Year: 1869


andalso, unfortunately, puzzles grown
up people rs the intelligence of chill
dren. 1t is a matter of wonder that
where there aresO many clever youths
there should be such q number of stu
pid men and women. The promise
of childhood is but rarely kept in ad-
vanced life. If the human intelli-
gence should make a progress in later
years in proportion to its earlier de-
velOpment, it would reach a degree of
advancement far beyond the present
average.


One of the main checks to intellec-
tual progress is the inability or disin-
clinatiOn of grown-up people to ans
wer the questions of children. Ma
ture has endowed the human being
with an inquiring spirit, for the evil
dent purpose of promoting the ad-
vancement of knowledge. The child
gives proof as soon rs it has learned
to speak OF its human instinct for in
formation by its frequent questions.
These should be answered, and not
quashed, as they are generally, for a
fOrbidding glance and the Tebuke,
Children should not be inquiSitive. :"
The effect of thus habitually OppOs-
ing this natural curiosity is finally to
eXtinguish it altogether, and thus
put an end both to the desire and
means of knowledge.


Parents and older people generally
have no other motive for checking
what they term the inquisitiveness of
children than their own ignorance,
although, rather than acknowledge
this, they pretend that their object is
to inculcate a lesson of manners. The
old Oxford Don was more honest: "a
child cometh up to one nowadays"
he said, land asks the diameter of the
moon. Now don't know what is the
diameter OF the moon, and | don't
like TO be asked such questions" The
old Don, however, if he had been
rs amiable as he was honest, might
have taken the trouble to find out the
diameter of the moon and conveyed
the information, to his youthful inqui
Ters. There are good many Others
beside the OXOnian who, if they were
honest, would confess to an ignOr-
ance of the diameter of the moon,
and acknowledge that they have no
better reason for their complaint of
children's questions than their ina
bility to answer them.


1t is a matter, however, of great i'm
portance to the proper education of
children that their early inquisitive-
ness should not be rudely checked
Most parents, unfortunately, are too
ignorant to answer the questions of
their little ones but this, instead of
being a motive for sitting inquiry,
should be considered as the best of all
reasons for encouragingit it. There are
nowadays means accessible to most
grOwn-up people of easily acquiring
the information they may desire, and
it is their duty TO do so, if not for
their own, for the sake of those young
people intrusted to their charge
Every household should be supplied
with certain books of reference, such
as encyclopedias, dictionaries, and
the various summaries of science, lite
nature and art, so that as soon as
question arises it may be solved by
turning to their pages. There is u
far less chance of losing the reverence
of child by frank confession of ig-
norance than by pretense of knOwl-
edge which the youngest will soon
detect, while there is certainty of
securing his love and gratitude by
aiding him in the effort to satisfy his
instinct for knowledge. As we want
intelligent men, let us do our utmost
to satisfy and encourage the curiosity
of JngUisitiUe ChildreR.-HdTpeT's
B0zar.