Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-08-07
E d u ton.
From the Mothers Magazine.
Lecture delivered before the Bristol. r. L
Maternal Association.
BY REV. THOMAS SHEPHERD.

Lecture delivered before the Bristol, r. L,
Maternal Association.
BY REV. THOMAS SHEPHERD.
Almost all our addresses to mothers
have respect to the management of their
children while very young. And surely
no subject can be more important than to
induce parents to begin the work of disci.
pine as soon as the infant mind is capa-
BILE of being affected by instruction. vi
tally important it is to occupy the virgin
soil with good seed before it is overgrown
with noxious weeds.
But by insisting so much upon the ear.
! ly training of children, we would not be
understood as countenancing, in any
measure, a cessation of proper discipline
and control of those children which have
arrived to years of understanding. While
we would have you deeply anxious as to
the proper training of your infant chill
dren, we would not have you unmindful
of your duty to those who have arrived to
years of sober discretion, and have, In a
measure, put away childish things.
Permit me in this lecture to call YOUR
attention to some of those duties which, as
mothers, you owe to your older children.
And here permit me, IN the first place,
to demonstrate against an impression too
common in this age, that youth from fif-
teen to twenty are TO be exempt from pa
rental instruction and discipline. Such
an impression INDUCED and acted upon
will most assuredly result in the ruin of
many before they have come to maturity.
Every one who has had experience, and
who has been careful observer of events.
knows that this is the mos. critical period
in human life. Indeed it is a settled
point, that the momentous question of char
acter is more generally settled between
the ages of fourteen and twenty.one, than
during any other seven years ia our
whole existence. During this period it is
that the powers of the body and faculties
of the mind develop themselves, and the
habits and feelings are, in great meas
ure, settled for life. And shall such an
age, so traught with consequences, be left
to take care of itself? Shall our sons. at
the age of fourteen, be turned. into the
street to take care of themselves; and our
daughters be left to follow their own child
ish fancy, and roam where they please.
when they reach this age? Better that a
milestone We're hanged about their necks,
and they be cast into the depths of the sea,
than-that they should be abandoned to
their own reckless passions and fearless
tempers at this critical period of life We
have all been taught, by experience and
observation, that at no age are youth so
sanguine 10 their hopes, so headstrong in
their tempers, and so reckless of danger
as at this period; while, at the same time,
they are the most devoid of forethought,
needless of temptation, and restless under
all restraint They can see no danger in
giving the fullest indulgenceto all their
" fancies' airy flights The road of in
diligence is to them without a pit or a
snare. The future, if it only be devoted
to pleasure, is not obscured by single
cloud, only permit them to throw the
reins upon the neck of indulgence, and
give full scope to all their mirth, and buoy
ancy, and cheerfulness; eat, drink, and be
merry, and they ask for no more-they
are happy.
And now shall the parent, who is heav-
ems constituted guardian of their bodies
and souls, their character and usefulness,
their education and habits, indulge their
feelings, and resign them to the sport of
the whirlwind of their own fancy and fol-
lily? Whatever your own inclinations,
and the inclinations Of your children may
lsay-re0sOn, conscience, and religion say,
No.
i Guard gour children against all such
impressions, as that, aOhen they groao> up,
they can claim exemption from obedience
to your authority So long as they re-
main with you, teach them to feel that they
must yield obedience to the rules OF the
family. Let them feel that the good OF
, the younger children demands that they
| hold themselves responsible to parental
authority. Let their own sense OF pro-
priety lead them to be in suggestion to the
laws of the household-yea. let their DEF
erence to the word of God constraln them
t to submit themselves TO the commands O
parents. They must feel that, so long al
they liEger under the parental roof, they
J. are bound by the divine precept' Gnu
a ldren, obey your parents in the Loro' 1ol
/. this is right"
d Here permit me to remark, that II
h treatment of children should GtaoGys B
. adapted to their age and 9ssposi:son,s.-
i The daughter of sixteen is not to be dlscl
.e plined In the same way as the daughter