Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/177

 off the perilous propensity, and who, without harsh measures, as if the writing a sonnet were a treason, yet succeeds in solidly founding the character upon some firmer bottom of calculable happiness. Pursuits congenial, rather than vehemently opposite to the tastes, would perhaps afford the best means for diverting the mind from its dangerous idolatry of the ideal. Nothing is more to be avoided than that a parent or teacher should declare war against a boy’s mental tastes ; or that his loved pursuits should be carried on furtively, and as having been formally interdicted. A thorough amity between teacher and pupil, animated by the daily pleasures of intellectual intercourse on open ground, is, as we have said already, the indispensable condition of Home Education.

When we come to speak in detail of the culture of the several intellectual faculties, the fittest opportunity will occur for suggesting such further hints as may seem appliable in the instance of extraordinary talents. This however seems to be the place in which to offer a word or two relative to the practical distinctions to be made between male and female education, which, as we are now supposing, may be carried on conjointly at home. And it is certain that this combination, while it must leave the two methods broadly distinguished, in many points, will approximate the two, to some extent, and especially render the culture bestowed upon the female mind altogether of a higher cast than otherwise it is likely to be, or than what is often attempted in a boarding school.

When we speak of male and female education, carried on in conjunction, under the parental auspices, it must be understood that, although there will be actual association, in many pursuits, yet that, after the period of early childhood, it will be proper, if not necessary, for the sake of both, to dissociate brothers and sisters in their more serious studies. Not to mention some reasons for such a