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174 A LONELY CHILDHOOD,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Wan Causes T Of Of Unkindne Sympathy Ss ...
though , the very fact of our loving them implies a wish to avoid doing them harm in any wayyet do we not continually find
that the entertaining of true affection , is by no means inconsistent with the causing- of much needless suffering to its object
from mere ignorance of what would or would not produce such , an effect ? This is sometimes apparent in other relations of life ,
but in none nearly so much so as in that of parents and childrenunquestionably on account of its being" so difficult for the
, mature to sympathize with the young * , and the consequent absence of that " fellow feeling " which makes so " wondrous
kind . " As , turning from the mirror , the beholder straightway ; forgets what manner of man he was" so the wayfarer on life ' s
, journey , as he passes from one stag * e to another , retains often but little recollection of the precedingand especially of the
earliest ones ; or , at least , however the , facts may remain impressed upon his memory , the feelings become almost as
though they had never been , because , being often such as are no longer called into actionthe power of even forming a
conception of them gradually , decays . Thus , a mother may remember very accurately , not only what-persons she met in
childhood , but how much pleasure she derived from the society of those of them to whom she was attachedbecause she
continually feels a similar pleasure now in the , company of her present friends ; but it is doubtful whether she will recall , with
anything like equal vividness , the agonies of shyness experienced among strangers , any such feelings having long ceased to be
called forth ; and therefore , however considerate in affording her _ohild the former kind of enjoymentis very likely to take little
thought as to sparing her the latter , kind of suffering . But if , when all that is needed is that seniors should remember how
they felt when they were young * , and act accordingly towards the young , it is so rarely found that thorough sympathy is
established , how is the difficulty increased when , as is not unfrequently the casethe circumstances of the parents in their
early days have been , different in _imjDortant particulars from those in which their children are placed ? How then shall they
learn to enter into their feelings , and qualify themselves to promote their happinessas it only can be promoted by those
who understand them?— , for children , while children , rarely tell much of what they feel _; they do not publish autobiographies
or diaries , however they may write them , ( for children often scribble in secret much more than is suspected , ) while it is
commonly only those who attain eminence who in after life ive the experiences of their childhood to the worldand these
g are hardly accepted as having * been at any age fair , specimens of ordinary humanity . Would it not then be of some service if
any who retain a vivid impression of the thoughts and feelings
174 A Lonely Childhood,
174 A LONELY CHILDHOOD ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 2, 1864, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02051864/page/30/
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