The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-13
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER,

BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER. (Copyright, 1906, by Joseph B. Bowles'J Fond parents, as everybody knows, are much in the habit of imagining that
 their children are cleverer ana orisnses ,s than ever children were since the world
 began. Other people may find the chil-
 dren tiresome and disagreeable, but In
 the eyes of the doting parents they are
 without a peer, and their sayings anu
 doings are related with infinite relish
 whenever anybody can be founo Wno
 has leisure and patience to listen
 Precocious children fortunately Tor
 themselves, and for the race, are the
 execution rather than the rule. nor
 nal child, healthya and sturdytis seldom precocfous. Of course, there are on re- cord notable instances of children who manifested remarkable traits and ex- traordinary intelligence at very carry age, and some of them did not peiie their infant promise.
 Lord Macauley is case Tn point. When he was somewhere near the mile
 stone of his 4th birthday. ne read ln- cessantly, and lying on the hearth rug at full length, with face intent on hook. he heard little that was going on around him. On one occasion nav ing the misfortune to be badly purneo' this unchild-like child remarked 10 sympathizing friend, that the agony
 was extreme. Yet Macauley grew up ! to be not merely an eminent historian and man of letters, but man or uni yersal knowledge, of profound puplic spirit. and of notable loyalty to kith and kin. Though prig Tn cnilohooo' he was not a pedant in maturity.
 Of Robert Murray McCheyne, Ia nous Scotch clergyman. 1t Is graveiy set down by his biographer that he had mastered the Greek alphabet at the age of & I myself have friend, woman of brilliant powers and varied scholar ship, who was taught to read Heorew | by a very learned father before she was allowed to learn English, so that as a little thing of she reao the Hebrew Scriptures, while she did not vet know the English alphabet. Her early precocity did her no harm'
 Generally speaking, considering tne | importance of a sound mind In souno | body, it is not worth while 10 push
 children forward intellectually at the
 possible expense of future h@altn ano vigor The brain If unfairly treated | may develop so rapidly that It's power | of assimilation will be early exhausted { and the wonderfully brilliant chile
 become in later life mediocre, dull ano | commonplace. The boy and giri "n' | make a clean sweep of all the prlzes IT l sight during school days, are often neV'
 CT heard of again. Some of our mos, | conspicuous statesmen, authors anC | commanders, on sea and land. made nc | show whatever during the days or then | training, and were graduated In tnt l lowest ranks of their class.
 | A besetting sin of American parents | is an almost insane ambition in oe' half of children and desire tc Pusn | the children as fast as they can out oi childtoods quiet round into the tur7 moil of the arena. Little people are hurried from the cradle to the kinder garten. from the Kindergarten to the primary. and so on through me several grades and frequently to the disaa- vantage of the children. heard the
 other day of a young doctor who ma
 triculated at the medical schooi When he was just 16. an age at which ho youth is fit to undertake the serious study of medicine and indeed. at whicn few boys are sufficiently matureo to
 enter college.
 l We are in frantic haste Go get oui boys and girls where they may eithei
 earn their own livelihood or In some way compete with others who are oreaa'
 winners in the crowded market-places | of the land.
 A precocious child is very likely tC hear SO much about his talents ana hls attainments that he will look doWI
 condescendingly on the neighpor wn' WI,
 Is not nearly so far advanced ana stlA
 has a pronounced liking for marpIcs ] kites. balls and robust games. A no'