Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/112

 to much active sport abroad; and on the other, are intelligently conversed with, at all hours, by their teacher. Munificent grandmammas, and affluent aunts, will, spite of remonstrances, continue to be good customers at the toy-shop; but those who have actually had to do with children, are well aware of the fact that no delight is so brief as that caused by the possession of an elaborate and costly toy; in truth, the pleasure, as to its continuance, seems generally to be in inverse proportion to the sum that has been lavished upon the gift. And often, in consideration of the kind donor’s feelings, a little artifice has been used in order to make it appear that the splendid article has not become an object of indifference or disgust, the very next day after its arrival.

A crooked stick of his own findingthe handle of a broomthe gardener’s cast-off pruning knife, or a tin mug without a bottom, will be hoarded by a child, and be mused over, and converted to twenty whimsical purposes, day after day, perhaps for weeks, and certainly until after the toy which cost what would have fed a poor family as long, has been consigned to the lumber-room.

That principle of the human mind whence springs the pleasure derived by children from toys, has already been casually adverted to when speaking of the happiness of childhood; and it will demand our particular consideration in a following chapter. For the present, let it be observed that while, as we have said, and as every mother knows, this pleasure bears no proportion whatever to the costliness or high finish of a toy, neither can it, by artificial means, be made to connect itself with some appended purpose of instruction. In addition to what has just been said on this point, I must observe that the use of scientific games, and learned toys, has prevailed as part of the mistaken modern principle of early development and early proficiency. If this, that, and the other branch of knowledge must, indeed,