Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-17
written for the Rutland Herald.
Discipiine---Chara and Habits
No. XII.

observation-disclosures and Habits.
No. XII.
] have alluded to the Importance of
self-reliance as practical habit In life.
1t cannot be overestimated, nor will
parents be likly to give this thought too
much prominence in the training of their
children.
Helplessness and dependence are con-
ditions of infancy and childhood, but
they cannot always lean upon paternal
arms. They must be taught to rely
upon themselves. The child at first has
no confidence IN his own ability to walk.
He totters to fall, because he dares not
trust his own strength to sustain him.
Hence, the mother holds his outstretched
arm and leads him to his destined gaol
or he leans upon a chair, by which he
has learned to measure his doubtful
steps. Now, how does the mother teach
her darling to walk? Not by giving
him more strength, but by teaching him
self-reliance. He must learn to walk
by walking; and after few trials with
proper assistance, he is left in the middle
of the floor and encouraged to come to
his mether's arms. No matter if he cries
for help, he must not be assisted. No
matter if he tumbles the effort will
give him confidence, and this confidence
will give him success. In similar man
ner he must learn to take care of his
own person, provide for his own wants
and depend upon his own efforts for the
Accomplishment of every desirable OBJ
jcct.
1t is the special duty of parents to
cultivate the habit of self-reliance in
their children in everything relating to
active life. If they fail in this, the child's
education is necessarily defective, and
his future success will be doubtful. Cir
cumstances, however, sometimes do for
children what parents have failed to ac-
complish They are born in honest in
dustry, and reared in the school of pow
erty. Their Strengthened circumstances
have compelled them to form the very
habits upon which success depends.
| Such parents often envy their more
wealthy neighbors, and lament that they
cannot furnish their own children the
means of personal qualification and aid
which many of their associates enjoy.
But what are the facts in the history
of these families? In nine cases out of
every ten, the children of poverty sue
l. 10 -
| fiuence of wealth fail. And why? Be
cause the poor mans sons are compelled
to form habits of industry, self-reliance
and economy, and early to shift for
themselves; while the rich live in in
dolence and luxury, which often results
in dissipation, and always in helpless
ness and dependence.
Our country is full of living illustra-
tions of this truth. Every neighborhood,
every public institution, and every pro-
fession can furnish examples. There
are noble exceptions, when children
reared in opulence become earnest and
efficient men, but the exceptions only
prove the rule. Poverty then is not a
curse, but a blessing, if it is accompanied
by integrity and virtue.
And still / believe that parents in
competence and even in wealth, may 50
train their children as to secure the de-
sired results 1T under proper family dis
cipline
Again, self-reliance is indispensable
to self-culture, which is the only condi-
ton of intellectual and moral
growth. All available instruction
| is drawn from the child's own
own resources. True education is not
impaired, but self-produced 1t results
from the exercise of the powers to be
developed.
And this work begins not in the
school, but in the mothers arms, and
success or failure depends much upon
her training To call forth and direct
| the energies of mind and soul, is her
special work Activity is the controlling
agency, and growth and progress the
sure results.
Colaridge once said 'There is no
standing still with the mind; if it is not
rising upward to become an angel, it is
sinking downward, to become a devil. ;"
With what care, therefore, should this
mental and moral activity be directed.
The elements of true manhood and
womanhood are Unborn, but they can be
developed only by culture self-help and
self-reliance are both the means and the
conditions of success in life.
knowledge does not spring from in
tuition. The mind is not merely re-
ceptacle into which the love of the
schools can be poured; but an octigity
to Gull out and appropriate whatever is
valuable in books, Lectures, social inter
course, and the voice of the living
teacher. These rouse the mental powers
to action, and develope their latent en-
ergies.
Now, the thought to be insisted on In
this connection is, that education is the
process of self-development, which
should be encouraged by parents to the
greatest possible extent in dealing with
their children. They should be led to
do their own thinking, and to make their
own differences; they should be told but
little, but induced to discover as much
as possible. They should solve their
own questions, and be instructed only as
to how to apply themselves to the
work. Outside help weakens, rather
than strengthens the powers of self
instruction.
1t is the business of the mother and
teacher to guide the intellect to its APP
pirate food, to awaken the intellectual
appetites and fix the attention. Thus
the child is early taught the lesson of
self-reliance, and habituated to the work
of successful self-culture.
PARENs.
Tobacco culture will probably become,
within a few wears one of the most in,