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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.
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The mother then began her labours , setting out with the resolution to watch her child ' s true wants—to help him to satisfy them—but strictl y to refrain from forcing him on to acquirements of which she might wish to see him possessed .
He was every morning dipped , and every nieht washed , in a bath of summer heat , and so far from crying , as he had formerly done , he seemed to delight in these operations . Perhaps an infant is conscious of the moral feeling towards him , long before we are
aware that he is so ; and very likely this child distinguished between the light , firm , rapid , tender touch of his mother , and the rough , clumsy , angry way in which he was handled by the nurse , when irritated and half deafened by the screams which her own awkwardness had called forth .
His mother ' s watchful lore perceived his wants before they had become so pressing as to require him to resort to screams and violence in order to gain attention . He was never allowed to wait too long for his food , nor was he given too much at once ; nor
half suffocated by the way in which it was administered ; nor did a triumphant < Here it coniesV announce its arrival . It was given to him regularly , moderately , slowly . When he became
able to feed himself , he did not lose the good habits of his babyhood ; he never thought of his food until he saw it , and then he took it quietly and cleanly , looking about him and talking to his mother . Often , before he was two years old , has he stopped in the middle of a meal , and touching each flower in a tumbler that stood near him , say , e What is it T and as she answered , * rose / ' lily , ' &c . he would catch up the sound ; and when he had learnt as many of the names as he wished , he would go on eating .
When he cried , his mother endeavoured to discover the cause of his suffering , and to remove it ; but she never tried to amuse him when he was screaming , or even to soothe him , further than by that gentle manner of holding him , or doing whatever was to be done for him , which is peculiar to affection- She never said ' Hush , ' or spoke at all to him when he cried . The consequence was , that he was scarcely ever heard to cry ; never , after he could apeak his wants and feelings . He learnt to bear pain better than most men . When he was teething , his flushed cheek and curled
Up often showed he was in extreme pain , while no sound escaped him . When he was teaching himself to walk , be often got tumbles and knocks ; generally he was quite still , and as it were surprised to find himself in his fallen condition ; sometimes he would utter a little * all / not an impatient ' oh / or a painful ' oh / but an ' oh * which said , ' so , here I am ! well , its very curious how I canae here / AH the while the mother was thinking , 4 I wish I eould hear all these blows / If he really got into such a case as required her help , she quietly went and extricated him partly , always leaving him to help himself out a UttW , by which he acquired the habit , and , in a wonderful degree , the power of
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2 M 2
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0 and Expertmenls in Education . 47 §
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 479, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/19/
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