Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-02-01

tions to a higher life and the will of God. I
Is not an enviable utility to be sure, but let thu
drunkards and evildoers generally. be held ur
to them as standing monuments Of vice, and its
oaleful effects. and let the lives of good and
vlrIuous men be cited as examples worthy o
praise and emulation. But principles OF virtue
can only be recognized in their true import BY
intelligence, and hence the absolute necessity
OF pd1 passu training of the intellect. And
just mere most momentous blunder is CON-
mltted. children are not taught to read at a
sumcienty early age, and parents are not care
ful to examine and search for books just suited
to their proficiency, and do not read to them
half as often as they should. Correct notions,
and even principles of deep signiGcancy and
generality, can sometimes be clearly presented
| by Illustrative examples derived from books
Besides, the mind will be accustomed to dwell
upon and consider chosen set of life relations,
and not be confined to the hap-hazard relations
OF good and evil derived from the street obser
vatlon OF current events whilst at the same
time the attention will be better fixed and not
SO vagrant as when called off by every passing
| Impression. ,+ 49,. sassss.5ssss
| No parent should be too much afraid Of ear
| y training provided only it be judicious; the
body is susceptible of high training without in
Jury Dy proper exercise, and the mind is in its
nature far more elastic. There are many more
cases. where the mind of youth becomes stupid
| tor want OF exercise, than where it is injured by
| entertaining.
| Children should be taught to play through
| their alphabets at three years, with their blocks
OF red letters, and at a little later period to
| work out short sentences of words of two or
three letters; not as tasks rigidly imposed, but
as trials OF ingenuity, aided by little whole
some praise, which is so delightful to all chill
dren.. At the present day there are many books
IoOp tor, Feel
OF general good influence with which children
| should be made acquainted by their own read
| Ing or by the aid of the parent A boy can
never learn to read correctly or care for reading
When according to present custom. be is made
to read dry history suited to interest only
grown people
One OF the grandest humbugs of the age is
putting children under twelve or even fourteen
years OF age into history as a school book for
reading. 1t is thus that one of the worst mem
tai habits is formed, the reading words instead
OF ideas: 1t is entirelY possible to read whole
pages without the mind s dwelling at all on the
connected import of the words. Children
should read if possible only such books or sto-
ries as they will read with pleasure and willing
ness This can only be accomplished by the
care OF the parent in selecting such books. The
education of the sons ct our farmers is very
imperfect, because their fathers choose rather
to spend more injudciousy upon dull heads of
seventeen than upon the active minds of boys
who have received an early home training at
much less cost. 1t is almost possible to induce
child to educate himself up to twelve by
proper course of reading. To elevate the think
ing, and feeling, Of boy, an early culture is
imperatively necessary. This world was inten-
ded for mans development and the higher
pleasures of intelligence and we-doing, but or
dinarlly men live out their lives seeking the an
lmal comforts of body, and fashion, and self
sutflclency OF pride, having very little of the
Promethean fire necessary to animate their
clay.
One OF the most injurious tendencies of youth
Is that which leads it to seek ease and pleasure;
when it has no motives Of self interest in active
life which tend to eounteract the indolence that
naturally follows. When pleasures of the low
er klnd become the highest object Of attain
ment, the chief virtues tall to the ground-''vo-
trptate donsindnte, onanes naacinaoe uirtutes hu-
mo jaclunt. So says Cicero, and the remark
is full of truth One of the most important
steps therefore for parents is to teach the child
TO recognize and feel the duty Of acting from a
higher principle, by frequent illustrations con-
trastlng the tendencies OF acting from duty and
pleasure The love of ease, and pleasure to
excess, even of an innocent though Improbable
kind, is a great misfortune with boys. One
method of obviating this is by keeping the
mind active and intelligent from an early Pc
Rod, for this activity Will also nfuse itself, to
certain extent, into the body which is but the
machine for acting upon external nature.
In conclusion, there is one other subject that
deserves careful thought on the part OF parents.
and that is the very prevalent habit of not
teaching children the facts and import of the
whole scheme of the christian religion We
do not speak lnadvisedly when we say that so
far as our observation, goes large majority of
the young men of the day in most sections are
utterly devoid of any satisfactory understand
ing of the bare facts Of the gospel, and this is
Why, Ia our country, we have so much scepti-
cism arising from ignorance What disgrace
to religious partisanry it is that the Bible as a
text book has to give way in any of our schools
as matter of expediency. All this is due to
ASPEN, Jan 18th. C. j. K.