Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-06-17
Bows.

1t costs the world ages of experience to earn
an appreciation Of the position and character
of women and we have not yet attained to
knowledge of the true position, requirements,
and character of the child. One reason for
This ignorance may be due to the fact, that the
study of the condition of childhood requires
the mind to turn back upon itself, and observe
its own motions, II mental process contrary to
the habits Of nature, and which has made the
secrets of the mind far less attractive to most
persons than the secrets Of patented manifold
different systems of education. One might
suppose that the mind of the child was made
for curious experiment, to find by what variety
OF place, or by what clipping and coaxng, it
might be brought to assume certain style of
growth, without ever being suffered to put
forth the laws of its own nature We cannot
but look upon that class of beings stigmatized
by the term Toys with some lively touch of
pity. Particularly when transplanted from the
soil where they were born, and placed under
foreign influences, are they deserving of this
humane sentiment Would any man who has
passed moderately comfortable life be willing
to live over the decade between his fifth and
fifteenth year Does any one feel a response
in his heart to that lyrical wish, now popular
lied by the street organ, to be boy again?
The truth is, that the boy, as regards his con.
ception of his own nature and its due education,
is in advance of his age He is not understood.
We arroganty put him into that class which
Sir William Blackstone denominate ter9 nature,
and base our plans for his improvement upon
the assumption of his total depravity. He has
ambition which burns out in disappointment
he has dreams of heroism and love which he
dares not confde to another he has keen SEN
sibllltes which his elders do not orbear to taunt
or to disregard; he has understanding of mat
ters whereof he is assumed to be absurdlv ig-
norant he has aching doubts about life and
death which he knows not where to satisfy.
Often like one who wanders in the dark. his
undeveloped reason and halfknowledge fail to
guide him through the night into which his
more nature fancy hurrles him, and he STUN
bles over chasms, or starts at those awful phan-
toms of the brain which the frmness of riper
intellect cannot at all times exercise The
Loneliness of night, mystery of the heavens, the
sadness of good-by, fill his imagination and
grasp his whole soul with power which lessons
as he advances in years. Like young Albano,
in Jean Pauls delectable romance of Titan,
he has to restrain and hide within himself all
his emotions, his longing, his precious thoughts,
for fear Of some stern father or some domestic
Gated Diogenes; or if he venture to unbosom
himself to an imagined friend of his own age,
asking only for the bread of sympathy which
his heart Graves, it is but to find himself pos
sessed of the scorpion of treachery and neg
lect and perhaps, at last he flies to the beauty
of some amiable girl, whom his ardent enthu-
siasm clothes with every grace and every virtue,
who smiles upon him, and comprehends him
no more than he comprehends the ocean,
North American Reuiep.