The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1858-01-21

ton, and responds to its natural arpeteucies
in the outward world. ~ g
The intellect Of children is ascending in
its structure, and they cannot exercise the
powers of analogy, comparison and deduc
ton. until observation has furnished ideas
for these higher faculties TO exercise upop.
Thousands are training the intelIects Of
boys who are in utter darkness as to the
powers and nature of the mind and are
pursuing q course which, i think. is at va.
rance With the constitutional structure OF
its powers.
These powers must be daily and system
atically exercised, daily brought into con
tact with their appropriate objects, daily
warmed with their congenial stimuli; 9TH
erwise these powers languish and become
forever stinted in their growth. The law Of
moderation applies to exercise here as else
where. No teacher on earth can take a..yar
. single faculty from, or add one 10, the
mind. He must operate on the facultatiye
capital as he finds; and here capacity and
power account for the various stages of bro
gress with given time. IL trained accord
ing to its constitution, the minds of bows
VIII expand, and grow, and bud out to ma
.turity. The great law regulating labor of
any sort is moderation. This law is written
by the finger of God in legible characters
across the belt of his universe. It must
regulate all our actions, feelings and propen.
sites, OF whatever sort they may be- The
grand object of this regulation is to lop off
every excess, and bring up everything to
the line Of enough" Guided by its influ.
'ence in the regulation Of our customs. we
would not gorge the minds of schoo,bors
nne months, and turn them out to s,arve
Tor three we would not exercise these
minds on Monday and Tuesday, and give
them no exercise on "Wednesday and Thurs.
day; and turn them over to parties and
igun.sports on Friday and Saturday. Each
day must have its own exercise, subject to
Tie great law Of moderation. Under its
suspicious influence, boys would be able to
attend their studies aud their school daily
from lst january 10 30th December. without
experiencing the i'll consequences of long
vacations, or any Of those bad effects aris.
ing from cramming and pressing their ca.
pacity and powers for part of the year, in
order TO. form some excuse for suspending Ia.
Dor. God never intended this better skelter
way OF doing things TO be prac'iceed in his
dominion, otherwise le would not have oiy.
en- MS the constitution we have, aud made II
subject to order and moderation. There i
just as good reason why the planets should
suspend their revolutions, the stomach its
functions and digestion, and the lungs their
respiration. At variance with sound
school.policy is the adoption of too many
stadles at once. Farmers tell us that in q
grassy time 1t is not good to sectionalize
their working forces MY experience is
against dividing the mental forces of boys
too much by multiplicity of pursuits. unless
The time of the day could be better section.
ed than its shortness permits.
The anxiety of parents to see their chill.
dren, while very Young. carrying big books,
has led to taxing capacity and powers be-
yond ability, and desire to do so has been
mistaken for ability, and desire ends in dis
couragemcnt, and the crop fails. / give il
as my opinion, that a boy had better con-
centrate all his mental forces upon some
given study, till its strong holds are taken,
and adopt another for conquest, making the
former only secondary in his devotions to
study,
There is but one thing which is at war
with the practicability Of the system here
suggested, and that is at war with every
thing good or great in the world. Itis Idle.
ness. This Is the siu Of tile age when an
alyzed, IL is found to be the enbodyino
shell Of every vice. II has grown 10 lis
present mighty dimension, because, with the
young, labour is regarded as disreputable. I
regard II asstbe sin Of the age. Out Of its
hideoas protean form peer thousand ills,
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