The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-11-10
NO 45
CURIOSITY.

Men, as well as some of the lower
animals, suffer from what is sometimes
fatal curiosity. Hunters of wild ami
mails have various devices by which
they excite the curiosity ofdeer, ducks
and other game and lure them to
death. Hunters of men act precisely
| the same principle, and the human
animal does not differ greatly from the
innocent moose, who. seeing something
out of the ordinary approaches to learn
what it is. The long suffering of the
human race is attributed to curiosity,
and it has been the fruitful cause of
sin and suffering for centuries. Well
directed curiosity leads, on the other
hand, to an increase of useful know
ledge. The desire to investigate the
forces of nature leads to discovery and
invention; curiosity on the part of chill
dren promotes the acquisition of know
ledge; but curiosity to be beneficial
must be directed to proper channels.
Curiosity respecting forbidden things,
such as vice, is extremely dangerous.
One may begin his researches with the
purest and best of motives, but vice,
familiar grown, becomes tolerable, and
may in the end master the curious in
vestigator. Passion may get the bet
ter of reason under strong tempta-
tion, and one who thought to view vice
from the outside is inspired by his
passions to seek an experience that
can be gained only by personal indul-
gence. For this reason, among others,
it has been found desirable to forestall
curiosity in the young by teaching
them all that they should know about
the weaknesses Of humanity instead Of
leaving them to gain such knowledge
by themselves. The doctrine of heredity
has suffered by conspicuous exceptions
to its rules, mainly because the effects of
curiosity, or its absence, have not been
taken into account. The child of
strictly yirtuous and respectable par
ents goes astray sometimes because of
unsatisfied curiosity. knowledge is
withheld from him that ought to have
been impaired and he falls, while seek
ing it, unguided. On the other hand,
the child of vicious parents may reject
their example. The outer world has
nothing to teach him in the way of
vice. He learns at an early age all
that can be taught, and hence does not
become the victim of an unhealthy
curiosity. He may not be virtuous
and respectable from high motives,
but because he has noted in time the
evil effects of vice. and is not to be al
lured by its false promises. Recog-
nizing the potential force of curiosity
tor good or evil, it is important that
the curiosity of children should be, in
a measure, satisfied and directed into
the right channels. Children, as a
rule, are OF an inquiring turn of mind,
and, except in rare instances, have plas-
tic minds. They can be interested in
studies and researches that will be
beneficial to them just as easily as they
can be interested in forms of vicious
entertainment. The important thing
to do is give proper direction to their
activities, and this should be done at
very early age. Ordinarily parents
do not give much thought to the fu-
ture of their children until the latter
have attained the age of IA or Is years,
yet, before this age, the children's ha-
bits of thought may have been formed.
One is book worm, another is inter-
ested in sports, still another is an idler,
easily led away by bad associates. 1t
is an easy matter to keep the good
boy in the right path, but it is exceed
ingly difficult to reform the one who
has gone wrong. Curiosity guides
them all, but in very different direc-
tions, and the aim OF parents and
guardians should be to arouse in the
very young a curiosity respecting
good or, at least, harmless things, to
the exclusion of curiosity about the
things which are vicious in their infiu.
ences. Thus may curiosity of child.
hood, so pernicious at times when left
unguided, returned into proper chan
nels and made healthful to them