The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-15

ja1N 5000 ~ ~ ~ - ~ Z
A boy is pisce Of existsncs quite sepsrst,
nom all things elss, and deserves separaS,
chapters in the natural history of man. Tn,
real lives of boys are yet to be- written. Tn,
lives OF pious and good boys, which enrich ths
catalogues Of great pnblishing houses, reuembl,
s,real boys life about % much n . chicken
picked and isrded upon spit, and ready fol
delicious eating, resembles free fowl in ths
fields. With some few honorable exceptions
they are impossible boys, with incredible good
ness. Their piety 10 monstrous. A mans ex
perience stuffed into . little boy il simply mon
stro9s. And We are soundly skeptical of this
whole school of pate de toie gras piety. Ap
pies that ripen long before their time are
either diseased or worn. bitten. 'Fe2
| So long a. boys are babies, how much they
are cherished But byand-by the cradle il
needed for another. From the time babe be.
comes boy, until he is q young man, he is in
an unconscious condition, for which there is no
special place assigned in nature. They are
always In the way. They are always doing
something 70 call down rebuke. They are in.
quisitive as monkeys, and meddlesome lust
where You don't wish them 10 be-. Bows have
| period of mischief o. much "a they have
measles or chicken-pox. They invade your
draversj mix up your tooth powder with hair
oil; pnll your laces and collars from their re-
positories; upset your ink upon invaluable
manuscript; tear up precious letters, scatter
your waters, stick everything up with expsri-
mental sealing wax, and spoil oil your pens in
the effort at spelling all your paper. =, I.
Poor boysi What are they good for? 1t is
an unfathomable mystery that We come to our
manhood las the 1sraelites reach Oanaan)
through the wilderness of boyhood. They are
aluavn nfiu, corroth.c, H. l.
going where they ought not to be, coming
where they are not wanted, saying the most
awkward things at the most critical times.
They viii tell lies, and, after infinite pains to
teach them the obligations of the truth, they
give Ne the full benefit of frankness and literal
ness BY hurting out before company q whole
budget of family secrets. Would you take a
quiet napi Slam-bang 90 whole bevy of
boys through the housed Has the nervous
baby at length, after all manner of sinQinps,
trottings, soothings, and maternal bosom opi.
ates, just fallen asleep? Be sure an unman.
nerly boy will be on hand to bawl out for per-
mission to do something or other which he has
been doing all day without dreaming of leave.
The restless activity of boys is their neces.
sity.. To restrain it is to thwart Nature. We
need to provide for it. Not to attempt to find
amusement for them, but to give them op-
portunity to amuse themselves. II is sstonish-
ing to sec how little it requires to satisfy boy
nature. .,, se -- -
First in the List, put strings. What grown.
up people find in thousand form of business
and society, boy secures in string! He ties
up the door, for the exquisite pleasure of unite
ing it again. BE harnesses chairs, ties MP his
own fingers, halters his neck, coaxes Q lesser
urchin to become bis horse, and drives stage
which, with boys, is the top of human attain.
ment. Strings are wanted for snares, for bows
and arrows, for whips, for cat'scradles, for
kites, for fishing, and Q hundred things more
than can recollect. A knife Is more exciting
than string, but does not last so long, and is
not so various. After short time It is lost, or
broken, or has cut the fingers. But string is
the instrument of endless devices, and within
the management and ingenuity of boy. The
tFs h s5sls the. parents should Lay in Sn going
boys must not know L. If thew see whole
ball, the charm is broken. It must come forth
mysteriously, unexpectedly, and as if there
were no more.
For indoors, next, we should place upon the
list pencils and white paper. At least one
hour in every day will be safely secured by that.
A slate and pencil are very good. But as chill
dren always aspire to do what men do, they &C
count the unused half of letter and q bit of
pencil to be worth twice as much as any slate.
Upon the whole, we think a safe stream of
water near by affords the greatest amount of
enjoyment among all natural objects. There
is wading and washing; there is throwing of
stones, and finding of pebbles; there is en-
gineering, of the most laborious kind, by which
stone and mud are made to dam up the water,
or to change the channel Besides these things,
boys are sensitive to that nameless attraction
or beauty which specially hovers about the
sides Of streams; and though they may not rec.
ognise the cause, they are persuaded of the
fact that they are very happy when there are
stones with gurgling water around them, shady
trees and succulent underground, moss and
water cress, insect, bird, and all the population
of cool watercourses.
But boys are not always boys. All that is
in rs in leaf, is in them in bud. The very
warnings, the musings, yea, the very questions
which occupy or later years as serious tasks,
are found in the occasional hours of boyhood
We have scarcely heard one moral problem
discussed in later life. that is not questioned by
children. The creation of the, world, the orr.
gin of evil, divine foreknowledge, human liber.
~, the Immortality of the soul, and various
other elements of elaborate systems, belong to
childhood. Men trace the connections of truths,
and their ethical applications and relations,
but the simple elements of the most reconcile
truths seem to have gained in them very little
by the progress of years. Indeed, all truths
whose root and life are in the infinite, are like
the fixed stars, which become no larger to the
most powerful telescope than to the natural
eye. Their distance il too vast 10 make any
appreciable variation in magnitude possible.
They are mere points of light.
Boys have their soft and gentle moods, too.
You would suppose, BY the morning racket,
that nothing could be more foreign to their ma
turs than romance and vague sadness, such a.
ideality produces in adults. But boys have
hours of great sinking and sadness, when kind
ness and sympathy are peculiarly needful to
them. -glfs1 1 9sf~
1t is worthy of notice, how soon little kind
ness, little consideration for their boy nature,
wins their confidence and caresses. Every boy
wants some one older than himself, to whom
he may 90 in moods of confidence and yearn-
ing. The neglect of the child's want by grown
people, and the treating of children as little
rafting, noisy imps, not yet subject to heart
throes, because they are 80 frolicksome in gen.
eral, is o fertile source of suffering. One of
the most common forms of selfshness Is that
which refuses to recognise any experience as
worthy of attention, if it lies in sphere below
our own. Not only ought man to humble
himself ~ little child, but also to little chill.
dren. e.3i Il ~ .e3fl Is
A thousand things are blamed in them, sim.
ply because, measured by our manhood stand.
ard, they are unfit, whereas upon the scale of
childhood they are congruous and proper. We
deny childrsn's requests, often, upon the scale |
of our own ikings and dislikings. We attempt
to govern them by mans regimen, and not
by child's.
And yet, badgsred, snubbed, and scolded, on |
the one hand-petted, fattered, and INDUCED, |
ON the other-it i astonishing how many |
children work their way up to an honest man |