Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/76

 want of feeling, if not of intelligence, where the preservation of order among seven or ten children, demands as much mechanism as is requisite in a school of a hundred. Let there be, as mere matter of convenience, the ringing of the bell at certain times; but the bell should not sound in the ears of children as a tocsin of dismay. The minute hand of the clock may be referred to, for guidance; but it should not, in the eyes of children, be invested with terrors, as if it were old Time's iron sceptre.

In the preceding chapter, I stated my belief, that the happy development of the higher intellectual faculties depends, in a very intimate manner, upon the joyousness of early life; and in this, we have spoken of family affection, and of the order thence resulting, as the means of family happiness; but if it would not lead us too far, something might be advanced concerning the influence of kindly affections upon the intellectual powers, in preserving their equipoise or symmetry. Let it however be observed, in passing, that, as the moral elements of our nature, upon the sound condition of which happiness or misery turns, are, or ought to be, paramount, so do they, when in a healthy state, impart an equable activity to the rational faculties. The affections have a reciprocity with the reason, and with the imagination, which, indeed, is often severed by unfavourable influences, but which, if cherished in early life, may always be enhanced.

Although we cannot command these rudiments of intellectual power which are the gift of nature, yet more than a little may be done, whatever be the rate of excellence originally put into our hands, in securing a vigorous development of the faculties—first, by merely promoting happiness; and then, more specifically, by cherishing the moral sentiments. It is these that keep the mind in a plastic, soluble state, so as to facilitate the process of culture: it is these that prevent such a fixedness and distor-