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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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Untitled Article
po \* er harmonize . Now , how can we expect the child ( shortsighted being , and living almost entirely through his senses ) to comprehend the majestic beauty of truth ? Is it not one of the last things that the rational being begins to learn ? Is not the love of truth that love which grows with our growth , and strengthens with our strength / Is not the man who has gone the nearest to the perfect worship of truth the one who has gone the nearest to perfection ? When one considers how difficult it is for the fullfacultied man to see , much more to follow after the truth , it will
appear how almost impossible it is for the child to do either . I never shall forget hearing a West India planter defend the slavetrade one morning at breakfast . During the discussion his little boy had stolen away several pieces of sugar from the sugar-basin , and denied the fact , and was punished for the untruth . The father did not perceive that both he and his son had equally , in their desire of self-gratification , lost sight of the truth . * * * * * *
Obstinacy . —Oh , to what battles have I been witness ! There was X . shut up for weeks and darkly looked on , until he sunk into a frightful sort of stupor , because he would not , in counting , say * 20 , ' but always ' 19 , 21 / There was in bed for three weeks , because he would not say a letter ; and C . severely whipped to make her say a word which she met with in reading , and would
not pronounce . Nothing fosters obstinacy like contention . It has been said , and there may be some truth in the idea ., that it is right to do battle once with an obstinate child , and by gaining it , make him aware of his habit , and also convince him of his power and yours to conquer it . I scarcely know ; it is very questionable whether these victories do not leave behind them a resentfulness
and soreness which it takes years to efface . However this may be with regard to habits already formed , certain it is , that one should try to prevent the formation of the habit , a thing only to be done * by analyzing the feeling . What is obstinacy but the resistance to a supposed injury ? Is there any other cure ( or it than a conviction in the child of the lovingness and good sense of
its conductor ? Is that conviction likely to be wrought by the tortures by which people usually seek to conquer a fit of obstinacy ? Would obstinacy ever spring up under an intelligent guidance ? Must it not have been engenderejd by a loss of confidence caused b y a quantity of useless requisition on the part of the educator ? Here again comes in that principle of action which meets us at
every turn , viz ., to patiently wait till experience shall have tutored the will . No one will obstinately resist that which he sees to be his good ; it is for this seeing that the parent must be content so often to wait . Too great care cannot be taken likewise that we do not call that obstinacy which is often stupidity on the one hand , or firmness of principle on the other . A remarkable instance of the Utter is the case of ¦¦ ... , who , when four years old , was desired
Untitled Article
560 Memoranda of Obiervations , fyc .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 560, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/30/
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