Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1865-10-12

BY HORACE BUSHNELL, D. D.

First of all, it will not be permitted
practice to quiet the child when crying or
in states Of irritation, or pacify it in fits of
Miniature by dainties that please the taste.
What is this but schooling and drawing out
of sensation by making it the reward of just
that which is most totally opposed to the
rules Of self government? It must be o very
dull child that will not cry and fret a good
deal when it is so pleasantly rewarded.
Trained in this manner to- play Immature
for sensations sake, it will soon go on rapid
ly in the course of double attainment, and
will be very soon perfected in the double
character of an i'll nstured, morbid sensual
ist, and a feigning cheat besides By what
method, or means, can the great theme of
has learned to be governed only by rewards
Of sensation, paid to affectations of grief
and deliberate ctings Of i'll nature?
Simplicity also, as opposed to Injuries,
condiments AMI confections, is condition
of all right feeding for infancy and child
hood, which ought to approve itself to the
to the most ordinary measures OF parental
discretion. OF course | do not mean to say
that the child is never to have its holiday
feast--that would be to cut him off from
another kind of benefit only insist that he
is uot to have perpetual holiday, and be
stimulated by continual flavors on his organs
till the beautiful simplicity of his appetite
is gone, and nothing pleases longer, but that
which is intense enough to be rather poison
than food Coffee, for example; what can
be worse for child's body or his future
character than to be dosed every morning
with his cup Of coffee? No matter if he
cries for it, all the worse if he does; for it
shows that he has been taught to love it, and
has so far been taken away prematurely from
the natural simplicity of his taste. And how
is the child going to be drawn by the beau
ty of God, and the sacred pleasure of Gods
friendship, when thinking always of the
dainties he has had, or is again to have, and
counting it always the main blessing of ex-
istance to have his body seasoned by the fla
vors of sensation? Instead of praying as
possibly he may be taught in words, ''Feed
me with food convenient for me-" he prays
in fact from morning to night with all dis
eased longings and hankerings, to be fed in.
the exact contrary with what will most in
crease his already overgrown sensuality. In
manner faithfully characteristic of his low
prudential morality, Paley advises that all
children and young people should live simply
because they are now susceptible enough to
relish simple things; in order that, as their
tastes grow duller with advancing age, they
may allow themselves a freer indulgence in
the stimulation of appetite, and so maintain
the feeding pleasure to the last Counsel
not to be questioned, even if these pleasures
were the chief end of life itself. We are
only disappointed and vexed by the lowness
of it, when we recall what is the real and
true penalty of youthful indulgence, that it
takes away the possible relish of truth, duty
and religion, and makes the soul forever in
accessible to these noble powers of character
and blessedness