Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-05-29
EARLY MENTAL ACTIVITY.
" Experience" says DR.. Spurzheim, I"

HApeTleHCe, says LIT. ppuTZuelul, ~ ue-
monstrated that of any number of children
of equal intellectual power, those who re-
ceive no particular care in childhood, and
who do not learn to read and write until the
constitution begins to be consolidated, but
who enjoy the benefit of good physical ed
ueation, very soon surpass in their studies
those who commence earlier, and read nu-
merous books when very young. The mind
ought never to be cultivated at the expense
Of the body; and physical education ought
to precede that of the intellect, and then
proceed simultaneously with it, without cul-
tivating one faculty to the neglect of others;
for health is the base, and instruction the Or
nament of education"
Let parents, then, check, rather than ex-
cite, in their children, this early disposition
to mental activity, or, rather let them coun-
terbalance it by due proportion of physical
and gymnastic exercises for it is not so much
the intensity as the continuity of the mental
action, which is injurious to the constitution.
Let them not cause the age of cheerfulness
to be spent in the midst of tears and in slave.
ry; let them not change the sunny days of
childhood into melancholy gloom, which
can, at best, only be source of misery and
bitter recollection in maturer years.
Physical exercises and the cultivation of
the perceptible faculties should, with the
reading of mora and instructive books, form
the principal occupations of children. Their
expanding frame requires the invigorating
stimulus Of fresh air; their awakening or
gans seek for external objects of sense; their
dawning intellect necessarily calls for the &C.
ton of their observant powers. This is the
great law of Nature. She has given to the
child that restless activity, that buoyancy Of
animal spirits, that prying inquisitiveness,
which makes him delight in constant motion
and in the observation of new objects. If
these intentions of Providence be not frus-
trated if he be allowed to give himself up
to the sportive feelings of his age, he will
acquire healthy constitution, and physi-
cal and perceptive development, which are
the best preparation for mental labor.
Of the men who have conferred benefit on
society, and have been the admiration of the
world, the greater number are those who,
from various causes, have in early life been
kept from school or from serious study They
have, by energetic or we'll directed efforts, at
a period when the brain was ready for the
task, acquired knowledge, and displayed a.
bilities which have raised them to the hi gh-
est eminence in the different walks in life, in
literature, the arts and sciences in the army,
the senate, the church, and even on the throne.
The history of the most distinguished among
those who have received an early classical
education, sufficiently proves that it is not to
their scholastic instruction, but to self-educa-
ton after the period of school, that they
chiefly owed their superiority.
David, the sublime author of the Psalms,
followed in his early occupations the dictates
OF nature he had, in youth, muscular power
to tear asunder the mouth of lion, to resist
the grasp of bear, and to impart to a peb-
BILE velocity sufficient to slay giant. Napo-
leon, when in the school of Brienne, was
noted in the quarterly reports of that insti-
tuition as enjoying good health; no mention
was ever made of his possessing any mental
superiority; but, in physical exercises, he
was always foremost. Sir Isaac Newton, &C.
cording to his own statement, was inatten-
tive, and ranked very low in the school,
which he had not entered until after the age
of twelve. The mother of Sheridan long
regarded him as one of the dullest of her
children. Adam Clarke was called ga grie-
vous Ounce" by his first teacher; and young
Liebig " BOBBY" by his employer. Shak-
speare, Moliere, Gibbon, Niebuhr, Byron,
Humphrey Davy, Porson, and many others,
were in like manner undistinguished for ear
ly application to study, and for the most part
INDUCED in those wholesome bodily exercises
and that of freedom of mind, which contribu-
ted so much to their future excellence.
Marcel.
Nj. Tbora ia ona oood wife in the conntry