To confirm this, let them be informed, that it was the custom of our ancestors in England, and it is now the custom in France and Spain, to say their prayers in Latin, and to worship images: but it is a sinful custom, though the multitudes of the common people agree in it, and though the great and the rich practise it also. Nor is our present custom in Great Britain, of praying in English, and worshipping no images, to be esteemed the right way of worship, because it is the custom of the nation, but because it is agreeable to the word of God, which forbids us to worship images, or to pray in an unknown tongue. Take every occasion to guard them against prejudices, and passing a judgement on men or things upon insufficient grounds. 4. The reasoning powers of the mind should be cultivated and improved in children. This is very near akin to the former, and therefore I shall be very brief here. Whensoever children give you their opinion of any thing, ask them to give you also the reason why they are of that opinion whensoever they desire or wish for any thing, or shew an aversion to it, when they have done any thing of their own will, ask them the reason why they did it. And when you do any thing that is for their good, shew them the reason why you do it, and convince them that it was fit and necessary to be done, though perhaps it was not so pleasing to them. By calling their young reason thus into exercise, you will teach them wisdom betimes: you will awaken manly thoughts within them, and soon lead them to a rational and manly conduct in their childish years: by this means also you will always have a handle to take hold of, in order to persuade them to their duty, and to save them from mischief. But if their reasoning powers be neglected, you will train them up like the horse and the mule who have no understanding: they will grow like brutes in the shape of men, and reason will have but little power over them in the following parts of life. 5. Conscience is another natural power of the soul, wherein the principles of virtue and rules of duty to God and man are to be laid up; it is something within us that calls us to account for our faults, and by which we pass a judgement concerning ourselves and all our actions. Children have a conscience within them, and it should be awakened early to its duty. They should be taught to reflect and look back upon their own behaviour, to call themselves often to account, to compare their deeds with those good rules and principles laid up in their minds, and to see how far they have complied with them, and how far they have neglected them. Parents should teach their children to pay a religious respect to the inward dictates of virtue within them, to examine their actions continually by the light of their own consciences, and to rejoice when they can approve themselves to their own minds, that they have acted well, according to the best of their knowledge: they ought also to attend to the inward reproofs of conscience, and mourn, and be ashamed, and repent when they have sinned against their light. It is of admirable use toward all the practices of religion, and every virtue, to have conscience well stored with good principles, and to be always kept tender and watchful; it is proper that children should learn to reverence and obey this inward monitor betimes, that every wilful sin may give their consciences a sensible pain and uneasiness, and that they may be disposed to sacrifice every thing else to consideration of conscience, and to endure any extremities, rather than act contrary to it. I proceed, in the next place, to consider the several powers of the body which ought to be regulated and managed by the due instruction of children in their younger years, Now, as the God of nature has given children eyes, and tongues, and feet, and arms, and hands, it is expedient that parents should teach their children the proper use of them. 1. The God of nature hath given them eyes. Let their parents teach them to use their eyes aright. Would it be amiss in me here to give a hint or two of this kind? May not not children be warned against a staring look, against stretching their eye-lids into a glare of wildness? may they not be forbid to look aside on any object in a squinting manner, when their faces are turned another way? should they not be instructed to look directly with their face turned to the thing they look at? May they not be taught with due courage to look in the face of the person they speak to, yet with an humble modest aspect, as befits a child? A becoming courage and a becoming modesty dwell much in the eye. Some children should be often admonished to lay aside a gloomy and a frowning look, a scowling air, an uneasy and forbidding aspect. They should be taught to smooth the ruffles of their brow, and put on a lively, pleasing, and cheerful countenance among their friends: some there are who have all these graces by nature, but those who have them not may be corrected and softened by the care of parents in younger years *. 2. Let parents teach children to use their tongues properly and agreeably; not only to speak, but to pronounce their words plain and distinct. Let them be instructed to keep due and proper distances between their words and sentences, and not speak in a swift hurry, with a tumult of syllables and clutter upon their lips, which will sound like a foreign gibberish, and never be understood. Nor should they drawl out their words in a slow long tone, which is equally ungraceful and disagreeable. There are two other common faults in speaking, and where they are found, they should be corrected early in children. The one is lisping, which is a pronunciation of the letter S It here be recollected by the way, may that a gloominess of aspect does not always arise from a malignity of temper, but sometimes from fear of displeasing and incurring reproof; and is therefore often to be removed by speaking kindly to children, and encouraging them with expressions of candour and tenderness. To know how, in such cases, to divert a child, and make him cheerful and happy in the company of a parent, is none of the least important cares of education. 674 S or Z, or C before E and I, as though it were TH. Thus, instead of spice they cry thpithe, instead of cease they say theathe. This may be cured by teaching them to pronounce a few such words as these, where the sound of the letter S prevails, with their teeth shut close; and by forbidding them to put their tongue between their teeth at any time, except when TH is to be pronounced. The other fault is stammering, which I suppose may be commonly prevented or cured by teaching children not to speak much, and to speak slow always; and they should be warned against all anger or hastiness, or eagerness of spirit; for such a temper will throw out their words faster than the organs of speech can accommodate themselves to form the syllables, and thus bring a hurry and confusion into their speech; and they should also gain a good degree of courage or becoming assurance, and not speak with much concern or fear; for fear will stop the organs of speech, and hinder the formation of words. But I insist no longer on the use of the tongue in speaking. 3. As God hath given them feet, let parents teach them to stand firm and strong, and to walk in a becoming and decent manner, without waddling from side to side, without turning either or both of their feet inward, without little jerks in their motion, or long strides, or any of those awkwardnesses which continue with many persons to old age, for want of having these irregularities corrected when they were young. Children should be indulged in their sports, sometimes in running swiftly, and in leaping, where there is no danger, in order to exercise their limbs, and make them pliant and nimble, strong and active, on all occasions. As to their arms and hands, they were formed not to lie folded in the bosom, but to be engaged in some useful work; and sometimes, with due moderation, in robust and hardy exercise and toil; not so as to overstrain their joints, but to acquire firmness of strength by exercise. And more especially, they who are to get their bread by their hands, should be inured to toilsome and vigorous labours almost from their infancy: they should be accustomed to work in heat and cold, and to bear rougher exercises and fatigues of body, that they may be fit to endure hardships, and go through those difficulties which their station of life may call them to, without any injury or inconveniency. And it is desirable, that the sons of all families should be in some degree inured to such difficulties as these, which men of all ranks are sometimes called to encounter. If some fond and tender mothers had brought up their children in this hardy manner, they had not now, in all human probability, been mourning over their graves. In their younger years they would scarcely let them set the sole of their foot to the ground, nor suffer the wind to blow upon them thus they grew up in a state of tenderness and infirmity, sickly and feeble creatures; a sudden heat or a cold seized them; their natures, which were never accustomed to bear hardship, were unable to resist the enemy; a fever. kindled in their blood, or a catarrh or cough injured their lungs, and early buried their parents hopes in the dust. : Thus I have finished the second general head of instruction, that is, children should be instructed to exercise and improve their natural powers, both of mind and body; and this is one necessary part of a good education, which parents and other teachers should attend betimes. SECT. III. CHILDREN should be instructed in the art of self-government. They should be taught, as far as possible, to govern their thoughts: to use their wills to be determined by the light of their understandings, and not by headstrong and foolish humour; they should learn to keep the lower powers of nature under the command of their reason; they should be instructed to regulate their senses, their imagina |