Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-05-11
Youthful PrOdlgles.

There is curious fact in the boylsh CHAR
acter (an English writer rcmarks) which
seems, at first sight, 10 make good the opin-
ion that private education, at home, is the
true method. Before they go out into school
life, many little fellows of nine or so arc cx-
tremely original, imaginative and almost
poeical. They are fond of books, fond of
nature, and. if you win their confidence, will
tell you all sorts of pretty thoughts and fan
cies which lie about them in their infancy.
have known little boy who liked TO lie on
the grass and to people The alleys and glades
of that miniature forest with fairies and
dwarfs, whom he seemed actually to see In
kind of vision. But he went to school, he
instantly won the hundred yards race for
boys under twelve, and he came back young
barbarian, interested in 1.-THE theory OF
touch" Iat footbalD, curious in the art OF
bowling, and no more capable than You or
of seeing fairies in green meadow. lie
was caught up into the air OF the boys world
and his Imagination was in allegiance for
season.
This is common enough thing, and ralh-
er melancholy spectacle TO behold. One is
tempted TO believe that school causes the loss
of good deal of genius, and that the small
boys who leave home poets and come back
barbarans, have been wasted. But, on the
other hand, If they had been kept at home
and encouraged, the chances are that they
would have blossomed into infant plcno
mena and nothing better. The awful in
faacy Of Mr.. John Stewart Mill is standing
warning. Mr.. Mill would probably have
been u much happier and wiser man if he
Ii ad not been Il prccocious linguist, econo-
mist, and philosopher, but had passed
through healthy stage of iud fference 10
learning and speculation at a public school.
Look again, at the childhood of Bishop
Thir!wall. His "Prlmitie" were published
(by Samuel Upper, London, lSOS), when
young Connop was but eleven years of aye.
| Ills indiscreet father ''launchcd this
| slender bark" as he says, and ii
sailed through three editions between
1908 aud 1909. Young Thirlwall was
taught Latin at three years of age, sand
at four read Greek with an ease and
ilucncy which astonishcd all who heard him. n
AT seven he composed an essay "On the In
certainty of Human Life" but "hls taste fol
poetry was not discovered till later period.
His sermons, some forty, occupy most of tue
little volume in which these "Primitin" wcrC
collected. lie was especially concerned ab1u
Sabbath desecratiOn. 81 confess" observes
this sage Of ten, when look upon the pres
ent and past state OF our public morals, an,
when / contrast our present luxury, dlssipa
iion and dcpravity with past frugalily ant
virtue, | feel not merely a sensation of re
grct, but also of terror, for the result of tn
change The late revolution in France,
Inc a0d', ''has afforded lis a remarkable les
son how necessary religion is to "a State an,
that from deficiency on that head arise tn
chief evils which can befal society," lie the
bids us remember that the Nebuchadnczza
who may destroy our lsreel is near at hand
though it might be difficult 10 show hoy
Nebuchadnezzer destroyed Israel. AS /
the uncertainty of life, he remarks that "Ed
ward VI. died in his minority, and disap
pointed his subjects, to whom he had prom
iscd Il happy reign" OF this infants thirty
nine sermons Gust as many as the Articles
it may be said that they are III no way inic
q riOr to other examples of this class of literl
: ture. But sermons are among the lea:
t scarce" and rare of human essays, an
c many parents would rather have their bo
q patiently acquiring The art of wickct-k, epiD
/ at school than moralizing on the unctrtai Mt
C OF life at home Some one "having prcsen
j. ed to the young author II copy of verses q
s tue ,rite and familiar subject If the Piougl
boy he replied with an ode on ''thc Po
c boy"
Bliss is not always join'd TO wealth.
Nor dwes beneath the gilded roof
a For poverty is bliss W tn health,
or that my potooy stands proof
=, The volume ends with this determination
10 stin shall seek Apollos shstring ray,
n, To cheer my spirits and inspire my lay.