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    Amusement is modified occupation , therefore , though the present paper be in substance a continuation of my Tasty I adopt a new name as more appropriate to this branch of my subject . The tasked or overtasked adult demands amusement —some light , pleasant , easy relaxation , in which the mind may find repose as well as relief ; while the desultpry child , with

    all his fresh faculties untouched or untired , requires employment , and can literally find pleasure in anything which is at all calculated to interest his feelings or reach his understanding . It has been said ( and among the assertors was the amiable

    Dr Spurzheim ) , that <( man is naturally idle ; " an idea from which I so much dissent that I should maintain the direct reverse . Occupation is one of the great demands of the human mind ; and the privation of employment is , as has been

    proved , a great punishment , and yet to this punishment are young children continually subjected . There is no such thing as idleness ( for any continuance ) unless by that term be meant useless or mischievous occupation . Positive sloth is a disease , which the friend and physician may *^ yer cure ; the one would consult the state of the patient ' s mini—the other the state of his body , and the appetite of industry would soon be awakened .

    When I observe how little regard is paid to the preservation and direction of the industry natural to children , it only proves to me how irrepressible—how inextinguishable is the active principle with which the Deity has endowed us . Vainly shall it be alleged that the savage is ever disposed to indolencethat he must hunger before he will hunt , and that when he has satisfied nature he flings him down and sleeps till hunger urges him to the chase again . There is scarcely more

    argument regarding human nature to be drawn from the savage state than from the infant state . The savage is a crude , undeveloped being , a moral and intellectual embryo , his capabilities lie folded up within him , —industry among the rest ; give him motives , which are the springs of action , and he will not remain inert ; let the finger of knowledge point out to him

    the wonders of the skies , the waters and the earth , and he will not lie supine and insensate like a clod of the valley ; let knowledge inform him of the various gifts of nature , teach him their use and best modes of application , and he will not hunger till ravenous as the bird of prey , and then gorge himself like the boa-constrictor . Many minds , caught by the elements of poetry , which the savage state embraces , have given it an undue preference ; they have most unfairly placed

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    Occupation * W *«

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    No . 122 . G

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    OCCUPATION .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/50/