The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-25
The COsmlc Nursery.

The C0smlc Nursery.
Everybody who has the care of O
child at about the age when 1t begins
to "a about unassisted and to appre-
hend the meaning Of human speech is
confronted by what may be termed
the Paradox Of Percentage. 1t may be
briefly defined as the necessity Of
making some one better than yourself
be good. The faith, charity and
cheerfulness Of the child are astoIlsh-
ing, and far beyond our own maturer
virtue. Yet there remains the sheer
practical need that we somehow re-
strain this cherub from upsetting
ornaments upon itself, from putting
portable objects into its mouth or
out Of the window. and from bearing
down all opposition under n tyranny
Of excruclating y0wls. To this end the
great majority Of normal people
everywhere conclude upon experience
that, after all, tradition solves the
problem best: and that the swift and
simple spank, enforcing a personal
fat without rnncor and without senti-
mentality. is beyond comparison the
most kindly and practical solution.
There are some dozen interesting
and unanswerable reasons why this
Is 80. But we are here concerned
with only one Of them: namely, that
the Law OF Spank is just because 1t
tells the child certain truth about
the world he has begun to live in.
whereas all the other admired and
fashionable systems tell him lies.
They teach the baby a scheme Of
things which, however desirable, does
not In fact exist, and whose falsity
he will inevitably find out to his own
disadvantage. You may COO and cud.
die child into obedience; but when
he outgrows your jurisdiction he dis.
covers that neither COP nor Human
ity will do any such thing; and this
discovery will not beautlfy his faith.
You may show the baby a sweet, un.
yielding logic in all things: tie up the
little meddling hand and wash the
mouth that utters naughtiness, and
all the rest of those ingenuities. But
he will very. soon observe that cause
| and effect do not operate in that way
unless you put in your arbitrary oar |;
that he can frequently transgress with
| impunlty and must often suffer in In
nOcence. And the observation that
only MOntessori and the Mlkado make
the punishment fit the crime will not
ennoble his sense of honor
Perhaps one vast organism Of caus-
alton and harmony does In truth over.
lie the universe: or 1t may be that we
and all the world are In truth held
in the hand Of great personal Love.
But they who believe either Of these
things do so upon an equally unde-
monstrable faith. For in no such form
do the actual facts envisage our lin
Tied experience. What we practically
count on is system of cause and
effect interrupted by chasms of the
unexpected and the uncomfortable a;
what we practically trust Is a provi-
dence perll0usly akin to destiny,
whose unthlnkable bountles and tor
lures come upon us with a look of
wantonness.
A now unfamiliar author has COM
pressed the matter into a single
plthy sentence: "He that breaketh a
hedge, serpent, shall bite him."
That Is the world as we have actually
to deal with it: an arbitrary rule
providing casual penalty. There is
no logical but mystical connection
between serpents and hedges. We
are not told that whose breaketh
seven hedges will be bitten seven
times as hard, nor that innocence of
hedge breaking will insure immunity
from snake bite. We are not told that
the breaker of hedges will rather be
pitied than censured and will be
gently elevated by education and en-.
vironment. We are merely shown in
n symbolic pattern how the world
looks to us, with no suggestion why 1t
Is or should be so.
That Is why the traditional Nursery
Law tells child the truth about life.
For when he grows older he will still
find himself practically In the pres
ence OF a nature of things mysterious
to fathom, simple to obey, and. so far
as he Is practically concerned, en-.