Year: 1873

on rainy day in the holidays, when he
! didn't know how to amuse himself, and
fell from idleness into mischief, from


mischief into defiance, and from def
ance into suIkiness; or when his mother
| absolutely refused to let him have 6


tailed coat "half, although every other


boy of his age had gone into tails


aIready? Surely if we could retail that


early bitterness, and the dim guesses,


the strangely perspectiveless conception


of life that gave the bitterness its in


tensity, we should not pooh-pooh the


griefs of our children. Childhood has


no forebodings but then, it is sOothed
by no memories of outlived sorrow.
George Eliot.


CULTIVATE HABITS OF OBSERVATION IN


CHnDREN.-The boy who leaves school


with a fixed habit of observation is
really just beginning his education. He
is passing from the tuition of imperfect
teachers to that of instructors whose
store of knowledge is boundless, and
whose methods are always the best.
There is really no more curious study
than that of mems habits IN this particu-
lar. To ordinarily observant people it
seems simply marvel that some men
and women can see so much and learn
so little. We ourselves have known,
for instance, persons of fine ability, oc-
cupying editorial positions, who could
never learn how to indicate a desired
alteration proof-sheet, and that, too,
when they were called upon to 20 indi-
cate their wishes every day prcOf-slips
on which similar alterations weremarked
already. We knew a shipping-clerk
once, who, after dealing directly with
steamboats, for years, was astonished to
learn that part of every steamboat Is
under water The tendency to this
habit of observation, together with its
consequent habits of comparison and
reflection, nature implants in every
human mind, and it is this that gives
birth to the perplexing questionings OF
all children. When it is allowed to de-
yelop itself, 1t becomes the best and
surest of all educators; but for the
most part it is rudely repressed in
early childhood by reason of the indO-
Ience of parents, and so we find it ex-
listing very feebly, if at all, in half the
people we meet. Your child wants to
know the facts about everything he
sees. and the reasons for them. He
naturally asks his father or his mother,
who to him are the repositories of all
wisdom It is not always easy to answer
him and as the average parent cares a
good deal more for his or her own com
fort than for the future character to the
child's mind, the matter is commonly
disposed of by an Injunction against
questioning, which is as great an out
rage upon the child as anything can be.
He has the right to ask questions. The
God who put it into his mind to ques-
ton you, made it your duty to answer
him to the very best of your ability.
And your ability to answer depends
largely upon your indstry in trying to
learn how. If you do not know T.
thing which he asks, and cannot tyou
out, or if it be something wB1 have
cannot make him understaaim free to
only to tell him so, leayjhat interests
ask about the next tbi repeI him with
or puzzles him. Jforbid his further
a mocking saw iniure him for life,
questioningy and quite as seriously as
quite as, him physical. hurt.-Hearth
if yqOnae.