left to grow up so, in order to see what would come of it. I only tell you not to attempt violent remedies; radical changes are quite impossible. The sooner we commence the cure the greater are the chances of success. If you understand the importance of treating poverty of blood, weakness of the organs, and other constitutional disorders, as soon as you observe them, I need not explain to you how much you will gain by following the same system with the character, A disease taken in time is easily overcome; a fault in the beginning is easily stifled; but not a single day should be lost. Violent temper, for instance, is one of the features most commonly developed in the early days of childhood. The harm resulting therefrom to the nervous and cerebral system is excessive. You may have observed that the most violent people are the weakest when once the fit is passed. It is because their nerves are completely weakened by the over-excitement they have just passed G 82 EDUCATION. through, and the outburst has been so thorough that they have no strength of will left. It is a nervous crisis often provoked by a very little thwarting. In nervous crises produced by recog- nized irregularities in the health, convulsions, epilepsy, or St. Vitus' dance, doctors recommend such remedies as baths, sedatives and perfect quiet, without noise or agitation of any kind. In the same way should we treat fits of passion. To oppose anger by anger is useless. Not once in a hundred times will that stop the child, whom no whipping or fear will restrain from reaching the last paroxysm of rage, which will probably be suc- ceeded by great prostration. As soon as we become aware of this passionate disposition, we must avoid provoking it, and take advantage of the mobility of his age to occupy the child with something else than what annoys him. The child must never be teased under pretext of training his character; if he is irritable, that will only increase his tendency to get angry. The fear of punishment will lead him in the end to conceal the visible signs of anger, but this deceit, which requires years of practice, is after all a JUDICIOUS CORRECTION. 83 poor result, since it only replaces one evil by another. He is no less angry in his heart, and frequently develops a disposition which is never indeed allied with violence, but becomes malicious and vindictive. A sullen, silent, morose child always inspires me with more anxiety than one who allows himself to show his true character. If you desire his real good, employ your ingenuity in avoiding every opportunity of exciting his anger ; for violence and rage are developed by the fre- quency of their repetition. Combat this disposition (which always shows a great irritability of the nerves), by strengthening measures, the most important of which is a midday sleep for two or three hours, until at least seven years of age ; then life in the open air, with games which develop and fatigue the body, so as to induce a desire to sleep. If, in spite of all this, a fit of passion occurs, leave the child alone; do not argue with him while it lasts; shut him up where he cannot hurt himself, and tell him he will be freed as soon as he ceases to disturb others by his cries. As soon as he is quiet, give him his liberty, and, with a word of warning, let him run about and play again. Never EDUCATION. let the punishment last beyond the time that he is angry. In five minutes' time (I speak of an early age) he no longer remembers why he is in disgrace, and his passion may easily return in the weariness of his solitude, and then there will be a fresh fit, tears, rage and exhaustion without end. If, on the contrary, he is restored to his usual surroundings immediately on his recovery, he will try to avoid the bother which he knows was caused by his naughti- ness. Anyhow, you will shorten the length of his fit by this temporary imprisonment, and that is a great point. As for caprice, which is encouraged by yielding to it, it is frequently caused by the weariness arising from idleness : " Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," as the proverb says. From the beginning his time ought always to be em- ployed in some way. Sleeping, eating and stretch- ing his arms and legs, suffice for the first year. As soon as he can sit on the ground, his time may be variously employed by playthings appropriate to his age. The first things given him ought to be perfectly harmless, for he instinctively puts every- thing in his mouth, the irritation of the gums in CAUSES OF NAUGHTINESS. 85 dentition requiring him to gnaw at something to aid the piercing of the teeth. Give him a piece of polished wood without splinters, or a bone ; anything, in fact, with which he can neither hurt nor poison himself; but never give him anything which you must afterwards take away, for he will certainly want to keep that particular thing, and you will be punished by a naughty fit for having tempted him with what he cannot have. He can look at pictures, play hide and seek, and play at ball, preferably in the society of other children, provided they can be watched. If he is always occupied, he will have no fits of temper, which are always the result of wanting what he cannot have, or of fatigue. For vtry young children, too much laughing and noisy games are beyond their strength, and make them naughty, that is to say, out of sorts. Neither we nor they take into consideration that what we call naughtiness is often an imperative need of rest, sometimes of sleep. If he is sulky, it is because a certain selfish con- ceit makes him believe in his own importance. He imagines he punishes others by this, because he thinks he is a personage they cannot do without, 86 EDUCATION. and that he is not treated as he deserves to be. No attention must be paid to this, and he must be diverted ; an elder brother or sister will best achieve this. He is so pliant that he will begin to laugh and play himself, if his bad temper be ignored ; but if we show ourselves too eager in our advances, he will shut himself up as in a citadel. If you allow it to pass unnoticed, he will forget it him- self; he sees the others amusing themselves, and he joins them ; but you must not remind him of his recent sulkiness. This is a fault best corrected by ignoring it. He soon finds out that he alone suffers, and that nobody attaches any importance to his offended air. This appa- rent inaction is the best method of arriving at what we desire. As soon as he begins to talk, he asks questions, and he ought to be answered, unless at the moment he interrogates you, you are occupied with some- thing else. You must then tell him that you will talk to him presently, but do not allow yourself to satisfy a passing fancy, or perhaps a ruse, to make you attend to him. Be careful not to allow him to assume the tone of master towards anybody PATIENCE. 87 whomsoever. I cannot bear to see a little child, scarcely lisping a few words, giving orders to a grown-up person. His nurse ought to be a respected authority, and not his servant. He only assumes such airs if he is allowed to do so. Al- though I consider it quite natural that he should ask and obtain what he wants without being snubbed, I blame those who allow him to be im- perious and exacting, or to command anybody whomsoever. At the first freak of this sort he should be met with a freezing silence, and not receive the least attention. His orders, if reason- able, must be changed into requests in order to gain consideration. Everything depends on our manner of under- standing our task. We often make mistakes, which we regret later on. To obtain a satisfactory result, the most important thing is never to be irritkted or impatient oneself; at moments when you are out of temper or irritated, it is wisest not to act at all, but to wait until you recover your normal condition. We are all Hable to have such moments, for we are not ourselves proof against trial, and are often overwhelmed \vith many cares. EDUCATION. At any rate, you will not have frightened or ill- treated the child, and created a series of fresh diffi- culties to be struggled against long after. I trust I have convinced you that, in most cases, punishment mingled with personal feeling is a regular scourge, and that a politic inaction is prudent whenever one is not quite sure of acting calmly and uniting gentleness with firm- ness. CHAPTER VI. All Impressions at an Early Age External — Advantage to be gained from the Liveliness of these Impressions to Impart a Sense of the Beautiful— Simple Means of Attaining this. DURING the first years the child is only impressed by external objects; he is only interested in what he sees, hears, tastes and touches. He possesses the instinct of imitation in the highest degree, and by that alone he suc- ceeds in walking, laughing and speaking. Deaf and dumb children are not deprived of the power of emitting sounds, but as their tympanum does not exist or has been destroyed accidentally, they do not succeed in speaking, which is acquired by imitation. Before learning to talk, the child designates animals by their different sounds, which you must certainly have observed, as all children commence alike. It is always imitation which makes him invent the queer names which he gives to persons and things in his babbling. Peculiarities strike him, and if he sees a grimace, for instance, he will try to reproduce it ; he might even disfigure 90 EDUCATION. himself in this way. Great attention must be paid to those tricks which so many children adopt simply because they have seen them. The games which they invent consist in doing what they see done around them. The children of a carpenter, of a sempstress, or of a painter, play at what their parents do, and nothing in the world is more amusing than to see little girls playing at being ladies. They unconsciously make the most successful parodies of the grimaces, phrases and manners which they see around them. The dis- position is best shown by the games invented by the children themselves, and it is interesting and in- structive to observe them. They transform ordi- nary objects, by the strength of their imagination, into those by which they are struck or which please them. Thus a child will go under the table and pretend either that he is in a beautiful drawing-room, or under the trees, and at last he really believes it. A stick will be transformed for him into a fiery horse, on which he parades himself as a fine cavalier ; on this charger, which has become a real one in his eyes, he crosses forests, jumps rivers, and surmounts countless obstacles. But to arrive at this he must IMITATIVE POWERS. 91 have a certain experience; he must either have seen a horse with his rider, to whom some of these adventures happened, or he must have heard the account of them, and believed himself to be the hero. Thus I have seen a child, who had lost his little brother, amuse himself during many months with burying his doll under flowers, while chanting in a lugubrious tone, and saying his prayers beside the imaginary corpse. The remem- brance of the living and sorrow for his mysterious departure had alike disappeared, but the funeral details had left such an impression on his imagina- tion, that they recurred incessantly to his mind, and he tried to reproduce what had so forcibly struck him. But an external impression was neces- sary to give him the idea of this game; we might say that he invents nothing, that he assimilates what he sees; and the stronger his imagination, the more will he identify himself with what has pleased, frightened, or interested him. If you see a little girl ill-treating her doll, you may be sure that it is a result of the manner in which she herself has been treated, and as she personifies her doll, it is unfortunate to see her acquire this habit. 92 EDUCATION. From this there is only one step to teasing animals, and he who is not moved by the sufferings of an animal, easily goes on to injuring his fellow creatures without being troubled about it. Abstract ideas do not exist at this age ; they only come as the result of a very slow intellectual development. The uncultured man, as well as the child, represents every immaterial idea to him- self under the form in which it has been presented to his senses. Think of the years and education required before we could represent God to our- selves otherwise than as an old man with a white beard, such as He is represented in pictures and statues, and have we really freed ourselves com- pletely from this conception of the Creator ? For a child no other idea is possible. So with angels, demons, and fairies, both children and uneducated people have a very precise idea of them with their attributes, so intimately known through pictures ; they are much more decided than we are about these supernatural beings. Everything belonging to the region of mystery is very pleasing at this age, in which the child feels himself attracted by everything which transports him into an unknown EARLY IMPRESSIONS. 93 sphere, where he can create images for himself of all kinds. The imagination, therefore, must not be developed at this time ; though it is important to use both that and the instinct of imitation, to bring them to bear on things worthy of a lasting remembrance. By reflecting we can understand the way in which a taste for the beautiful is developed in us. It is most quickly acquired where it exists among those who surround us. The first impressions are so strong that each of us can, I am sure, describe exactly the room in which our childhood was passed; and, when time shall have effaced many interesting things from our memory, we shall see again, from the armchair to which old age has con- signed us, the nurse who taught us our prayers, or the framed picture which we saw before our eyes on awakening in our cot. The sound of a bell or the scent of a flower is sufficient to recall, in the least of its details, our village church, or to put us among the flowers of the field, to which we used to go in search of spring treasures, to be scolded afterwards for having soiled our clothes. The persistence of these impressions proves the incom- parable strength with which they were produced 94 EDUCATION. and by their duration they explain the influence which they leave on our manner of feeling and thinking. Let us hasten to profit by these early years to adorn carefully this blank sheet of the brain, so as to give impressions which shall be lofty, beautiful and con- soling for life. Our chief helps will be in surround- ing objects. The father of Montaigne, a French philosopher of the sixteenth century, wished that from the cradle his son should only hear beautiful music and only see things harmonious to the eye ; he made him learn in play the great sciences of his time and Latin. Without any luxury or much effort the humblest cottage of our day can present something attractive and beautiful to the senses of the young child. A few field-flowers and leaves are within the reach of all. The progress of in- dustry also offers us facilities which were unknown to those who preceded us. Formerly it required a good deal of money to become familiarized with everything connected with art. Now everybody can fill his house, not with hideous daubs, like the cheap engravings of former days, but with photographs which cost no more and which re- PICTURES. 95 produce the masterpieces of painting. Happy the child whose dreams shall represent the Mother of God under the form of one of Raphael's Virgins, and the angels under the aspect of the cherubs of Correggio ! How different it would be to learn sacred history from these masters, instead of those frightful illuminated pictures so dear to the lower classes, which are only made to pervert public taste ! I can quote a personal fact in support of the theory of the ineffaceable remembrance often left by pictures seen when a child is young. In the room in which I passed my early childhood were framed engravings reproducing the pictures in the gallery at Munich. I knew them so well, and I admired them so much, that I could never think of sacred or ancient history otherwise than as represented by these pictures, and by dint of look- ing at them I recognized in after years the works of the painters by the exact recollection of those which I had only seen engraved. I should avoid as much as possible showing caricatures to children. They do not understand the delicate irony, and it de- velops in them a taste for the grotesque, which may destroy the taste for the beautiful. Books for 96 EDUCATION. young children are now edited with a care and perfection even of illustration which far surpass anything from which we learnt our alphabet. Without any extraordinary expense we can show them many things exactly reproduced — animals, views, and pictures of manners and customs of distant countries which awaken their curiosity and their desire to learn. Whatever the child hears, whether of words or music, ought to be harmonious, and however simple the songs which sound in his ears, they ought always to be sung in exact time, and he should never be amused with shouting or howling. A mother who softly sings a national air to her child, pro- duces in him an impression which, artistic because it is beautiful, for ever prevents him from enjoying savage and brutal noises. How different will be a child thus soothed by harmony, from one awakened suddenly by the drunken oaths, vociferations, and revilings which surround so many cradles ! Either it is an intolerable suffering to the child, or, which happens too often, he becomes accustomed to violent expressions and to coarseness; he will never sing, but will find a deplorable pleasure in NATURE AS AN EDUCATOR. 97 horrible yelling and saying coarse words. Just as we can accustom him to cleanliness and order, and to feel comfortable only where they exist, so have we the actual power to make him hate everything ugly and discordant, everything which in another do- main represents uncleanliness also. Glaring colours and discordant sounds are an outrage to the senses of seeing and hearing, and he who avoids this bru- tality will always hold it in abhorrence, under what- ever form it may appear. In familiarizing him with what is really beautiful, you give an education which it is almost impossible to give later on. If he has the least germ of talent, you procure for him, by this culture, a facility of developing it, and it may thus become his greatest pleasure in life. There are immense resources in Nature, of which the diversity, the charm, and the daily marvels cannot fail to be pleasing to him who is trained to admire them. Everywhere she is beau- tiful, whether in arid plains or in the most richly varied valleys. Wherever we are we can rejoice at the aspect of the clouds, a sunrise, a plant, or an insect. Her phenomena, her sounds, her changes will always interest us, especially if we H EDUCATION. devote our attention to these things. What a rich treasure of ideas he will have stored up be- fore he is taught them in school, and how great the difference between acquiring them from liking and acquiring them mechanically, in a wearisome way ! He who loves Nature can never become a brute ; this love alone will preserve him from what is low or coarse. The public-house will have fewer charms for him who can enjoy a sunset, pause to listen to a nightingale or search for a plant, than for him whose eyes are never raised to look at the starry heavens, or who has never felt the poetic intoxication of a summer evening. If we thus have the power of directing the tastes of a child in the things which depend on the external impressions with which we surround him, how great may be our influence in every- thing concerning his mind and his heart ! Let us speak first of the mechanism of speech. We can accustom him to using it well, by speaking to him well oneself; that is to say, by always using the clearest and most exact expression for one's thought, which is generally the simplest, and by avoiding any vulgar or coarse phrase. This is one GOOD INFLUENCE OF TALES. 99 of the arguments in favour of the care we should take to surround the child with well-educated people. In early years, if circumstances allow of it, he can be taught several languages at the same time while playing, without any fatigue, because he learns them Hke a parrot, but with a rapidity and facility of pronunciation which are never found in later years. All children, as soon as they understand words, ask for tales ; and such stories should be told them as awaken their sense of justice, love of good, and admiration for what is really morally beautiful in human actions. Jesus spoke in parables to the people — that Great Child who also loves narrative and imagery — let us follow His example. The interest depends on the way we tell the story. For the young child, it ought to be short and very lively to make an impression. There must not be a long moral, but in a few words we must make him feel what we would convey. Thus the consequences of dis- obedience, the pleasure which results from abstain- ing from revenge, or from being unselfish, are easy to point out in this way. If we have not imagina- tion enough ourselves, there are always the parables EDUCATION. in the Gospels, or stories taken from Holy Scrip- ture, or touching episodes from history in general within the comprehension of early age. We can use the subject of a picture or of a photograph to re- late it succinctly, and these events will be engraved in his memory in a lasting way. Without any special moral end, stories of adventure, of presence of mind under difficult circumstances, or reminiscences of one's own youth, will always passionately interest young hearers. I have tried, with much success, to relate to them in a few clear words the best known fables, and they appeared to find great plea- sure in them. In the little events of their daily lives we can point out the meaning of these fables, although I think at this age it is the story itself which absorbs them. It is later on that the thought becomes clear to them. Never prolong the story so as to fatigue the attention. Finally, always, and in all circumstances, let us try to inculcate what we believe to be the source of real happiness — that which does not depend on others, or upon circumstances — that happiness which can only be attained by the equilibrium of the physical and moral forces, and by the internal INFLUENCE OF SURROUNDINGS. loi content and peace which flow therefrom. These are simple truths which can be inculcated in two ways only : by making them loved, that is to say, by representing them to the young imagination as that which is most desirable and beautiful in life ; and by example, believing oneself and re- specting what one teaches. The manner of doing so must be left to in- dividual intelligence ; I can only give the indi- cations. According to my idea, no shadow of pedantry should enter into this work ; it is rather a serene and fine atmosphere which should sur- round these little ones without their knowledge. Let there be nothing didactic or imposing, nothing which suggests the Professor ; never force them to anything, but make what is useful to them agreeable and interesting. They are often dis- gusted with what is good because it is constantly preached to them, and this must be specially avoided. You have, I hope, understood how much that is opposed to my idea, and will only teach what you believe and love yourselves. You know how we become animated and interesting when we speak of something which we really love EDUCATION. with all our strength. As the German poet Goethe says : " that which issues from the heart alone, Will bend the heart of others to your own." CHAPTER VII. Playthings— Costly Clothes — Luxury, injurious and harm- less — Money and Charity — Games — Remarks on the Appear- ance and Character to be avoided. ON the question of playthings, their great sim- plicity is their real merit. The traditional balls, skipping ropes, spades, pails, and bricks continue to enjoy the favour of each generation, and sand in which they can make pies and castles is an inexhaustible source of joy. The magnifi- cent playthings displayed in the windows of shops chiefly please grown-up people. Children have surprising predilections, regardless of the cost and appearance of the object. I have seen the children of rich people leave everything for the amusement of watching paper dolls being cut out, and dispute for them as if they were treasures. If you draw familiar objects for them, they prefer the most frightful daubs which they have seen done, to the most beautiful book of pictures. A kite, fabricated bit by bit before their eyes, will I04 EDUCATION. give them a hundred times more pleasure, and, above all, will occupy them much longer, than the most splendid of kites bought ready-made. They like something that makes a noise and causes them to move about. A gardener's wheelbarrow pleases them more than an elegant carriage; the doll without head or limbs becomes a favourite in a company of children, while her elegant and dressy companions lie covered with dust and neg- lected in a corner. Sometimes children transform to their liking some plaything made for a purpose for which it is never used. The more a child is spoilt, and loaded with costly and dainty things, the less he enjoys anything whatever. The poor girl, whose mother manages to buy a doll for her costing a few pence, will have lasting pleasure from it, and will take great care of it ; she has had leisure to wish for it and dream of it, and the long waiting has made her invest her beloved treasure with all the beauties of her youthful imagination. The rich child is indeed to be pitied. The proverbial story of the one who, overwhelmed with the most beautiful presents, wept and exclaimed, " How tired I am of everything!" is perfectly true. I EXCESS OF FLA YFHINGS. 105 have been present at the distribution of presents to the rich and the poor on fete days. This custom of literally surfeiting them with presents is a real misfortune for the rich ; they are be- wildered and fatigued by them ; and those among them, whose characters are sufficiently gay and lively not to be stupified by this excess (as in- jurious to the brain as the sweetmeats with which they stuff themselves on these occasions are to the stomach), only derive one pleasure from all these beautiful things, which is to pull them to pieces and destroy them as quickly as possible. Their bored and indifferent air would be comical if we could prevent ourselves from thinking of the harm being done to them. To the poor we give simple toys, because "they are amused with any- thing." Happy creatures ! Indeed, their bright eyes and overflowing joy tell enough to convince us of their happiness. We thus see how blamable is any great expen- diture in playthings. Such waste is of no use in amusing or interesting children, besides having de- plorable results. In addition to satiety, it develops, in an extreme degree, a selfishness with which we io6 EDUCATION. ourselves must be thoroughly imbued before we allow ourselves to spend in such a way what repre- sents the lives of so many of our fellow-creatures. We are surprised later on to see these children vain, careless of others, seeking only their own amuse- ment, killing time by spending money right and left — and whom can we blame for this result ? On what basis have we brought them up — we who had the re- sources, the knowledge, and the means of prepar- ing them for a worthy and happy life? From their birth we teach them that luxury constitutes happi- ness, and although their nature may rebel against this lesson, at last it becomes an article of faith. We give them whole fortunes in the form of useless things — an emblem of what will appear to them most to be desired all through life — something use- less which costs a great deal. We inculcate the idea of the superiority of money, not that which one gains by work, but that which comes from nobody knows where, without trouble and difficulty. We teach charity by giving them a few pence to bestow on beggars, or by allowing them to distribute their broken toys or their shabby clothes, and to receive the flattering thanks of those to whom they show EXERCISE OF CHARITY. 107 charity which costs them nothing. No ! let us blame ourselves for what these young hearts become — spoilt and blinded by our own fault, to whom we have never shown things in their true aspect. We cannot teach them too early the real value of money — that terrible power, which represents the labour and privations of all who surround us. From this point of view they must be taught to respect it as that which gives ease, and even life, to so many others. Show them by example that it is an imperative duty to be careful about spending it on personal fancies. No child, in whatever position he may be, ought to be ignorant of the value of money. Nobody ought to give alms until he has earned the right to this pleasure by some personal sacri- fice. The real privileges of comfort and wealth can only be taught in this way ; it is the means by which to give happiness to many others. But it is a reward, not a virtue ! And it is only a real pleasure when we deny ourselves, at least in part. The poor as well as the rich can enjoy the incom- parable satisfaction of a real act of charity. To both, as a sort of reward, I should propose shar- ing with others who are weaker, more desolate, or io8 EDUCATION. more unfortunate. But on no account should I treat this act as meritorious, or as a condescension, or a matter for praise. The lack of money does not exclude the possibility of rendering service mutually. The poor can give the rich his strength, his friendship, and his support. Of all false teach- ing, the most deplorable is that which we inculcate almost unconsciously, that fortune constitutes per- sonal superiority. Oh ! I know that in talking, and in long and fine sermons, we preach the con- trary ; but our acts, our lives, and the heedlessness with which we prepare one class to disdain, and the other to envy people according to their fortune, only prove too truly what I assert. Rich clothes do not make children happy any more than costly toys. Their real pleasure is to be dressed in such a way that they need not think of their clothes ; the most simple, the most comfortable, and the most substantial are what their own choice would select. It is for the gratifica- tion of our own vanity that we cover them with the lace and finery in which the future drawing- room doll passes her apprenticeship of frivolity and coquetry. Far from combating this savage SMART CLOTHES. 109 love of finery, we see it developed in every con- dition of society ; and I am sorry to say that those mothers, who by their education ought to be above such folly, are on the contrary its standard- bearers. Yet this taste develops among women, in the highest degree, both envy and selfishness, and constitutes their worst slavery. Thus you know what you are doing in encouraging it. It is es- pecially the Sunday dress, which is put on with strict orders to keep quiet and not to tumble it, which should be banished. I would rather see parents, if their means permitted it, always clothe their children like little performing monkeys, than reserve a sash or a collar for any special shozi.i-^z.y . But how can we persuade mothers of this when they are exasperated by seeing any child more elegantly dressed than their own? And how many tears and scoldings have I witnessed about finery ! How many good games of play spoilt by the fear of soiling a frock, or tearing it ! When I see a little girl walking solemnly in the beginning of the day, looking with joy into every mirror she passes, until her face grows sad and depressed by the effort she is making to repress the movements of EDUCATION. her age, I cannot help thinking that her pleasure was never thought of in decking her out in that fashion. We run the risk of awakening, by this interest in her toilet, a very bad sentiment in her young heart — the desire of impressing somebody by the display of luxury; and the looks of con- tempt or envy cast by their young eyes on one another's garments have often struck me. " Al- ready ! " — I say to myself. If habits of order have been taught, which ought to be begun early by making the child always keep his own things tidy, he will never tear his clothes for amusement ; and if he likes cleanliness, it will be disagreeable to him to have his clothes stained. Never let him come with dirty hands, or uncombed and covered with mud, into your presence ; if he loves you, he will avoid anything that shuts him off from you and is disagreeable to you. Playthings, clothes, and everything belonging to him, ought to be a matter of necessity, of comfort, or of amusement, without any other thought connected with it. I have spoken of real luxury, which consists in fresh air, cleanliness, space, food, and sufficient warmth. However abundantly you MISTAKES OF PARENTS. give him of these luxuries, he will never be vain about them, for this mean sentiment springs only from what touches his small personality. We should know exactly what we desire for our children, in order not to make mistakes in this important question. There cannot be two codes of morals, or two lines of conduct, side by side, and from the very beginning they are started on one path or the other. I have often seen the bitter self-deception of well-intentioned parents, who confess that, in spite of all their care, their child is the opposite of what they could have wished. And I know what this " care " has been. At the age of fifteen or sixteen — frightened by his vanity, his selfishness, and his idleness — they begin to correct him violently for what they themselves have encouraged. Sermons, and even punish- ments, are not spared. But what was the seed from which should spring a generous, devoted, affectionate character ? What has he been taught to prize more highly than everything? What has been shown to him as the aim of all his aspirations ? Do not let us make mistakes in the beginning. EDUCATION. Which is better — selfishness, vanity, hardness of heart, or generosity, devotion, and charity ? Which of these very different paths is the road to happiness? Everyone who has to do with children should seriously reflect on this before beginning the undertaking, and come to an irrevocable decision ; for it is impossible to de- stroy afterwards what has been cultivated from the beginning. The seed is very quickly sown and bears fruit. For my own part, I am convinced that the less there is of selfishness and vanity, the greater are the chances of happiness, and I think it is my duty to warn you of the importance of your decision. You must not deceive yourselves about your surroundings ; rich and poor, you are equally apt to fall into this error. You encourage greed and vanity by the value you attach, before the child, to the external signs of wealth. He begins by thinking wrongly on all these subjects, and it is important that he should think rightly. Only by estimating things at their just value, that is to say, by the extent to which they contribute to the inner happiness, he will find himself, whatever be his station, forming part of the eternal and PLAY. 113 glorious band of servants of the truth who have been and always will be stronger than all others. Instead of allowing him to concentrate all his thoughts, dreams, and fancies on himself, let us interest him as early as possible in that which sur- rounds him — in that which so many people pass their whole life without remarking or knowing. During the fine season he will dig, manure, and plant with pleasure, but at first without much perseverance, for he forgets the object of his work, and wishes for change. He must not be forced to continue what wearies him ; the activity of his body and mind make him seek for novelty. At about five years of age however he can sufficiently interest him- self in one idea to take care of a plant and enjoy having fostered its growth. But the best of all amuse- ments are games in common with other children. A number of children left to their own devices make a very interesting study ; they reveal their tastes, instincts, and capacities, and among them is always one who directs the others, who all obey him; and it is generally the most intelligent to whom this lot falls. This influence is never obtained by physical force ; from the cradle the human being I 114 EDUCATION. instinctively obeys intellectual superiority. Hop- o'-my-Thumb is a charming fable in support of this theory. How often I have been amused by observing the skill with which the most intelligent takes possession of the others, directs them, in- terests them, and commands them. Such games prove that men are naturally divided into those who command and those who obey. There is no equality amongst us, whatever dreams people may have on this subject, and the republic of childhood is the only one which chooses its chief for the only real superiority — that of character. Among the intelligent, it is always the child who has most command over himself who is the most obeyed. The child who does not mind being teased, who tells the truth fearlessly and without calculating the consequences, who can repress his anger and give up easily, because he does not attach any import- ance to things his companions are eager about ; in fact, he who is able to forget himself in helping or amusing others is always respected by his comrades. This respect is the proof of an inner sense of justice in us ; the artificial differences of caste, of position, may disappear — this superiority will always be recog- TIMIDITY. 115 nized by all. You must not be distressed if the child who interests you personally is among those who submit ; that is better than seeing him envious and sulky from annoyance that he has not the first place. He shows his good sense in allowing himself to be guided by a superior being without owing him a grudge. If a child seem to you feebly endowed, be care- ful never to tell him that he is a fool ; on the contrary, praise him for every little efifort, for praise will help more in his development than all the remarks you may make in bewailing his stupidity. A timid child often appears, to us who are ignorant of what passes in his mind, more stupid than he really is ; if he notices that we think him so, his timidity increases, for he suspects his own in- feriority, and often exaggerates it. This may become a source of real suffering, and by making him reserved and silent may actually arrest his development. To such a one we should be lavish with encouragement, for all that we can ask of anybody is to make an effort, and for some there is as much merit in learning to read as there is for others in making light of difficulties. Gifted ii6 EDUCATION. children need much less encouragement. Every- body gives it them, and by extolling their proofs of spirit or of talent, does them great harm ; these foolish praises arrest their development through vanity, the fumes of which intoxicate their brains. Even full-grown men are weakened by compliments. Generally speaking, nothing is more disastrous than are remarks on ugliness, stupidity, beauty and in- telligence. The only remarks allowable are those which concern the personal actions, and they should never be made about anything outside the province of the will, such as the appearance and the intellect. Such remarks lead to too much introspection, and make a merit or a crime of what is a matter of chance. We ought rather to occupy the childish mind with something which can take him out of himself By observations, laudatory or the reverse, we develop presumption in some and morbid anxiety in others. I am convinced that we are all really affected only by what touches us individually; anything else may move and interest us, but will never give us vain-glorious or bitter feelings. As the happi- ness of the child depends on the direction which JUDICIOUS SUPERINTENDENCE. 117 we give to his aspirations, let us work with this in view. Whilst giving them the utmost possible liberty in their games together, you should never leave very young children without superintendence, for with- out brutality they may, unintentionally, hurt the small and weak. I find it very interesting to follow their various individualities in their rela- tions to one another, and even their childish con- versations. One may overhear stern truths about those who have charge of them, and one is often surprised at the manner in which they remember what has been said in their presence when nobody thought they were listening. Let us be very care- ful of what we say, and if we absolutely must gossip and slander others, or talk of what does not concern children, let us go away from them, for they might overhear us. This advice is based on my experience of the ears and memory of these dear little ones. CHAPTER VIII. Difference between Education and Instruction — Cases in which the Child should be prepared for Higher Studies — Development of the Limbs — Agility — Skill — Knowing how to use the Senses for Observation — Elements of Music and Drawing indispensable to all. IF I have been successful in showing that the principal elements in education are found in the child's surroundings, and not in direct teaching, you will perceive that education begins at the cradle, is the first necessity of everyone, while superior scholastic instruction is not the inheri- tance of all, and cannot compensate for the want of education, which should be almost finished at the time when the studies begin. It is not these which form the health or the character; if the ground is not prepared, studies are useless, and even dangerous, as a medicament would be, applied at random, or a sharp knife in the hands of a child. The expression of " carrying on the education " is very wrongly applied to the years spent at school. The right word is "instruction," PREMATURE STUDIES. 119 which becomes a benefit or an evil according to the nature of the early education. One proof of this is that all over the world violent revolutionists are generally well-instructed people, sometimes learned, but without education ; and among the most miserable proletariat it is those who have frequented schools who find it most difficult to gain a living, and of whom suicide and despair make the most victims. From the beginning, then, do not let us attribute to instruction a value which it does not possess ; it becomes a precious instrument of power and independence for the human being to whom a healthy education has given equilibrium. Let us watch, in our education, against study becoming a hunt after the first places in school and in ex- aminations, instead of a source of satisfaction, a real Hght and an aid in the problem of life. Me- chanical teaching is a fatiguing and repugnant labour, without fruit. Yet it is in this way that teaching is generally practised during the first years. The reason for this is very simple. Studies begin much too early with most children ; before the time is ripe for them, a mass of notions are inculcated, EDUCATION. which become confused because none of them are understood, and the cerebral work greatly exceeds the capacity of this delicate organ, which thus has no time or leisure to develop in a normal or progres- sive fashion. This haste springs from most people having neither time nor means to proceed slowly ; anxious to make the child fit to begin its career, we hasten to crowd all that we can into the smallest number of years possible. It seems to me that the only cases in which parents ought to think of the higher branches of study for their children, are the following : First — If their fortune permits them to retard the work at school, and to prepare for it by a uniform and gradual development of all the faculties, phy- sical, intellectual, and moral. These faculties are so inseparably united that we cannot strengthen one of them exclusively without prejudice to the others. Second — When a child is exceptionally gifted, and works willingly and with energy, with a strong attraction for his work. Superior intelligences triumph over all ; the histories of great men prove this to us. But we are not speaking of exceptions — such as geniuses. Strong and active natures to AVERSION TO STUDY. whom intellectual work is pleasant and congenial are not fortunately very rare, and they must be boldly encouraged. As for those who are bored by study, it seems to me madness to force them to it. This laziness is the revolt of a nature too weak to bear the labour imposed on it. For such natures the first thing to be done is to fortify them mentally, with kind- ness and patience ; for whatever we would try to change in them by force will only augment their dis- gust for work. If this distaste for scholastic study continues, we must try to discover the child's natural aptitude ; everybody has one, and, whatever it may be, let it be followed. No kind of labour is dis- honourable in itself; the important thing in our short life is to do well whatever one does, and, above all, not to be idle. Everything else is prejudice, the vanity of the parents, and, I fear, a failure, if the end proposed is the happiness of the human being. I am persuaded that if, at a certain age, considering the general movement in that direction around us, the desire for hard study is not awakened, it is a proof of complete incapacity in this direction, and consequently of a constitutional weakness difficult EDUCATION. to overcome. If there is no aptitude for certain work, the most brilliant examinations do not enable an individual to make use of what he has been taught. We see the proof of this in the great number of persons of the upper classes who, after having studied in the colleges and universities, immediately become idlers in the full sense of the word, killing time at cards, gaming and hunting, until we ask ourselves why they were so much tormented in their youth to learn things of which they never make any use. The difference between individuals is such, that it is impossible to fix the age at which any par- ticular youth can begin regular study, and a delay in doing this is no misfortune. It is much less prejudicial than untimely haste. Even with a gifted child, it is a mistake to profit by his facility in learning to make him study beyond his years. In his autobiography, John Stuart Mill, one of the greatest intellects of this age, relates how his father, misusing his precocious talents, made him learn Latin and Greek at three and four years old, and made him a prodigy of science at an age when other children are spelling out PREMATURE DEVELOPMENT. 123 their first words. Strange to say, his ultimate studies did not suffer from this, and the promise of the child was fulfilled in ripe manhood, but his whole life was saddened by never having known childhood ; he never recalls this period but with sorrow and repugnance — he was not happy. Even in this exceptional case we see how much his happiness and the equilibrium of his being were affected by this enforced culture, although it does not seem to have had disastrous results ; for or- dinary brains the result would be illness or mad- ness. Prodigies are universally known to become mediocre men, or to die young. Who knows whether Mozart would not have better resisted the diseases to which, alas ! he so early succumbed, if he had not passed the evenings of his childhood in the drawing-rooms, where he charmed and amazed his audience ? It all seemed easy to him ; but this overwork was in itself injurious to his vital powers, for he consumed more than he acquired, at an age when the system wants fortifying, and when the work of growth absorbs a great part of the force employed later on simply to sustain the organism. Food, sleep, and rest are necessary in 124 EDUCATION. greater quantity, while Nature requires all for the development of the limbs and body. If, with beings so exceptionally endowed as those of whom I have just spoken, we ask ourselves what have been the grave consequences of their pre- cocious work, how much more, in an ordinary case, should we fear to overtax a child who has great difficulty in learning ! For this reason we should know individual idiosyncrasies well, and take care never to fatigue the brain or teach anything me- chanically. One principle, well understood and well reasoned out, even if it takes an immense time, pro- duces an astonishing result in after facility. If there is no definite plan for a child's future, he will be allowed to work as his nature dictates. We can ex- tinguish his natural faculties, but we cannot give him others, just as we can kill a man, but cannot make him tall if he is short. Before thinking, therefore, of future scholastic success, let us consider the things which are necessary to all. Whatever may be the future of the child, as philosopher, artisan, artist, labourer, etc., to succeed in life he requires the fullest development of his limbs, his reason, his skill, and his strength. All his early years can be ATHLETIC EXERCISE. 125 devoted to this ; the rest is secondary. All kinds of bodily exercise are excellent, and I should like to see boys and girls give the greater part of their time to it until their tenth year, or beyond that, if possible. The Greeks were right in encouraging their youth as they did to strengthen themselves by wrestling, dancing, feats of skill, and exercises of all kinds. Those which develop the chest are es- pecially useful ; those which keep the body cramped are to be avoided. Swimming, rowing, climbing trees, carpentering, field-work, house-work — such as sweeping and making beds — provided that they do not involve lifting heavy weights, develop agility and suppleness, and are within the reach of all ; whereas gymnastics, horsemanship, and fencing, which are expensive pastimes, are reserved for the rich. I will not speak of them; the best means are those within the reach of everybody. I should require every child, in whatever position he was born, to do his own room, and make his bed himself every morning. It is an orderly habit, as well as an enforced exercise for all the muscles ; and by accustoming him to help himself you will give him a great independence, which will enable 126 EDUCATION. him to adapt himself easily to the chances of life. His cleanliness and his comfort at least will not be at the mercy of a servant, whom he is not always sure of having at hand. Among games, running races, ball, and tennis, serve the same end. The most skilful, those who best know how to use their ten fingers, mil be those who will make the best workmen of all kinds, and who will study the best. Observe that skill is a sign of intelligence ; brute strength will not teach it. We see to what remarkable suppleness people attain who are destined to gain their livelihood as acrobats, jockeys, or dancers ; and we know that in their case it is daily training, begun very early, which enables them to do easily what seems to us amazing. I certainly consider the development, to the utmost degree, of suppleness, agility, and dexterity more useful than all studies, and there is nobody who is not the better for understanding the thousand resources of our limbs and muscles for escaping from danger, and knowing how to make use of our surroundings. There is no need to weary or scold the child ; a great amount of patience and a constant repetition of the same ATHLETIC EXERCISE. 127 thing are necessary for teaching these things. I should like to see every child accustomed, before the age of seven, to walk on a rope, or to use one fearlessly to descend from a window or a roof; to be able to jump on any horse, and, in general, to make his body, by its flexibility, much less liable to the dangers which accompany heaviness and clumsi- ness. So the first jDedagogue should be a gymnast. Do not alarm yourself! How many accidents would be avoided if my words were taken literally ! If you want to give him the best preparation for whatever career he may choose, teach him to make good use of his senses. This will seem like a joke at first, for you will say everybody sees, hears, tastes, and feels with- out needing to be taught. Certainly everybody does make use of the organs of the senses, but very few make use of them as human beings should. We possess what no animal has, viz., reasoning power, and this gives to our senses a force of which we scarcely have any idea, and which enables us to use them completely. An intellectual, highly-gifted person sees — as we say — correctly, which means that his mind forms a rapid estimate of what really exists, 128 EDUCATION. and of what is only apparent around him. For some people everything passes unobserved, for others everything is a subject for reflection ; and the latter we call geniuses. They have pushed the spirit of observation beyond its ordinary limits, and have thus succeeded in discovering a number of things which always existed, but of which they have practically become the creators, because these things have been seen by them and have impressed their minds. Thus there are two ways of making use of one's organs — the most widespread way is that which is purely animal ; the other is by using the human privilege of thought, and this enables us to recognize the fixed laws of the phenomena by which we are surrounded — their mystical or philosophical meaning, if you like — and this way of seeing is the right way, and, by spreading, becomes what we call civilization. The more uncultivated a man is, the more he sees things as they seem, not as they really are. Thus, until quite recent times, the earth was believed to be motionless in the middle of space, with the vault of the heavens turning around it with the stars. All human eyes, exactly similar in their conformation and powers to TRAINING THE SENSES. 129 tliose of Galileo, had seen it thus ; and yet he alone, by reasoning on what his eyes perceived, arrived at the truth about the earth's motion. Every day we may observe how very little we can trust to our senses. When we are travelling in a train, it seems to our eyes that the landscape flies past us ; we know that it does not, but we know it by thought, and not by sight. Of all the senses, that of sight serves most in developing the spirit of observation. It is so superior to all the others that we hardly know of what importance all our other senses can be unless we have studied blind people. From them we learn the numberless things which hearing and touch may reveal to us, and I think it very important not to neglect these auxiliaries. The spirit of observation becomes in certain classes hereditarily developed, to the extent of making a real difference in the sum total of capacity of people born in different conditions. Thus adults when uncultivated may fail to recog- nize a portrait which a baby of a year old, born of well-educated parents, will name without hesitation. To develop the observation of a child, you should exercise his senses upon everything that surrounds K 130 EDUCATION. him and make him notice what he sees and hears constantly, first in nature, and then in industry and art. A child who knows the hour of day by the direction of the shadows or their length ; who easily distinguishes one bird from another by its cry ; who knows fruits and fungi well from signs which he has observed, will have accustomed him- self to cast something more than the vague and absent glance at things that most people give who are incapable of making a rational use of their senses. Nothing so much helps the development of hearing and of sight as instruction in music and drawing. It seems to me obligatory for every child. Music especially can be commenced early and without fatigue, almost in play. When striking a note on the piano, it should be immediately sung and written on a blackboard whereon are marked the lines of the stave ; the child will immediately sing the note. In the same way all the other notes should be written, but always on striking and sing- ing them, so that the name of a note shall never be a vague designation, but shall actually represent a fixed sound. Gradually all the signs accompanying MUSIC. 131 the note should be thus demonstrated, but always by making the ear distinguish them. I should begin this exercise very early, a year or two before setting the child to the piano, for the most important thing in musical education is delicacy of ear, of which one exercises the power of observation in this manner. There is scarcely any ear absolutely un- conscious of these differences, and therefore very rarely any insurmountable organic defect. Singing is as natural as speaking, and in some way or other everybody employs this faculty, though often to shout, howl, or vociferate. Whole nations sing well, while others only utter incoherent cries. This difference in the use of the same organs does not arise from a physical difference of organization, but is due to hereditary habits ; we adopt instinc- tively that which we have been accustomed to from early childhood. This rational teaching of singing differs completely from the teaching of the piano so universal in our day, which is often taught without giving the least idea of what music is. A child replies, like a parrot, that " it is the art of combining sounds " because he has learnt that in his instruction-book, but he will succeed 132 EDUCATION. in strumming a great many pieces without under- standing the significance of this phrase. Whereas, by the simple process described above for teaching the reading of music, he succeeds himself in com- bining sounds, because he knows the relation that one sound bears to another. The harder his life, the greater the consolation he will find in a little music. It is an excellent taste for the people, and may save them from drunkenness and gambling, the two gulfs which swallow up the poor savings of the working-men. From an early age children can be taught to sing chorally, and I should like to see, in every district and village, small musical associations, where without any political tendencies a friendly bond might be formed between the classes. Later on these may become Liedertafeln and Gcsafigi'crcinc, which have had such a happy influence in Germany. An intelligent person, knowing a little of music, could arrange these children's choirs. In the home circle, as we see in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, it is easy to accustom each member to take his part. The most humble fire-side becomes attractive, beautiful, and refined by these elevating and inno- DRA WING. cent amusements. This art, the beneficial effect of which on the morals and character is hardly suffi- ciently appreciated, requires the earliest possible development of its special organ. It requires less comprehension than a plastic art; all children catch without effort the charm of a popular melody, and begin to dance at the sound of a waltz, all being with- out exception moved by music. It is consequently of general utility, not merely to play an instrument, which is optional, but because of its action on the ear and voice, those two precious gifts to man. What music is to the ear and voice, drawing is to the eye, only it should be taught a little later on, for thought more than instinct is required in the use of the pencil. When one is put into the hands of a child, he must be told to reproduce what he sees. He will then be obliged to observe objects with more attention than hitherto, and will acquire a memory of the eye which will be very useful in numberless cases. There is no trade or science in which a knowledge of drawing is not an important help ; it is a sixth sense. Only by looking at things with the idea of reproducing them, we see them with an exactitude and precision of which those who 134 EDUCATION. look without an object can form no idea. I have made curious observations on the incapacity of many people, who are apparently well instructed, to use their eyes. They arc asked if an indi- vidual to whom they have just spoken is dark or fair, or if in a picture they have just ad- mired there are many figures; and they cannot answer. This never happens with a person who can draw, for he must draw what he sees, and, to arrive at this result, he must look at everything attentively, and thus the memory of sight is attained. It is a mistake to make children copy drawings, as the following instance will show. A child was copying a lithograph representing a horse, of which only two of the legs could be seen from the position in which it was standing. I asked this child how many legs the horse had, and he replied, "Two; the other two have been cut off." He had never, apparently, observed that the whole of an object is not visible at once. Observation of nature alone can make this simple fact known. I think thatdrawing should be taught like writing, which, in the ladder of human discoveries, comes long after the former. Every child may succeed ARTISTIC TASTES. 135 in reproducing what he has constantly under his eyes. It is quite wrong to call music and drawing accomplishments. As they are generally practised they are the reverse of pleasing accomplishments, for nothing is more contrary to artistic taste than the little musical pieces and attempts at drawings executed by young ladies who are supposed to have finished their education. But in themselves these two things taught judiciously are valuable aids in the general development both of thought and of the senses, and I think their usefulness in practical life much greater than the countless dates and details of geography with which the years of study are burdened. They are useful to all without distinction, and make a bright and attractive spot in the existence which is most darkened by priva- tions and difficulties. To the rich they are a safe- guard against low pleasures, injurious to the health and the character ; to the poor they give the food necessary to the soul — for, in the words of the Gospel, " Man does not live by bread alone." CHAPTER IX. Observation to be developed by Interest in the Things of Nature — All Teaching to be avoided which is not strictly true — The Marvellous — Patriotism, Family, Religion — Teach- ing of the Muses — Cooks. WHILE trying to develop tlie spirit of obser- vation in our children, we can at the same time satisfy their curiosity. I in no way wish that they should be subjected to a permanent course of science, or that we should submit them to a fatiguing intellectual drill. I only wish them to acquire by their own observation, properly directed, true notions about the things that surround them in life and nature, — which will one day be a valuable preparation for more difficult studies. Wc should begin by drawing their attention to flowers, insects, snow, storms, and the countless phenomena of every day. Very short and simple histories about animals and insects, their habits and work, will interest them as much as tales. At least we can attempt it. As soon as it becomes INTEREST hY NATURE. 137 wearisome, stop, but it never will be wearisome to a child when you have led him to admire the colours or parts of a bird or an insect of which you have told him the peculiarities ; or to one who has himself helped in the cultivation of some of those flowers whose unfolding he watches with anxiety. The instinct of attaching oneself to an object which requires our continuous care is so strong in us, that by interesting him directly in a little garden- ing, he will at last really love the plant on which he has lavished his care ; and in this way you will give him an infallible means of always occupying his hands and his mind with something else than ■himself — the true secret of happiness ! There has been recently formed in America a children's asso- ciation, called the " Agassiz Association," which I should like to see imitated everywhere. The 'Children who are members form a circle in each district, and the circles correspond with one another. Their object is to form collections in botany, zoology, mineralogy, geology, etc. They communicate with one another their observations and their discoveries, and thus establish bonds of union with a great number of individuals, all inte- 138 EDUCATION. rested in the same things. This widens their circle of associations, and leads them to take an interest in many people of different positions and nation- alities. It is the best manner of developing the sympathy which ought to exist among all men who think alike. From the earliest age, walks, during which the child tries to discover some new curiosity for his collection, gain enormously in interest. Aimless walks are wearisome and fatiguing. The pursuit and the pleasure, with their happy conse- quences of a hearty appetite and calm sleep, give useful exercise to the body and do not leave the mind a prey to idle thoughts. Both body and mind require movement and occupation as well as their servants, — the organs. When the severity of the weather prevents walks and gardening, it would be good, as J. J. Rous- seau has already shown, for everyone to learn a trade — turning, cabinet-making, boot-making, book-binding, whatever suggests itself, in fact, but it should be done with perseverance. It is an assured means of earning a livelihood if others fail, and skill is developed by finished work, of whatever nature it may be. I should like to see TOLERATION. 139 these trades learnt in common — by association if possible. Besides the emulation and merriment which would result from it, it would be an excellent beginning for destroying without violence the artifi- cial barriers of caste and nationality. Two chil- dren who have worked side by side in the same workshop, have entered for life into a fraternity which ought to unite us all, if we are truly civilized. While on this subject, let me warn you before any instruction is undertaken, to avoid teaching the false notions which are for ever around you, and which do more harm than the best lessons can repair. First of all, never under any circumstances teach a child to hate. For this purpose, avoid ever speaking with contempt or antipathy of any coun- try, race, class, or religion. By so doing you de- stroy all the good which you teach in other w^ays. It is in this way that, from the earliest age, from generation to generation, contempt and hatred, based on factitious differences, are inculcated. If the civilization of which we consider ourselves the guardians has brought anything beautiful or new into the world, it is the idea that we are " all brothers," and it is impossible to believe in this whilst hating I40 EDUCATION. people we do not know, people who are born, suffer, work, think, and die like ourselves, whom only a passing form of belief or a difference of lan- guage makes us consider as strangers and enemies. In teaching these hideous sentiments under the pretext of religion, patriotism, or family, we de- stroy thought and reason, for the basis of these hatreds is blind and hereditary passion, the bar- barism of centuries which still triumphs over light, and which springs from such a low feeling of egoism and vanity that it cannot be sufficiently denounced. ^Vhen ideas of family and patriotism are accom- panied by contempt and haired for others, they are but a form of that personal vanity which desires that in everything that concerns us we should be sui)erior to others. It is the childish- ness of humanity. The Ijaby thinks himself the centre of the world, and assumes that everything is made for him. The savage considers that what be- longs to himself by physical ties (the only ties which count for anything in his rudimentary thought), is also exceptional and superior to the rest. He extends this consideration, while mitigating it in proportion as it is removed from his immediate UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. 141 person, to those who speak the same language and adore the same fetish. He laughs at those of his neighbour or detests them. The natural predilection which we feel for those who belong to us, because we most nearly resemble them, is a sentiment so widespread that there is no necessity to strengthen it by inculcating antipathy towards others. In proportion as thought predomi- nates in our life we shall succeed in finding family and country in all those who think like ourselves, and who love the same things as we do. And if we rise above prejudice, we find that we think and feel with, and become part of, all that is great, gene- rous, and eternal in humanity. Questions of family and country pass away, because such things arc perishable ; the connection between the past, the pre- sent, and the future remains in that which will not pass away, and if the history of individuals and even of nations is now indifferent to us, their manner of feeling and thinking finds a living continuation in our hearts. In thinking like those who were and are sympathetic and comprehensible to all, we find ourselves united to that luminous band of great minds which have preceded us; we have in them a 142 EDUCATION. family with whom we can at the present time asso- ciate all those, who like us, reject artificial divisions. In urging love towards others as far as possible, we shall never make a mistake — in urging hatred of others we shall always be wrong. We all have a propensity to find that to which we are not accustomed, ridiculous, terrifying, or absurd ; but this is an instinctive and animal movement. What seems to us natural and good may produce on others a repellent effect. There is no great difference between the bands worn on their feet by the Chinese and our stays; our European salutations must appear ridiculous to the last degree to those who rub noses on meeting. Naturally we prefer that to which we are accustomed, and I would merely be careful not to inculcate in these little minds the idea that passing differences are important. The proof that they are illusory is that chance alone gives rise to them. Two or three generations transported into other surround- ings suffice to efface the memory of such differences. I know no Germans more German than the de- scendants of the French Huguenots who took refuge in Germany in the seventeenth century. Chris- NO SUPERIORITY OF SEX. 143 tianity has enunciated the principle of universal brotherhood, but it has never been applied, because up to the present day we have taunted each other by using the names German, English, French, Christian or Jew, according to the nationality to which we belong, as though such appellations were opprobrious. The true method of instilling this beautiful principle into the ideas and manners ^is to show to the young all that is admirable or the reverse, in whatever class, family, and country it appears. I would also be careful never to teach, as is con- stantly done, the contempt of one sex for the other. Whenever a boy is timid or cowardly, he is told, as though it were the most degrading thing in the world, that he is a girl, as if this defect were truly the inheritance of the feminine half of the race. This arises from the most barbarous principle of the superiority of brute force. The difference of sex in childhood is of no importance, and I con- sider it indispensable to accustom boys and girls to the same exercises to strengthen their limbs and develop their skill. The fact of being a boy or a girl is no superiority nor inferiority ; and although 144 EDUCATION. the remark seems commonplace, yet I am com- pelled to remind you that both are equally necessary and useful in the world, and their power is equal, though manifested in different ways. Thanks to this lesson of contempt towards " the sex to whom he owes his mother," the little boy accustoms himself to despise needlework. Now it seems to me that every human being, of either sex, can and ought to learn to sew. There is a whole class of individuals who certainly cannot be reproached with effeminacy, namely sailors, who can sew perfectly, and no explorer, hunts- man, or soldier going on a distant expedition can dispense with the knowledge of sewing, cutting, darning, and netting. I ask by what strange reasoning we have arrived at considering as con- temptible the knowledge of using our ten fingers as much as possible. Vou understand, of course, that I would like to see little girls learning the trades and exercises of their brothers, who in their turn should learn sewing and cooking like their sisters. Let us have indejiendence, skill, and strength for one as much as for the other ! This observation about needlework arises from SUPERNATURAL STORIES. 145 the mistake people make in considering as igno- minious things that are not so in themselves. It is on false notions of shame that the greater number of prejudices are based, and nothing so much confuses our ideas of right and wrong. From his earliest years a child is led to pay too much attention to what others, generally strangers or indifferent people, will think of him. To be ridiculous in their eyes is represented to him as his greatest mis- fortune, whereas in actual life nobody cares for long what another does or says. To appeal to his self-love^ or try to touch his vanity in order to cure him of a fault, is an absolute mistake ; wrong things are those which hurt himself, and it is from this point of view alone that they should be pointed out to him. When your life is spoilt and broken up by the faults you have committed, other people soon cease to think of it, but for yourself the consequences are ineffaceable. Opinion is so changeable, and has so little foundation, that to base our conduct upon it is to exaggerate its im- portance greatly. Let us also avoid relating to the q}:^^ fahewonders in reference to the real wonders which surround us. L 146 EDUCATION. Never teach anything which you will be obHged later on to contradict, on the plea that what you said " then " was proper for his age. It is better to decline giving any explanation than to have recourse to any of those fantastic stories with which we pre- tend to explain to children, in a way within their comprehension, the most natural phenomena. I look on this as eminently disloyal towards these young beings who give you their whole confidence. I am averse to fanciful stories and the super- natural, because they develop fear and nervous- ness, whilst the mystery of nature, although it leaves the field open to the imagination, can only charm and calm. What need is there to excite the imagi- nation by stories in which everything is false, and which leave, whatever may be said of them, lasting impressions in the mind to be combated after- wards with much difficulty? Children believe blindly in every story, however stupid or impro- bable it may be. If I did not fear to exceed the limits in which I think I ought to confine myself, I would speak of the surprising vitality of the absurd notions taught from the cradle of fairy tales, ghost stories, apparitions, etc. People do not sus- GOOD EFFECTS OF POETRY. 147 pect even while suffering from their consequences how lasting they are. Presentiments, superstitions of all kinds, fortune-telling, table-turning, with con- versations between the living and the dead, have their origin in the tales of nurses. Nothing is more dwelt on in these stories than death and its terrors ; it is made frightful from the cradle ; and the young minds, whose whole attention should be directed to the life upon which they are en- tering, are principally occupied with it. There is a way of satisfying the imagination so keen at this age, which, far from exciting it un- healthily, makes splendid use of it. The Greeks, our masters in everything, adopted it, and we have only to follow their example to learn how the soul is made valiant by the admiration of what is eternally true. Besides the bodily exercises of which I have spoken, they had the teaching of the Muses ; they wished to make the soul live with the poets and the sacred legends ; they well knew that that which is beautiful is health-giving. Poetry of the first order develops harmony between thought and form, and there is nothing better than to familiarize the mind early with the immortal master-pieces. Really 148 EDUCATION. fine poetry has such a charm that I have known very young children passionately interested in it. The ear at first is satisfied ; then gradually the noble and living thought is impressed upon theirmcmory in an ineffaceable way, and in a form so perfect that nothing vulgar or bad henceforth will give them pleasure. In this way let us boldly feed these young imaginations, which are inflamed by con- tact with the divine fire of which poets have been the high priests in all ages. Is not sacred history, the history of the human race, the most interesting, marvellous, and mysterious of epics ? What a force for all the Anglo-Saxon races is that education based on a familiar acquaintance with the Bible, that great book of poetry and history ! In the literature for children properly so called it is difficult to find the support for our way of thinking which we could have wished. We should be as scrupulous in our choice of books as in what we say ourselves. The whole world has false ideas, thanks to books. We begin with fairy tales and ghost stories ; later on come novels quite as far from the truth, and thus the mind is impregnated with poison from the cradle to the grave. Beware PERNICIOUS BOOKS. 149 of books ! They must be on our side if we would not have them hostile to us. For little chil- dren I positively know nothing commendable but the first reading -book of Count Tolstoi. The greatest writer in Russia has not disdained to write a series of little master-pieces which children of four can understand. These stories consist of a few lines which the future readers of "War and Peace " are never tired of hearing and afterwards of spelling out for themselves. They combine all the qualities I require for young children ; the style is simple, clear, but perfect ; the stories are taken from real Hfe, with a conciseness and a truth which bring out the idea, always a just, noble, and useful one, and the short fables and parables make good- ness beloved by being interesting.^ But, alas ! this is an exception, and I am far from sharing the gene- rally received opinions on this subject. A large number of English story-books, translated into all ^ I have only mentioned Tolstoi's stories as being the model for all writers for children ; but as they are little known to the English public, I most particularly insist upon what one reads to children being chosen from the very best authors of the English language, parts of which can always be selected. ISO EDUCATION. languages, interspersed with texts and hymns, are in my opinion more injurious than many books apparently less innocent. Everything in these books is false ; the children are represented as pieces of perfection or as injured innocents, re- sulting in sentimental and misunderstood young ladies. The parents are depicted as monsters if they do not make fetishes of their children ; or else luxury is so described as to provoke the envy of those who are strangers to it, and social advantages are represented as enviable and attractive. In short, these story-books only produce a false sentimentality, an absolutely erroneous view of the things of real life, a morbid religion, and encourage wants not suitable to the age of their readers. As regards works of the imagination, there are so few suitable for children because their authors do not know, and are far from understanding the public whom they ])retend to address. Tolstoi has the faculty of knowing children exactly as if he were one of them himself. Wc happily have a wide range of reading by which we can interest our young folk ; such are histories of celebrated EA RLY EDUCA Tl ON. 151 children and classic fables, to which let us add voyages, as food beneficial to the mind. All children love " Robinson Crusoe," and I am sure that the reading of it will never do them harm. As for science, only truth must be taught; there- fore it is not suitable for the age of which we are treating, and nothing is more odious than a book in which the marvellous is introduced in order to render scientific notions agreeable. The child does not distinguish all these subtleties, and really believes that a voyage to the moon or any other chimera is possible. The rest of the book wearies him because he cannot understand it. In speaking of the things which surround us, let us remember our own ignorance, and guard against making affirmations or negations based on received axioms, impossible to be justified. For instance, why tell a child that he has a soul and that a dog has none ! What do we know about it ? We are disposing him through this teaching to treat animals cruelly, instead of always trying, on the contrary, to rouse his sympathy with them. The most desirable of all sentiments is pity on the largest scale possible, and he who has none for 152 EDUCATION. animals is very near to having none for his fellow- creatures. Before teaching anything whatever, let us therefore be sure that we know what we are saying. These first notions, which, as you will perceive, speak chiefly of what is to be avoided, ought to suffice amply to fill all the life of a child until he goes to school. It is a valuable time for us; we can during his early years study, understand, and develop his individuality, whereas at school it is necessary to adopt fixed rules, applying to all equally. Thanks to the knowledge we thus gain of him, we can leave him free in the choice of his studies or profession, and we shall have given him that education in the beautiful which is, for every individual, in any condition of life, the most precious treasure, and the only one that nothing can take awav. CHAPTER X. Knowledge of Hygiene indispensable for all — Preventive Medicine — Results which true Education should produce. T HAVE spoken little of illness in general, be- -*- cause I can give no advice about remedies, having only a very limited confidence in all known systems of medicine. For the consolation of the poor, I will say that to consult a number of doctors is a pastime for the rich, which is far from render- ing them all healthy. It is always better to consult a doctor who knows the person for whom he pre- scribes, and whose judicious advice will then be that of an enlightened friend. But the only true medi- cine within the reach of all is preventive treatment. I have tried to give you an idea of this by pointing out the hygiene to be followed in good health, and urging you to combat every local weakness as soon as it shows itself Every hereditary disposition should be taken into consideration from infancy ; without waiting for it to show itself, we must look on 154 EDUCATION. it as an enemy to be combated. The general con- dition of humanity being far from healthy, there is always something to fear for everybody, and I can- not repeat too often that the slightest indisposition should be treated as an illness. This takes little time, rarely requires the intervention of a doctor, and avoids prolonged worry, followed by the most terrible consequences. Of all teaching, the most undeniably useful is that which tends to the care of one's health, and we shall do well in making the young child consider it as his duty, towards others as well as towards himself, never to neglect it. I here add a little advice upon hygiene. By accustoming him to cleanliness and fresh air you build up a preservative against epidemics. I have spoken of this in the attention to be given at birth; it is necessary during the whole life. One may get not to perceive when the air is vitiated, it is so much a matter of custom. Dust swept up only falls again upon you or some other object; and dust contains the germs of all diseases. Avoid, therefore, as much as possible, everything that can become a receptacle for it, such as hangings and PURE AIR. 155 carpets, and accustom the child to sweep his room with a damp cloth, and to remove everything dirty. To avoid catching cold, to which one is liable in proportion as the constitution is delicate, never let a child expose himself to cold after violent exercise. Make him sit quiet for a few minutes before going out, and in a cold climate wait until he is quite cool. Do not clothe him in too heavy garments even if the temperature is low, as the fatigue caused by heavy clothes will make him perspire and predispose him to catch cold. In bathing in summer time you should be careful in observing if the skin is entirely free from perspiration before entering the water. In hot climates the time of sunset ought to be carefully avoided ; it is often fatal, for the change in the atmosphere is so sudden that it is as if you were plunged into ice while hot. Poisonous miasma is exhaled from the earth into the atmos- phere, and this explains malaria and the intermit- tent and typhoid fevers so frequent in hot climates. In every country it is a good custom for the child to change his boots on coming indoors, if only to put on a pair of old slippers. If it is hot iqe EDUCATION. weather, nothing is more refreshing or restful ; if it has been damp, it will prevent any harm result- ing therefrom, as the dampness is only felt in re- pose, and then it chills the skin, and, working through the circulation of the blood, causes the general temperature to be lowered. It is an excel- lent custom for everybody to acquire. Sleep should always be respected, and I should like to see this precept put into jjractice during all the period of growth. This unfortunately is impossible, but at least let us, while we direct their lives, take care not to deprive children of this best fortifier and sustainer of nature. Put them to bed early, at eight o'clock in tlic winter, and never later than nine, if possible. Let them sleep ten or twelve hours, more if necessary. But as soon as he is awake, never leave the child a minute in bed ; make him rise immediately and begin some bodily exercise. Nothing is more debilitating and bad for the nervous system than to remain in bed with the eyes open. Cover him up according to the temperature, warmly enough that he should be comfortable, but not so that he should grow hot. When you put SLEEP AND WARMTH. 157 him to bed, put his hands under the pillow that they may not get cold by his leaving them outside, and that he may not huddle up in order to get warm. See that he goes to the closet every day at the same time. Force him to this from his first year. It is a habit which, alone, is a safeguard against a thousand ills throughout life. Observe the greatest regularity in his hours of rising, going to bed, eating, and working, for an orderly life strengthens the nerves, which at that age are easily excited by a too frequent occurrence of the unexpected. The meals ought never to be too abundant or very far apart. I should advise a meal every three hours if you wish the stomach to be neither overloaded nor exhausted. Never allow eating between meals ; the universal custom of making children happy by sweetmeats is most in- jurious. If they are hungry they should of course be fed, but at the right time ; carefully avoid load- ing the stomach at any time with bonbons and pastry. A little jam or sugar with the milk is quite as much of this element in the constitution as is required. People say that "sugar spoils the teeth." It is 158 EDUCATION. not the teeth which are injured first, but the stomach ; the sahva becomes acrid when the stomach is overloaded, especially with sweets, which produce acidity, and this attacks the teeth. The greatest care should be taken of the first teeth, for they prepare the second. This is best effected by attention to the digestion. In spite of every care the teeth are often bad, frequently from here- ditary causes ; in such cases the child should be taken to a dentist as soon as the second teeth appear. The expense will be slight then, and will avoid much greater expense later on, and prevent toothache, that real scourge in life. It is most important to preserve the teeth as long as possible even if they are very bad. Artificial teeth cannot replace them in the general economy. One mo- ment's reflection will make you understand this. Mastication witli the natural teeth causes an action of the salivary glands, which have a direct effect on the digestion, and which can only be put into action by the natural teeth. To have a good digestion, regularity and simplicity of diet must be combined with sufficient variety of food to transmit to the blood the different chemical ingredients it MIXED DIET. 159 requires for health. Milk, flour, vegetables, fish, eggs, meat, salt and sugar ought to enter into the human constitution. For the consolation of those whose means do not often permit of fresh meat, I will tell you that fresh vegetables contain a great quantity of the nitrogen which we seek in meat. Mushrooms contain it in greater quantity than sirloin of beef ! All these ingredients are indis- pensable, but none should be given in excess or exclusively. Unripe fruit is poison, and, generally speaking, raw fruit is digested with greater difficulty than when cooked. It should consequently be avoided for delicate stomachs. As drink, milk and water is the natural and best beverage for children, and this should be taken about a quarter of an hour after the meal. All through nature we see the animals eat first and afterwards drink separately. Our food is in itself sufficiently mixed with liquid for the work of diges- tion, which is retarded by any excess. It is the custom of drinking while eating which induces gluttony, for without drinking it is impossible to eat unless you are hungry ; and an excess of liquid makes digestion more difficult, and often causes i6o EDUCATION. the formation of gas from which so many children and grown up people suffer. I must most earnestly warn against the reckless way in which tea and coffee are given to children, sometimes even before they are weaned. They are absolute poison, especially the latter, and produce a weakening effect on the nerves of the stomach, which no medicine can cure in later years. Water, and for breakfast and afternoon milk, are the only appropriate drinks for this time of life. Water must, however, be very pure, and if in the slightest way suspicious in this respect, should be boiled and cooled before it is used. Short sight has become a general complaint, owing to the excessive work imposed upon the eyes, especially in schools, where the light is generally defective. The position of the body in these cases may be a real source of danger. The child should have a desk, raised to the height which suits his eyesight, to prevent him, whilst reading or writing, from putting one shoulder higher than the other, contracting his chest, and rounding his back in stooping over his work. If he is very short-sighted, it is better to procure NATURAL DEFECTS. i6i suitable spectacles for him than to allow him to bend himself double. The fact that hardly a child is born short-sighted, though many are here- ditarily predisposed to it, is a proof that the origin of this weakness lies in the foolish way of using sight. Stammering may be remedied by making the child speak very slowly, and pronounce each syllable forcibly, breathing between each. The disposition to stammer may be prevented from becoming an inveterate habit by beginning this practice as soon as the defect is observed. For atrophy or weakness of a limb we must have recourse to gymnastics medically applied, which can remedy anything arising from muscular weakness, and with young children may even correct imperfections of the bones impossible to cure later on. We will now speak of the methods to be adopted in unavoidable illnesses, which are easy for each of you to remember and apply. Nurse every indisposition, directly you become aware of it, as a serious illness. You must not wait for the organism to be invaded by the disease M 1 62 EDUCATION. before you attack it. This is the real secret of medicine. Every cold should be treated ener- getically, and how much suffering would be spared by necessary precautions taken in time ! A day or two in bed, confinement to one room for a day or two longer, and strict diet, easily tri- umph over a cold, which may, if neglected, kill you. For cutaneous disorders so common in child- hood, such as measles, scarlet fever, etc., if you have no doctor at hand, rest satisfied in keeping the child warm. This will be an opportunity ot seeing if he has been well brought up and is obedient; their obstinacy in uncovering themselves has killed many children. However mild these mala- dies may appear to be, always treat them seriously; for a complication at such times is most dangerous. Let the diet be strict and lasting ; chicken broth for at least nine days, a cupful every two hours without bread or any kind of solid food — and do not trust to appearances, but keep the child in bed and quiet for three weeks. If in winter time, or in an unsuitable house, prolong the time in bed, and do not let the child go out for six weeks. Of SIMPLE REMEDIES. 163 course in summer the period of confinement may be considerably shortened. The fancies accompanying convalescence ought not to disquiet us. Disease upsets the nerves and induces irritability. We must have the courage to insist on these precautions in a way that would seem harsh to ourselves did we not know that a cold or a fit of indigestion might actually cause death under these circumstances. For the other indispositions common to child- hood, such as colic, sore throat, and cough, I would remind you of the remedy recommended in the chapter on early care — namely, friction. A cold may be prevented from becoming inflammation of the lungs by this simple means of promoting the circulation of the blood. Little accidents of bruises and cuts should be treated — in the former case, by applying a piece of metal to the part struck, which will prevent black- ness and swelling ; if the skin is knocked off, it must be abundantly bathed in cold water. For cuts, after allowing them to bleed a little, apply cold water ; then wrap up the injured part in old linen, so that neither air nor dirt can reach the 1 64 EDUCATION. wound. If the cut has been made with an instru- ment of doubtful cleanliness, take the most scru- pulous care to clean well the wound by washing it over and over again, and be assured the linen and wadding be absolutely clean. Burns must be cleansed in the same way, and the part injured must be wrapped in wadding, which prevents contact with the air. Wounds only become in- flamed by dirt, by the air, or by being touched ; remember this well, and protect them; no harm can result from this. CONCLUSION. To conduct an education wisely we must care- fully reason out everything connected with it, and decide definitely on what is conventional and what is necessary, what is true and what false, in what we see and hear around us, for we should allow ourselves to be guided only by what is useful and true. But in the mass of contradictory ideas which guide the world, there is a middle course in which good sense should guide us ; we do not want to make our children martyrs nor hermits, who are always liable to perish. The best regulated mind is that which, while seeing absolute truth, adapts itself to the exigencies of the period, which can only attain to a relative truth. But the very fact of having a noble ideal in one's mind makes every action of the individual help in the progress of the race. It is well known that a mass of abuses surround us, and we should lose our time in wanting to combat or destroy them directly. To teach men that it is WTong to kill at the same time that you glorify 1 66 EDUCATION. military exploits is one of the many proofs of the contradictions of custom, and we can never hope to follow logically what we teach, obliged as we are to submit to inevitable conventions. There is no other way of combating abuses than by spreading as widely as possible the ideas which show them to be such, and by trying to act in a way more conformable with the abstract morality which we teach without applying it in our life. The general scepticism arises from this double current, which is incessantly driving us in contrary directions, and which was less perceptible when physical force was the principal power in the world. Humanity follows the same course as the indi- vidual. At first external things strike us more than all others ; later on we are more absorbed by what comes within the domain of thought, and as we have arrived at the conclusion that what we think is really of the most importance, we feel ourselves in a position in which an agreement between our actions and our thoughts is indispensable for our happiness. We are, however, surrounded by a num- ber of individuals not of the same opinion, and we must adapt ourselves in our manners to many CONCLUSION. 167 things which do not agree with our conscience. Let us therefore disseminate true ideas as much as we can — they have irresistible strength — and the best means of doing the most good is to spread them as widely as possible. I do not hesitate in saying that if the generality of people really thought in accordance with the teach- ing of Christian morality, with which serious phi- losophy is always in accord, the greater number of abuses and contradictions would disappear. The basis of this doctrine being the absence of all violence, and persuasion the only weapon, by ap- pealing to the good sense and the heart, we can always be sure that we are in the right in propa- gating and following this doctrine. In undertaking this universal culture of child- hood let us remember that all success depends on what we think ourselves and the manner in which our actions conform with our thoughts. There ought to be unity between our inner and our outer life, just as there must be a healthy mind in a healthy body to possess that harmony which alone can satisfy us. I close, as I began, with this ancient adage, the truth of which I hope I have demon- i68 EDUCATION. strated. May these few counsels bear some fruit ! Who knows? They may perhaps cause one or two of my readers to reflect on the gravest question of the day. I bid you farewell, wishing you from my heart : Patience and perseverance ! -z CHISWICK PRESS : — C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TCOKS COUKT, CHANCERY L\NE. THE UBRART f TVTVEILSITY OF CAUFOIHIA '"HlilPP"'"'"!"- xa. Hru s ova ■■ 1115 Education from Uagft the cradle. L 007 903 093 8 APR 1 9 19^0^ m jKS,,^.^.'^'°^'^l library facility AA 000 781013 LB 1115 U82e