VOL. I. THE MICROCOSM. AUGUST, 1835. No. 11. PARENTS SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN ALL THAT INTERESTS THEIR CHILDREN. THOSE parents involve a great error in their system, who begin by withholding sympathy and interest from their children in their joys and sorrows, their sports and labors. We all need sympathy-and when children do not find it in their parents, they will be driven to seek it from other sources :— from companions and friends, whose influence and sympathies are in danger of being employed to mislead and corrupt. Some parents, who are 'careful and troubled about many things,' make their attention to the severer domestic duties, an excuse for neglecting those gentle and soothing influences which shed peace and joy around the household hearth. When the little child comes for assistance in its innocent play, or with some story to be explained or perplexity to be unraveled, it receives perhaps the cold and repulsive answer, "go-away!-I am too busy now to be troubled with such nonsense." Five minute's attention, with a mother's gentle voice and cheering smile, would have sent it back with a bounding heart-its little difficulties all settled or its joys complete. Habits of severity and fretfulness are probably often indulged in unconsciously; and may arise from the very diligence and carefulness of a provident parent, impressed with a sense of the value of time, and the importance of domestic duties. Still they have an injurious effect upon the characters of children, in whose minds aversion and prejudice are created toward those necessary duties of life, which are thus inevitably associated with harshness and constraint. We have known parents who appeared to take no personal interest in the employments of their children-either of duty or of pleasure--but would appoint masters to superintend the one, and evince no sympathy in the other. Again other parents, after imposing severe duties and irksome tasks upon their children, will frown upon their moments of relaxation and enjoyment. Their play is embittered by reproof and marked disapprobation. At such times they are always reminded of the wickedness of mis-spent time-and the hight of their hilarity is checked by being told how much better it would be for them to be at their studies or their work. Children need play as well as study-it is befitting their age and temperament-and when the time is duly apportioned between study, labor, and play, we would like to see parents show as much interest in the sports of their children, as they do in their studies or their work. The whole course may thus be made delightful and consistent. We would not advocate the real waste of time-" that precious material which life is made of." Children should have and know their hours of duty as well as their hours of diversion; but we would see them play as heartily when they play, as we would have them faithful when they study. Children cannot be expected to share fully in the cares and labors of their parents. The early years of life are wisely and mercifully exempt, that vigor and strength may be gathering for future use. Care will come full soon enough, with its iron fetter—and when too early pressed it breaks down the life and the spirits. Here again, some parents err from over-tenderness to their children;-letting them run to waste in listless inactivity-carefully blinding their eyes to every hardship and trial of life, while they themselves carry cheerfully a treble portion, to save their children from the dutiful participation which is wholesome and invigorating. This is mistaken kindness -for when the old column totters and falls under its sole burden, the weight coming suddenly and unexpectedly upon the delicate sapling is liable to crush or break it down at once; when by gradually adapting the burden to the growing strength of its future supporter, it will be borne not only without injury, but under a conviction of its fitness, and agreement with the end for which it was reared with so much care. For the Microcosm. INFLUENCE OF DOMESTIC EDUCATION IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER. To an attentive observer of human nature, there is nothing, perhaps, so striking as the diversity of character in the individuals by whom he is sur rounded. He sees one eagerly desirous of becoming distinguished for knowledge, pressing onward in the path of learning-while another is content to remain in the lowest depths of ignorance, and to live unnoticed and unknown. One actuated by a noble spirit of love to his country, willingly devotes his life and fortune to her service-while another, seeking only selfish gratification, betrays that country for gold. Some devote themselves entirely to the benevolent object of relieving the necessities of the suffering and the poor-while others, regardless of the welfare of their fellow creatures, look with cold indifference upon their wants, and make no exertions to alleviate them. It is interesting to trace this diversity of character to its origin, and to inquire into the causes which produce it. Such an investigation will show, that in almost every instance, this difference is owing to the circumstances in which men were early placed, to the precepts which swayed the opening mind, to the intellectual, moral and physical training of the child. The Newtons and the Franklins, the Wilberforces and the Howards, the Washingtons and the Bonapartes, all underwent a rigid process of early domestic training. While yet in their infancy, in the circle of domestic influence, some passion was formed, aroused or cherished, some principle implanted, or some secret springs of action were touched, which directed the Influence of Domestic Education, &c. 163 whole strength of the after man, in the paths which lead to greatness. So frequently does fact confirm this observation, that many distinguished authors have ascribed to education all the varieties of human character. But perhaps so broad an assertion as this, may be considered as unwarranted. We may however affirm, without fear of error, that there is nothing which operates so strongly in the formation and development of character, as the bias which it receives while yet in the infancy of its powers. The youthful mind is in a wonderful degree susceptible to impressions, and the influence of early associations, and the force of habits formed in childhood cannot entirely be dissipated, even in a life of varied incidents and of protracted duration. Who can tell how many of the gifted, the wise and the good, owe their greatness to the principles instilled into their minds in the domestic circle? In that family group, collected around the rustic hearth, reciting the oftrepeated tales of "ghost and goblin grim," or of dark times of war and bloodshed, there sits a boy, listening with eager eye and parted lips. I fancy him some youthful Shakespeare, imbibing the elements of his future character. Here is a family circle where the virtuous parents are instructing a son in the beauty of honest and upright conduct, and instilling into his breast, by precept and example, the pure principles of patriotism. I fancy him a future Washington, destined as his country's deliverer to receive a nation's gratitude, and still more as a perfect statesman and upright man, to receive the homage of a world. On the other hand, how many there have been who might have risen to eminence, and become distinguished among the great men of the earth, had not the germs of their greatness been crushed by the injudicious management of their parents, or had not those early sprouts of a vigorous intellect, which might have flourished in beauty and fertility, been turned aside from their upright growth, by the corrupting influence of evil example in those whose duty it was to "train them up in the way they should go." The impression formed upon the youthful mind by early domestic associations, and by parental example, is indeed deep and permanent. Whose dispositions do we find most refined and elevated,-who are kinder and more benevolent in their intercourse with their fellow beings, than those who have been under the mild and chastening influence of a well regulated domestic life? Under the genial rays of happy parental example, the seeds of virtue take root, spring up and flourish, and the youth goes forth into the world, armed against its temptations and seductive allurements, prepared to breast its storms, and to co-operate with the good and enlightened of his race. Domestic intercourse tends directly to elevate and refine the character. Home is the place where all those kind and benevolent feelings are fostered, which tend so greatly to advance a person's comfort and happiness through all after life. Here are nourished, and called into action, all those virtuous emotions of the heart, which during the hurry and bustle of business, are so apt to be neglected. Here we learn to estimate the true value of friends, from a comparison of their worth with that of those by whom abroad in the world, we are surrounded. There, how numerous the instances of faithlessness and inconstancy; how often do we see deceit masked under the guise of friendship; how often do those whom we thought to be our truest friends, fail us in the hour of need, or even prove to be our enemies. Wealth may have her admirers-affluence her parasites, and these, in the hollow ceremo nial language of worldly fashion, may be called friends; but let the billows of misfortune sweep away our treasures-let disaster open a way for these friends to prove the sincerity of their attachment-adversity has made them strangers. But at home, in whatever circumstances a person may be placed, he will find those who will love and respect him. Is he in prosperity?— they will share with him all his comforts. Do the dark clouds of adversity gather around him?—they will sympathize with, and console him in his misfortunes. Has his character been calumniated, or his motives misrepresented by his enemies?-from the frowns of the world he may turn to the peaceful quiet of the domestic circle, where he will find those whom no prejudice can blind to his real character, and he may bid defiance to the scorn and neglect of an unfeeling world, secure of the friendship of those whom he loves. In contemplating the effects of domestic education on the enjoyments of private life, well may we exclaim with the poet, "Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the fall!" Such being the nature of home, and such the friends there to be met with, how can it fail to arouse and cherish all those feelings which tend to make man a happier and more social being. But its benefits are not confined to individuals. Its influence, when widely extended, stamps its impress upon national character. Our Country—the object of our anxious solicitude—will assume a rank respectable and useful, in proportion to the culture and intelligence of its citizens. When light and knowledge shall pervade the land, and christianity, science and literature, distinguish us as a people,―then indeed may we point exultingly to the home of our nativity, and justly style it "A land, of every land, the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside; A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, In every clime the magnet of his soul, Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole : In an intellectual point of view, a home education affords some very superior advantages. Where else is there so good an opportunity afforded for discovering inborn genius, awakening the dormant intellect, and calling every faculty into life? If the proper training is not applied then, it may af terwards be applied in vain; and who can say, that many a genius which might have dawned in light upon the world, has not been obscured, and lost, for want of this early culture. Nor is its influence less striking upon the moral and religious character. Parental instruction and example produce a powerful impression upon the mind. Precepts from the lips of a pious and virtuous mother, sink deeper, and affect more forcibly the heart, than if issuing with all the thunders of his eloquence, from the mouth of a Tully or Demosthenes. The impression thus formed is not easily effaced. It continues to influence the conduct through all after life; and though for a time it may remain latent-though for a time it may be obscured by a course of vice and profligacy, yet it will eventually burst forth into a pure and steady light, and exercise its benign influence upon the character. How unhappy the condition of those, who in early life, have been deprived by the hand of death of the instruction and example of pious parents. For them there is no guardian eye to watch over their future conduct, no protecting hand to shield them from the allurements of vice, and to lead them on in the paths of virtue, but they are thrown on the bosom of a cold and unfeeling world, unprepared to breast its storms, and to resist its temptations. In the retirement of home, separated from the follies and vices of the world, the mind acquires a taste for those pure and noble pleasures which spring from moral sources. Here, in the enjoyment of the greatest of all earthly blessings, that of sincere and devoted friends, every virtuous mind must be raised in gratitude to that Being, from whom this and every favor is derived. Yes, there is something in the character and circumstances of a virtuous home, aside from parental instruction, which tends to produce in the mind the most elevated and refined emotions,-the purest and holiest feelings, and which raise it to the contemplation of a better and a happier home in a world beyond the skies. For the Microcosm. ERINNA. In "the book of the Graces," is a picture of the Greek poet Erinna, accompanied by some lines by Miss Landon. Wilf you permit one, who has passed the hey day of life, to offer to the readers of the Microcosm some few desultory thoughts on this "Cynosure of neighboring eyes;" though not precisely in the strain of L. E. L., or very intimately connected with the pleasures and duties of a part only of our sex, the wife and the mother. BEATRICE. A WANDERING raylet from the sun, Had lost his father's image bright, Erinna's soul, untamed by sleep, Poured to the star her vestal vow; While thoughts, for mortal ken too deep, Paled her bright cheek, and blanched her brow "Hail to thee, lost one! Hail to thee, Bright child of beauty, be to me Ever the same untwinkling beam. |