The Yazoo City weekly Whig. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 18??-1855, 1853-03-04
Education Of the Hear.

|
| Its the vice of the age to substitute learn
ing for wisdom; to educate the head and
forget that there's more important educa.
ltlon necessary for the heart The reason
lis cultivated at an age when. nature does
not furnish the elements necessary to a sue
cessfpl cultivation of it; and the child is
solicited to reflection. when it is only capa-
bic OF sensation and emotion. In infancy
the attention and memory are only excited
strongly by the senses, and move the heart.
The father may instil more solid and avail
able instruction in au hour spent in the
ieldsMh the wisdom and goodness are
Iexemplifed, seen and felt. than a month
spent in the study, where they are expound.
ed IN stereotyped aphorism.
No physician doubts chat precOciOus chill
dren. fifty cases for one, are much the worse
for the discipline they have Undergone
The mind seems to have been strained, and
the foundation for insanity is laid.
When the studies of mature years are
stuffed into the head of the child people do
not reflect on the anatomical fact, that the
brain of an infant is not the brain of mani
that the one is conformed and can bear ex-
ertions. and the other is growing and re.
qnires repose; that to force the attention to
abstract facts; to load the memory with cro-
and historical or scientific detail,
in short, to expect a child's brain to bear
with impunity the exertions of mans, is as
irrational as would be to hazard the same
sort Of experiments on its muscles.
The first eight OF ten years oflife should
be devoted to the education of the heart
to the formation of the hearta-to the forma-
ton of principles, rather than to the acquire
ment of what is usually termed knowledge.
Nature herself points out this course, for
the emotions are the liveliest and most easiA
y moulded, beings yet unalIoyed by pas
sion. 1t is from this source the mass of
men are hereafter to show their sum Of hap
piness or misery. The actions of the i'm
nense majority are under ali circumstances
determined much more by feeling than re-
lection; in truth, life presents a happiness
hat we should feel rightly; very few instan-
;es occur where it is necessary that we
hould think profoundly.
Up to the seventh year Of life, very great
hanges are going on in the structure of the
rain, and demend therefore, the utmost
ttention, not to interrupt them by improper
Il rupt them by improper or over excite-
nent.-Just that degree of exercise should
'e given to the brain at this period that is
ecessary to its health; and the best is morA
| instruction, exemplifed by the objects
Vhieh strike the senses.
It is, perhaps necessary to add. that at
bis period of life, special attention should
e given. both by parents and teachers; to
he physical development of the.chiid. Pure
il and exercise are indispensable; and
yherever they are withheld, the consequent
es will be certain to extend themselves over
he whole future life.
The seeds Of protracted and hopeless saf-
sring have in innumerable instances. been
own III the constitution of the child, simply
lrough ignorance Of this great fandUmen-
Il physical laws and the time has come
hen the tinted voices Of these innocent
ictims should ascend. .'trumpsttOngued."
|, the ears Of every parent and teacher in
10 land. Give us fresh air and wholesome
xercise, leave our expanding energies to
! developed in accordance tb,the laws Of
ii being, and full scope tor the elastic and
ounding impulses of our young blood.