Tri-weekly journal., 1847-09-23
THE EDUCATION OF THE HEART.

We commend the subjoined judicous re-
marks from the London Quarterly Review
10 the discriminating attention and regard as
we'll Of parents as OF teachers. They con-
tain an important principle in reference TO
the education ofihe young, and one which
cannot be too carefully needed:
alt is the vice of the age to substitute
learning for wisdom-io educate the head,
and 10 forge, that there is a more important
education necessary for the heart. The rea-
son is cultivated at IAN age when Nature does
not furnish the elements necessary TO q sue.
cesstul cultivation Of il; and The child is
solicited 10 reflection when he is only capa-
BILE Of sensation and emotion. In infancy
the attention and the memory are only excl
ted strongly by things which impress the
senes and move the heart, and father shall
inslil more solid and available instruction in
an hour spent in the fields, where wisdom
and goodness are examplfied, seen and felt,
than in month spent in the study, where
they are expounded in stereoiyped aphor-
isms.
"No physician doubts that precacious chill
dren in fifty cases for one, are much the
worse for the discipline they have undergone
The mind seems TO have been stained, and
the foundations for insanity are laid. When
studies OF maturer years are stuffed into
The head Of the child, people do not reflect
on the anatomical fact that the brain of an in
FAINT IS not the brain Of man; that the one
is confirmed, and can bear exerlion-.the 9th
or is growing, and requires repose; that 10
force the attention 10 abstract facts-to load
the memory with chronological and hisori-
cal or scientific detail-in short TO expect a
child's brain to bear with impuniy the exer-
tlons oil mans, is Just as rational as it would
be TO hazard the same sort Of experiment on
IFS muscles.
"rhe first eight or ten years Of life should
be devoted TO the education Of the heart
TO the formation OF principles, rather than to
the requirement Of what is usually termed
knowledge. Nature herself points out such
course; for the emotions are then the live
llesi, and most easily moulded, being as YET
unalloyed by passion. Ii is from this source
that the mass of men are hereafter to draw
the lr sum of happiness or misery; the actions
Of the immense majority are, under all cir
cumstances, determined much more by feel
ing than reflection; in truth, life presents an
infnity Of occasions where it is essential to
happiness that we should feel rightly; very
few where it is at all necessary that we
should think profoundly.
Cup TO the seventh year OF lite very great
changes are going on in the structure of the
brain, and demand, therefore, the utmost at
teniion not 10 interrupt them by improper or
over excitement. Just that degree of exer-
else should be given to the brain at this peri
cd as is necessary to its health; and the
best is oral instruction, exempliied by OBJ
jscts which strike the senses.
at is perhaps necessary TO add that, at
this period Of life, special attention should
be given both by parents and teachers, 10 the
physical development Of the child. Pure ar
and FREQ exercise are indispensable, and
wherever either Of these is withheld the con-
sequences will be certain to extend them
selves ever the whole future life. The seeds
of prolracted end hopeless suffering have, in
innumerable instances. been sown in the con.
stiution OF the child simply through igno.
rance of this great fundamental physical law
and the time has come when the united vol
ces of these innocent victims should ascend
'trumpet-tongued,' TO the ears Of every pa.
rent and every teacher in the land. 'Give
us free air and wholesome exercise leave &c
develop our expanding energies in accord
ance with the laws of our being, and full
scope for the elastic and bounding impulse.
Of our young blood"