Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-02-07


strained to follow; who deics Mary in the
nursery aud disobeys mamma in the drawing
room; who worries Rachel in the kitchen
and Joe in the garden: the FibblrtiHbbct
who is never still the nursery brigand who
Is in perpetual outlawry; the captive enemy
in continual punishment aud frequently in
prison He is the despair Of his nurse. and
unless he is the eldest or the yOungcst-the
least loved by his mother. Perhaps his father
las special tenderness for him, which, how
ever, lac is not allowed to show; kind of
secret sympathy Of Sex which is masked
by frowns and rcbuk,s in public. and ox-
pressed by sly carcss behind bucks but,
save in the cases where he is exceptionally
handsome and exceptionally caressug, the
women of the family shake their heads over
him doubtfully and look forward to the time
v.hcn he shall be sent to school or shipped of
to sea- as to blessed release from trouble
and anXiety-which else, they say fretfully,
would be the death of them.
According to the social degree of his birth
are the prophecies made on his future but
all point to thy same thing-failure. If he is
of high condition, with duties, but scant OBJ
legations, hc is told that he will be sure to
disgrace his name and state il Of the middle
class, which must work for its living, and
where regulations are to be made by eXerton,
that he viii never do anything good for him
self, and never be other than failure if he
i, OF the working class proper, he is constant
ly reminded of the gallows, aud told that he
will end his days there rs sure as eggs is eggs
and triile surer, says his acute old grand
mother, seeing as some eggs is chicks. No
one forecasts good for him: no one looks
forward TO the possibility of his present un-
comfortable energies turning to noble uses
when the days of his troublesome childhood
shall have passed and the wider scope of his
youth, the more reasonable purposes of his
manhood have begun. Because he is trouble
some now, it is assumed that lie will be infa-
nous hereafter: because his activities disturb
the smooth order of things i'll the nursery,
they are sure to be destructive of good con
duct in the world. The causes Of things are
just the last of all studied or considered 10y
the average guiders and guardians Of youth
and the results on adult convenience, adult
arrangements are made Of supreme impor-
tance throughout Thus, destruction of prop
crty in almost all families counts for greater
offence than a moral fault and a child had
bctter-so far as the severity of his punish
ment goes-tell mean and spiteful lie or
commit a dishonor than break large square Of
plate glass or tear an expensive suit of clothes
But the disOhedience to standing ord, r. about
not playing at ball too near the drawing-room
windows, and the thoughtlt ssness concerning
the climbing Of trees when in that purple
velvet suit of best, were nothing in the list
of moral sins compared to the spitefulness of
the lie or the baseness of the dishOnOr, which
are the beginnings Of all evil.
But we can never come to the Just iudg-
ment of anything, or 20 the real knowledge
of how best to combat and reform, until We
have fatLomod and thoroughly understood
the causes. For instance, this troublesome
one Of the family-how much Of all that is
tttR . rl.nat ttHt IN rfff
from qualities of priceless value in them
selves and the sources Of a mans future sue
cess in life? He is troublesome and impetu-
ous always getting into danger, aud as often
into scrapes, because he is energetic and un-
employed. Marx unemployed; which does
not mean driven to irksome tasks, crushed
and compelled to dry and wearisome duties
but because those who have the management
of him do not give themselves the trouble to
tnd for him work that would be good in it.
self, and which pleasing amusing, and inter
estiug him, would utilize faculties which now
turn only to his own discontinue and to every
other persons dispeasurr. He is restlo less
can never sit still-ncvcr occupy himself like
his quiet little sister Polly; or his pale and
fragile brother Tommy, because he is full of
health and strength and the law Of healthy
childhood, by which it grows best, is perpet-
unl movement, rs may he seen by lambs and
foals, kittens and puppies, and all other young
things Whatsoever the human animal follow
ing the general rule with the rest He is disc
bediont partly from thoughtlessness and part
ly because Of the almost automatic efforts af-
ter s,lf-asserto impulse to measure his
strength against the strength of others-which
belongs to his age as much as quarrelsome-
ness, and the impulse to struggle, TO fight, to
wrestle to prove who is the stronger, himself
or his brother, himself or his friend and play
fellow. And though this impulse to struggle
for physical supremacy which Is the same
spirit mnuifcs,ing itself in muscle instead of
will-has to be checked and brought under
the laws of civility and charity, good breed
ing aud pracefulncss of life. yet We must new
er forget that it forms one of the fundamen-
tai impulses of human nature, and that its
existence is necessary if We would not be
slaves and cowardS-the creatures of n strong
mans will rather than the independent asser-
tors of our own manhood II is of no use to
flog such n lad as this into obedience. He
may be corrcrd for the moment or his spirit
may be broken cifrctually for all time; but
in the first case he is sure to ue hardened and
made reckless, and bad ip the secondhand is
the quiet ordering of a nursery the avoidance
of parental trouble, worth buying be the de-
structon of one of the finest energies Of n
mans nature For parents ought nCv"r to
forget that childhood is only stepping stone,
it is of more importance as the way by which
we step to manhood and wcmanhood than
for what it is in itself and to destroy the fu-
turr good because its present seeds are ugly
and its present manifestations disagreeable,
is as short sighted as il is selfish, hurtful to
the race as it is tyrannouS and cruel to the in
diyidual. The only rational method of meet
ing dsobedience is to reason il out with the
child fairly and honestly; to explain why, to
show cause and prove the results; thus On
listing on the side Of authority aud good
sense the various energies of the young
mind among which count a convinced intel
ligencc and grntifed pride in trust shown and
confidence expressed.
The troublesome one OF the family has Of
ten certain genius for telling grtuitous un-
truths, which again is source of infinite dis
tress to the parents, but which has its par
donaLle side for very often this impulse to
tell untruths- what we may call fancy lies
springs from nothing more hcinous than
Imagination, which with some children Of
strong powers is rs true as reality. 1t is use
less to tell such an one that it is sinful to say
that he met an old woman in n red cloak near
the pond, when he did not. Far beyond the
unrehectng age of which we are speaking,
the Imagination of young people makes them,
if not wholly invent, yet eXagg6 rate to an
amonnt which is practically invention. His
cloak standing near the pond, and he gives
fancy for fact. But he has no intention to
practice fraud any more than Nine. d Aul-
noy or the authors of the arabian Nights
had when they wrote about their fairy prin-
ccssos and the genii who came out of pots
like smoke aud turned men into fish that fire
would not burn. What the parents have to
do is to lead his mind logically back on itself
and make him SEE clearly that he had imag-
ined only, not related what he saw; and that
it is silly to tell out fancy as if it were a
fact. But to talk of the moral guilt of lying
in connection with falsehoods of this kind is
to talk as unwiscly on the thing as ineific-
iently for the future prevention thereof
and if the corrections" of education do
not include the prevention and emdca-
ton of the fault they are not Of much
value in themselves. They become in
their essence revenge; and We do not
think that any one will advocate this as
r. 10