Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-01-07
Educate the Limbs and Muscles Stu
pldity in Childhood no Sign of Mental
Dulness Of Adults.

The sooner American fathers and |
mothers cease to pride themselves on
the ambition and intelligence only Of |
their children, and begin to exult in
the development Of their limbs, mus
cles, and solid flesh the better will it
he for the nation. All experience
shows that it is not those that are
hurried the fastest over the first steps
in knowledge that make the greatest
head away in after life. Many per.
son, by having his mental energy
prematurely exhausted in childhood,
has been doomed to be an intellect
ual dwarf all the rest of his days.
1t is true that children who are kept
from school, and whose brains arc
suffered to lie iallow, for few years,
do not crafty the vanity Of their
precocity; but they are meanwhile
accommodating such an amount Of ply
steal and mental strength as will en-
able them to advance with redoubled
impetus hereafter. Robust health
rosy, cheeks, wcll> developed limbs,
and lungsthat ''croW like chanticleer. F."
and make the air ring with laughter
and shouts, and now and then screams,
are far surer indications Of a future
s,alwart intellect, than all the mental
teats that ever delighted fathers
heart. 1t is a we'll established fact
that men Of true genius have seldom
manifested much superiority OF talent
in childhood. Great intellectual pow
er is usually tardy in its development,
and often there is a seeming sluggish
ness or Obtuseness, during their ear
ly years, in those gifted persons that
subsequently tower a head and
shoulders above their fellows
Rousseau somewhere remarks that
nothing is more difficult than to dis
eliminate between real duluess in
children and that apparent and
fallacious stupidity which is the fore
runner Of great abilities. The young
er Cato, in his infancy, passed for an
idiot; Goldsmith was dali in youth;
the schoolmaster Of the Brilliant Rich
ard Briusley Sheridan pronounced
the boy "an incorrigible Ounce )" Sir
Walter Scott had the credit Of having
"the thickest skull in the school ?
even Newton ranked low AS a scholar
in his boyhood; and the father Of
Isaac Barrow. NewtOn's successor at
Cambridge, deemed his son such
marvel OF stupidity that he used to
say that if it pleased God to take
from him any Of his children, he
hoped it might be Isaac, as he was
the least promising Liebig was dis
tinguished only as ~ poo5y" at school
and when, in reply 70 tho sneering
query what he proposed TO become.
since he was so dull a scholar, he said
he would be a chemist, the whole |
school burst INTO laugh Of derision.
The only boy il the school who dis |
putcd with Liebig the title Of booty
was one who could never get his les
son BY heart, but who was continu-
ally composing music by stealth, and |
whom Liebig found afterwards at
Vienna to be distinguished as cons
poser, and conductor of the Imperial |
Opera House. Generals Grant and
Sheridan graduated at West Point, /
low down in their classes; and George /
Washington exhibited but little in
tellcctuai power in his youth. Dr..
Adam Clarke was considered Ga
grievous Ounce" in youth, and was
seldom praised by his father except
for his ability to roll large stones
"an ability" say a medical writer,
(which Gao conceive a parent should |
be prouder to have his son possess,
previous 70 the age Of seven or eight,
than that which would enable him to
recite all that is contained in all the
manuals, magazines, and books for
infants, that were ever published. -
On the contrary, the Kirke Whites,
Chattertons, aud other such prodi- /
gies of precocity, have usually more
of briliancy then depth, and die about
IN fba th,.ashhn3 NJ lifn Eruits 4