Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1847-09-25
The Education OF the Heart.

ipg for wisdom to educate the head, and for
get that there is more important education ne.
coseary tor the heart, The reason ie cultivated
at an age when nature does Bot furnish the eie.
ments necessary TO il succeesfuI cultivation OF
H.; and the child is solicited to reflection, when
he is only capable OF sensation aud enoiicn.--
In infancy the attention and the memory are
only excited strongly BY things which impress
the senses, and move tho heart. and hther
shall instil more solid and available instruction
in an hour spent in the fields, where wisdom
and goodness are exemplified eeen and felt,
than in month spent in the study. where they
are expounded in stereoiyped sphorisms.
No physician doubts that precocious children
in fifty cases for one. ATE much the worse Tor
the discipline they have undergone. The mind
seems to have been strained and the founda-
tions for insanity are aid. When the studies
OF maturer years are stuffed icto the head Of
child, people do not reflect on the anatomical
fact, the brain Of an infant is not the brsin Of
man; that the one is confirmed and can benr
cxcrton, the other is growing and requires re-
pose that to corce the attention to abstract
facts to load the memory will, chronological
and historical or scien,ific detail; 10 short. to
expect child's brain to bear with impunity the
cxertions Of mans. is just ss rational 80 It
would be to hazard the same sort of experiment
on its muscles.
The first eight or ten years Of life should be
devoted to the education of the hesrt-to the
formation of principles rather than to the ac-
quirement of what is usual termed knowledge.
Nature herself points out such course; for the
emotions are then the lveliest, and most easily
moulded, being ne yet unalloyed by passion
Il is from this source that the macs Of men are
hereafter 10 draw their sum Of happiness or mi.
sery the actions OF the immense majority are
under all circumstances, determined much
more by feeling than reflection; in truth, lite
presents an in6nity OF occasions where it is es.
sen,ial TO hsppincss that we should ieel rightly !;
very few where ii is at oil necessary that we
should think profoundly.
Up to the seventh year OF lite. very great
changes are going on in the structure Of the
brain, and demand, therefore, the utmost atten.
ton not to interrupt them by improper or over
excitement. Just that degree Of exercise
should be given to to the train at this period,
is necessary to its health and the best is oral
instruction, exemplied by objects which strike
the senses. 'ft Is
1t is perhaps unnecessary to add, thst at th
period of life, special attention should be given
both by parents and teachers, to the physics
dcvelopement Of the child. Pure air and !re'
exercise are indispensable. and wherever thes'
are withheld, the consequences will be certain
to extend themsel, ca over the whole future life
The seeds of pro'racted and hopeless suffering
have, in innumerable instances, been sown il
the constitution Of the chilt simply through ig
norance Of this great fund smental physical law
and the time has como when the united voice
of these innocent victims should ascend, 'trum
pet tongued.' 10 the ears Of every parent an
teacher in ths land, Give us free air and whole
some exercise leave To dcvelope our expar
ding energies, in sccordance with the laws {
our being, and full scope for the elas'ic an
,oundnp impulses Of our young biood.'-Lor
don Quarterly Repiep. t..