The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-12-17
London Queen.7

London Queen.]
"The child is father of the man" is an
expression that has passed into a proyerb
vet, from the imitativeness of children, it is
often difficult to discover that germ of indi-
vidualism within each that is destined tc
develop into the future man or woman. Ii
is amusing to watch what copyists children
are-how they love to assume part, to act
u character, to be fathers, mothers, nurses
professors, clergymen, anything and every
thing but themselves.
1t is often, however, in the manner OF
their imitatiyeness that we discover their
originality. We find out our children, not
in the discipline of the school room or the
parlor, but in their unguarded hours--ln
their play, in the way they listen to or tell
a story, in their babble of what the day has
brought about. Children, as a rule, are
sincere, vivid little souls, and if We can only
find out the manner in which circumstan-
ces impress each we have a very large clew
to their originality. 1t requires tact and
love to find them out however. They have
ani.unerring instinct that tells them who
will give them sympathy, and become as in
scrutable as small sphynxes to those whom
they know will not give it. Children have
their reticences even toward those they love.
They are silent on what they most feel
perhaps from a confused, thwarted sense
that their limited vocabulary can not tell
the emotions with which their little hearts
are bursting.
Those early years are the storehouse in
which are boarded the impressions that last
through life; in them are gathered the in
fuences that are to be inefaceabe in the
after career We never forget the feelings
we then eXperienced-the tones, the gestures,
the faces of those we loved, or from whom
we shrank, with the passionate intensity OF
our youth. As the years gather, and memory
grows blurred and dimmed about recent
things, it is pathetic to note how wildly it
recalls those long-past days. The blitheness
of those mornings by the sea or in the
woods; the anguish of that first parting
the rapture of that first pantomime; the
experience in the dnnning of that first dig
nifed bit of apparel-all the delights
and miseries of those days rise before the
inner eye of old age with the clearness of
Objects touched by the light of spring day.
All through life the memory of childhood
is a lovely little rainbow; unread in its
colors it may be, but a delight in the dis
| lance A trife calls it up again-the sight
of an old-fashioned flower brings up the
dear garden where we played; perfume or
a particular aspect of the sky brings back
memories, and will suddenly awaken whole
chain of infantile recollections buried for
years. The dust takes life, and the vivid
scene is before us, of the game, the trouble
or the Joy At tune Of an old ballad, the
old nursery is again before us; We see the
little white crib, and hear again the lullaby
sung in the twilight by beloved voice, now
silent.
The tenacity of impressions received in
childhood is factor that should be held
most important in every scheme of early
education. Some of the sweetest association
with nature date back from childhood, and
we may often trace their quaint ring in the
matured poetry of the man. The kinship
of childhood with the woods and the fields,
and with the sweet bird and insect life, is
one of the most precious influences Of after
life. We may stuff small heads with learn
ing so as to make their possessors infant
prodigies of lore, we can turn to account
every country walk child takes to teach it
the facts of science, and make it proficient
in dissecting and pronouncing the Latin
names Of wild flowers in the hedgerows and
their component parts, we may train the
reason to curb the imagination, SO that q
wee philosopher trots by our side, doubling
and denying the faiths Of childhood, for
whom fairy-land has no enchantment, and
the sphere of angels and holy guardian
spirits no substance. 1t may be a proud
moment to exhibit the learning and good
sense of the child but in after life, let US
ask ourselves, what can compensate for the
missed memories of May mornings, when
lessons were forgotten and flowers were
dear, because they were pretty and seemed
to laugh, and we looked with something of
awe into their delicate faces, because the
elves lay asleep in them?
The realism and the consistency with
which child takes up an idea must always
be difficulty and help to teachers. 1t is
amusing, yet pathetic, TO note how utterly
ignored are all adverse circumstances. A
child to whom mother was describing the
beauty of heaven burst into eager entreaty
that father, mother, brothers, sisters and
| nurse should put on their hats and bonnets,
| and be off to it at once Another child who
has been deeply impressed by the mighty
power for evil, and the sufferings of Satan,
prayed with all the might and main of her
| pitiful little heart that he might be made
| good. The consistent inconsistencies of
children, the mixture of the real and unreal
in their lives are very puzzling to under
stand. We knew child who questioned
much and rejected what she did not appre-
i hend to be true, and who yet invested with
an uncanny life and intelligence a certain
rag Punch among her playthings. This
queer hump-backed figure, with a leer in
its eyes, played in her life the part of one of
| those elfin creatures in German fairy tales.
She looked upon it with mixture of awe
and tenderness; her father in her earliest
childhood had made Punch talk in gruff
voice, and she kept up the illusion, the
child obeving the most difficult requests
| thus expressed punch is not toy" the
| little girl replied in a subdued voice to any
who questioned her about him. Children
make odd blunders; for instance, in the sig
MITIGATION they attach to certain expressions
in they poetry the learn off by heart, to
to which they cling in after life and which
| they are almost sorry to rectify.
| The truthfulness of children causes them
never to forget an unjust punishment; the
troubled passionate sense that comes with
an unmerited reprimand is branded on the
honest little heart. 4 misunderstood child
hood is the cruelest period of existence in
a blind and confused fashion children have
| immense capabilities of suffering A want
| of love affects the nature of children. We
have seen sullen and apparently hardened
little ones suddenly TRANSPORTED when
brought under the influence of some person
| who guessed their nature and came at their
hearts. Who can describe the loving devo-
| ton of a misunderstood child to the one
who first gave it love Every age has a dis
tinct part to play in life; and it is because
in childhood Imagination and feeling are
the two faculties awake, that profound i'm
presslons are made upon it which become
woven into our subeeq uent existence. Nat
ural childhood finds its delights in healthy,
joyous and lovely things, and gives to them
associations that never leave US in the dull
prose of after years. It was divine touch
of the poet to carry back the thoughts OF
the wondering mind of the dying man, not
to boisterous revelry of hours spent with
boon companions, but as he plucked ct his
sheets, to s.babble of green felds.'
The South Solid Against Robbery.
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'sThe Republican party need not deceive
itself 1t win be confronted in 1880 by 3