Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-08-26
THE GAZETTE.
FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST &c, 1859.
. GOOD CHILDREN.

. =. GOOD CHILDREN.
The Professor at the Breakfast Table, in
his talk to the readers of the Atlantic. for
August. offers some pungent suggestions
concerning good children and their memoirs:
In early wears, while the child 'ieels Its
life in every limb" it lives in the body and
for the body to very great extent. 1t
ought to be so. There have been many very
interesting children who have shown won
derful indifference to things of earth, and an
extraordinary development Of the spiritual ma
ture. There is perfect literature of their
biographies, all alike in their essentials, the
same Decentralization to the usual amuse-
ments of childhood;" the same remarkable
sensibility; the same docility; the same con-
scientiousness; in short, an almost uniform
character, marked by beautiful traits which
We look at with painful admiration.
1t will be found that most of these chill
dren are the subjects of some constitutional
unftness for living; the most frequent of
which need not mention. They are like
the beautiful. blushing, half grown fruit that
falls before its time, because its core is gnaw-
ed out They have their meaning they do
not live in vain,-but they are windfalls.-
am convinced that many healthy children
are injured morally by being forced to read
too much about these little meek sufferers
and their spiritual exercises.
Here is a boy that loves to run, swim, kick
football, turn somersets, make faces, white,
fish, tear his clothes, coast, skate, ire crack
ers. blow SQUASH ''tooters," cut his name on
fences, read about Robinson CrusOe and Sin
bad the Sailor, eat the widest angled slices of
cakes and candies, crack nuts with his back
teeth and bite out the better part of another
boys apple with his front ones, turn up up
pers, ''stick" knives call names, throw stones,
knock off hats, set mOuse-traps, chalk door
steps, "cut behind" anything on wheel or
runners, whistle through his teeth. "hollcr
fire" ON slight evidence, run after soldiers,
patronize an engine company, or, in his
own words, elbow for tub No. H." or what
ever it may be;-isn't that pretty nice sort
of boy, though he has not got anything the
matter with him that takes the taste of this
world out?
Now when you put into such hot-blood-
cd, hard-fsted, round checked little rogue's
hand sad-looking volume or pamphlet, with
the portrait of d thin, whitefaced child, whose
life is really as much Il training for death as
the last month of codemned criminals ex-
istence, what does he find in common between
his own overlooking and exulting sense oi
vitality and the experience Of the doomed OIL
spring of invalid parents? 1t is not until
he has worked his way through the period
of honest, hearty, animal existence which
every robust child should make the most Of
not until he has learned the use of his faculties
which is his first duty-that boy ofcourage
and animal vigor is in proper state to read
these fearful records Of premature decay.
have no doubt that disgust is implanted in the
minds of many healthy children by early sur
feits of pathological piety. | do verify be-
lieve that he who took children in his arms
and blessed them, loved the healthiest and
most playful of them, just as well as those who
were rich i'll the tuberculous virtues.
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS" AT Forty AND
FoURTEEN.--A Quarterly reviewer thus com
pares the effect OF these Tales upon the man
of forty, with the magic charm they exercised
on the boy of fourteen:--
"To see these things as they were to us, we
must turn back in imagination to the gates OF
life, and recall the freshness of our youth.
Later ON in life, the most unlimited accumu-
lation of precious stones loses its power OF
producing an effect. and no reverses OF fortune
are extraordinary enough to startle us. The
suddenly-revealed treasures the gorgeous pal
aces with doors of sandal wood, fretted cell
ings, and jewelled touches, the high-bosomed
virgins, the obedience of the genii, and the
state of kings-these things come not near
us. We have lost the sublime egotism OF our
early years, and acknowledge that such spen-
did possessions are too good for US. Fate has
already assigned us our moderate share, and
set with some sufficient defniteness the limits
of our ambition and hopes. Who are We
between thirty and forty that We should pull
upa flat stone with ring in it, and find steps
leading to cavern stored with the precious
rarities of an Eastern fancy, or wake in the
night, and tremble with sweet amazement to
behold the fair paragon of China sleeping by
our side? Enough for us five sold cut before
the fall of consols, and if the single partner
to whom we limit our admiration Of female
beauty, preserves moderate share of those fair
proportions and serene disposition with which
she adorned the early days of courtship
But there was time with Us when the Ara
bian Nights were not 80 much story as
dream when, with the same dim mngllnS OF
identities which we sometimes have In sleep,
it is not Aladdin, but ourself, and yet not our
self, but Aladdin, who gazes on the jewel
bearing fruit trees, marries the Sultan's
daughters, and controls the resources OF the
lamp; we suffer and triumph with Sinbad,
taste vicissitude with Camaxalzaman, enjoy
the shrinking fondness of Zabulbe, travel
upon the enchanted carpet, or mount the
flying horse. To read of these things was a
sort of intellectual hasheesh-an intoxicat-
ing stimulant to that early imagination which
does not consciously subdue other thing.
into its own forms, but delights to lose itself
in suggestions from without"