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rig hting himself when he had got into difficulties . It is often fright which makes children cry when they fall , more than pain ; and his mother therefore avoided running hastily to his help . She was particularly calm in her manner when any accident had happened . But accidents rarely did occur ; first of all , because she never said to him . ' take care , ' and so he took care of himself ,
and never attempted things much or dangerously beyond his strength ; secondly , because she took pains to dispose the furniture , his bed , and every thing with reference to him , so that he was safe without that constant watching which is , on various accounts , so bad for children . As his parents meant him to have , from his very birth , the feeling of liberty , all the arrangements were strictly made for that purpose—the drawing-room with iis
paraphernalia was not for him , so he was saved the incessant fire of f don ' t , don ' t , ' to which children are for the most part subjected , and which entails many bad consequences ; the vanity caused by conciousness of being a constant object of attention ; the irritation of being constantly thwarted ; the sense of loss of liberty , of action , &c . &c . It was long before it was necessary to
say * don ' t , ' because , without saying a word , the physical weakness of the child made it easy to put physical obstacles in the way of his doing what was hurtful ; and by the time he had sense to wish , and strength to do his wishes , such confidence and love had been generated , that from them sprung coincidence of will in parent and child , so that a ' don ' t' was never disputed .
The first thing which struck him was light , the candle ; then he studied his mother ' s face ; next he caught sight of some red curtains—the colour seemed very pleasing to him . As he grew older , motion became the most interesting—an animal running , or trees blown by the winds , or flowing water ; then came the wish to know structure : every thing was peeped into , or torn to pieces to be better understood ; and when about a year and three quarters old , the question was , function— ' what for V
When he was particularly intent upon observing some object , and turned upon his mother that inquiring look peculiar to infancy , and so affecting , she would show him some property of it ; or if she could do nothing better for him , she would tell him its name . She never told him the name of any thing unless he were looking at it , and he always tried to repeat after her . As she never suffered him to be stunned with the chatter with which
people think it necessary to overwhelm poor babies ; but , on the contrary , short and simple sounds only were addressed to him ; the consequence was , that he spoke faultlessly from the very beginning , and most beautifully , in deep , musical , true-hearted tones . She often would sing to him , but only her very choicest songs : he listened with delight to all , but particularly to such as were slow , swelling , sweet , and melancholy . From the first month of his life , he lay almost constantly on a
Untitled Article
48 ( X Memoranda of Observation *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/20/
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