Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1890-10-09
THE CHILD.
BY COLONEL FRANCIS W. PARKER.

''The babe by its mother lies bathed In Joy,
| Glide the hours uncounted,
| The sun is its toy,
Shines the peace Of all being,
Without cloud in its eyes,
And the sun of the world
In soft miniature lies.n
SO sang the greatest of American
philosophers. He makes the child and
the study of the child the central oues-
ton of the universe. The glory that
shines adown the ages from the man
ger at Both the light that
shines in the cnild's soul. What is
the child? can not answer the ques-
tion, or can answer it only tentatively
| have come to you as one who has liv-
ed with children (thank God) for thirty
five years, and tried with many blum
der and foolish notion to lead them in
to the way OF lifo. What is the childp
Don't be startled when 1 say the child
is born savage. | think, as time
rolls on, we shall appreciate more and
more the savage, and how necessary
the savage life has been. The child is
savage in its instincts. Whoever
knew boy (and perhaps girD who
did not love to dig in the carte; whose
| childish idea was not to dig cave in
some bank and there live? l remem-
Der the cave where one little boy defed
the whole world and all the savages.
Or to buid Il tent or wigam live in it,
The children's stories of Esquimaux or
indians are the stories that delight
them; they havea profound sympathy
with the stories OF savage life, bows
and arrows and ali the implements of
savage life.
THE CHILD's LOVE OF MYTHS.
| But the child comes nearer the saw
age in his love for myths and fairy
! stories. What is the myth? The she'll.
the beautiful shell that has brough
truth to us adown the ages. Without
the myth we should have very little of
the past. The savage looked down to
the errth and the earth said :--s.What
am I?' and the poor savage with his
| untutored mind reylied: Thou at
God" and worshiped it. And he look
ed up at the sun. and the sun said:
What AIN P' and the savage bowed
reverently and said: Thou art God"
And step by step this mind that asketh.
ever asketh, receives ans wers like unto
the life that asks. Thou art u spirit
like the spirit which thou comprehen-
deth." The child has thi. spirit of in
| quiry; the stars are the nail holes in
the floor of heaven; tho doll is fetch
to tho child. A stick or a bundle of
rags is lovod by the child; is sick or
we'll, is dressed and undressed and put
to bed, and the child talks to it and
loves it as it loves its fife. That is a
fetch. Would you rob the child OF its
fetich? Would you tell it, THAT is
not true, little girl. That is only Il
bundle OF rags"9 Thank God, no phi
losophy has ever entered mothers
heart so terrible as that. The little
child creates world for itself, in which
It lives and moves and has Its being.
| Ahe You remember the few bits of bro
ken plates and a shingle or two where
you received company, fed them, talk
ed to them, dismissed and sent them
1
home. Your mind peoyled the whole
i air with fairy forms. THAT was not
true.' says the Pu 'itan 1t was true
1t was truth coming to that child in the
way God intended truth to come. What
is the myth? Whit is this fancye
Let ma tell you, because there are some
with an honest but mistaken motive
who would cut it off from the child's
| life that fancy which comes in the
myth, aud the story told by the cradle.
| Do you remember those your mother
used to tell? That growth of fancy is
the growth of spiritual life Confine
the child to the stern world of fact, and
he becomes very stern fact He must
live in the world beyond; he must
have faith in the spiritual life.
CHILDREN LOVE NATURE.
The child is born naturalist.
There Is not child alive who does not
love nature. 1t is a goodsplan for us
to go back to our early childhood and
see what we loved. When l was
supervisor OF tae school OF Boston l
was one day passing down dirty
alley, and in darkss alley on door
step was a child. looked again and
there shone through tho dirt on the
face of that little being divine smile.
:, 1t was the smile we ssolwhen the soul
is filled with some sweet truth; so
said: What Is the cause?' and up
trudssA to the little child. and there
1t heldsin its hand, as proudly as king
would hold scepter, little clover
blossoms Tell mo not that there ever