The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1878-03-20
SCHOOLS OF MIND AND MANNERS.
(OoNTINUED.)

\CONIlNUED'J
1t is by listening, not by talking, that
sympathy is Observation-Disclosures sym
patty that makes men compsnioDable. This
abandonment of old restraints, of which we
are Jealous, may be one of the reasons why
conversation as an art is going out. Children
don't learn to talk by chsttering to one an
other, and saying what comes uppermost;
neither does reading suffice to this end, sin
ele-hauded. Good talk should first be re-
cognized as such in others Attention is the
most Influential tutor in the fitting use of the
tongue. Where we see good talk disregarded
by party of youog people, there, We may
be sure, the chances of their ever shining 30
cially are small indeed. NJ re listening witt
intelligence involves an exercise of mental
speech. Not, of course, that We would con
Gne children to the act of attention; but gooc
talk cannot be maintained under interrup
ton, and observaut silence opens the pores
of the mind as impatient demands for expla-
nation never do.
Taking all this into account, while freely
admitting the superiority of modern teaching
from books, we yet regard them as only pa
tsl educators Now aud then, even, tn
sight of children brought up in the old sys
TEN, which put behaviour frst-not because
it is a system, but that the tastes of the
mother lean that way-awakes a tende,
though blind regret for the old relation OF
lessons to the days work. For still there
are children who accept their lessons as tasks
Co be learnt, without much considering The
future use they are to be put to; who's
keener interests are for what they see and
hear; whose minds are present to the scene
around them, who respond with dutful ALAG
rity to the training of manners; who are
obedient to rule, courteous, friendly, hospi
table to strangers in their small innocent
wsy; who greet with q smile welcome com
pauy, and brighten under it; who watch
their mothers eye and obey her beheSts, and
30 doing catch her grace of air and move
ment These are children, whatever their
, literary attainments, who will grow into
gentle, refining influences; who will perpetu-
ate good traditions, and maintain the charm
as we'll as the virtues of family life. And,
moreover, whatever their store of exact
knowledge, they will have diction and ia
| cility of expression which perhaps will more
than stand comparison with others deeper
read but less prsctised in social intercourse.
1t all comes to this: on the one hand, chill
dren cannot learn manners without being
) trained to them; on the other, it is equally
g certain that want of thoroughness in early
teaching is a defect scarcely to be got over
in after life, and often bitterly resented as
we'll as regretted by the sufferer. But each
day will have it's notions of the relative i'm
portauce of the two, and throw the weight
] of its influence on the popular side.
r While we generalise, our real subject, and
often our argument, relates mainly to the
!, education of women. It has been in this
that the distinction between the two princi
I, Piles of training with which we begin is seen
t in most marked contrast. The ordinary ed
ucstion of the last century and that of the
4 modern high school presents this contrast In
its most pointed divergence of aim. 1t can.
not be denied that the advocates of thorough.
ness are supported by the success of girl stu
I dents in many an unaccustomed field of com
b petition. But the stimulus of emulation, iu
their case so potent, has its period, snd
wants that succeeding goad of necessity
which follows the boy into life He has al
along kuown that his learning is means to-
,, wards a very ineligible end. If the CIR
mot required to work for living thinks &C
in the class room, society soon undeceives her
Only a genuine love of knowledge land the
: rarity of this, in the universal experience
shows that it must always be rare) will sus
tain her enthusiasm. Hence We see, in &c
many cases. that the girl whose education
has been one of exceptional severity of strain
both in its subjects and thOrough ness in bat
q ting with them, collapses at once when
thrown into the natural interests of her age
and cannot be distinguished from other girls
either in the interests that absorb her, or the
aims she works towards. Itmay be that she
o is even less fitted for the new scene, the
spirit of emulation following her into the
fresh arena The strong excitements Of
> girlhood God her less prepared than where
the moral grounding of manners, with al
y their unconscious yet ever binding restraints
= has been the especial object of the educator
All we would argue is, that these restraints
should have been incucsted along with the
cultivation of intellect, that it is as great in
Justice to the child to permit lcence in man
t ners, as to leave it to scramble into knowl
edge or to miss the road for want of an ade
q uuate guide. 1t is an especial injustice tC
the girl of merely average intelligence to as
sumo that if the teaching is but sound, and
morals duly inculcated, manners may go tc
q the wall, and be treated as joke; for if &C
curate knowledge and grasp Of what is once
' acquired is beyond the learners intellectual
callbre, and the manners have been left tt