dales, and this process provided clothes | established equivalent of the sustenance both for the male and female portion of to be provided by "human paternity." the household. A HILL SHEPHERD. From Macmillan's Magazine. THE CRY OF THE PARENTS. BY ONE OF THEM. IN a recent number of the Parents' Review (a new publication designed for a "monthly magazine of home-training and culture") is an article called a "New Educational Departure." All who interest themselves in education deserve the warmest thanks of the community at large; yet it is not perhaps too much to say that the very word education, whether seen in a paragraph in a daily paper or as part of the heading of an article in a monthly review, gives to all not immediately concerned in this absorbing topic a sensation akin to a touch on a sore and sensitive spot in the mind. You would rather not read any more arguments on the subject; there seems no end to them; and you has tily turn the page in search of a livelier subject. You feel vaguely that it is in good handsat any rate, in better hands than yours; you admire their unwearied patience, the judicial impartiality, the conscientious endeavors to perfect every detail; but you turn the page. These articles, however, bristling with facts and figures, these severe criticisms of the existing system, these scathing satires on the weak points of the last revised code, only apply to the vast system of national education. The "New Educational Departure comes nearer home; this touches us to the quick-this is a departure indeed! In this innocent-looking title the dismayed parent finds he is indeed concerned; it is nothing less than a project to educate himself. And now, if not too late, it seems only reasonable to ask to be allowed to enter a remonstrance. Why not the cry of the parents, as well as the cry of the children? Why not, indeed, enter a feeble protest from the poor bread-winner-patronizingly alluded to in the preface to this fresh engine of warfare as "the bird who should be ever on his way homewards with a worm in his beak"? But this, however arduous it may seem, "is not," we are told, "the sole duty of human paternity." Would that it were! may the father exclaim, who is but too well acquainted with bills that seem to have but little connection with worms, or whatever may be the Who that reads of fresh tasks to be imposed, can withhold a generous sigh of sympathy, or even a tear of pity for the jaded parent, already overwhelmed with the cares of providing his sons and daughters with the necessary equipment for the battle of life? Dwell for a moment - he has to dwell for many moments - on the butcher's and baker's bills, the tailor's and dressmaker's bills, the triennial school bills - but we forbear. If, to all these is to be added the bill (in time and anxiety) of his own education as a parent, who, we ask, will be found to rashly undertake so arduous a position? Far be it from us to deny the importance of early training for our children which cannot indeed be overrated; but we believe that it is not to be attained by the methods that are proposed here and in many other articles lately devoted to the consideration of this subject - methods akin to the probe of the surgeon, necessary in disease but not in health. We believe, we always have believed, that some at any rate of the old-fashioned, let-alone system is as healthy and favoring to the development of children as it is to that of plants, given good air and soil to start with. Gardeners have as yet seen no reason to reverse this doctrine, nor, in the long run, do we believe will parents. There is far too much talk of education early and late, but especially early-unless by education is meant the "lovely shapes and sounds intelligible, of that eternal language,' as hymned by Coleridge. It is to begin in the cradle, say the latest exponents of training. So it does, in the favorable or unfavorable conditions and surroundings of infant and child life, but not in the premature forcing of every look and gesture as expressing a taste or characteristic. As reasonably would you begin at once to exercise the little dancing limbs in trained gymnastics. Every look, every movement, we are told, is to be trained and made much of, the little brain must be early excited and tested. Bid farewell to the restful time of babyhood, to the happy, peaceful hours of brooding mother-love, in whose protecting arms the infant lies, growing accustomed by imper. ceptible influences to the newness of all things. No, the opening eyes are not, as you idly suppose, "without speculation," they are looking for the Old Master which should hang on the nursery wall. The soft fingers straying over the mother's enfolding arm demand a pencil wherewith, without delay, the young Raphael of six months old may essay his genius on the aforesaid masterpiece. Has any one who considers parents not yet alive to their responsibilities ever taken into consideration the manifold duties of the father and mother of even the smallest family? The daily anxieties, the incessant worry of thinking and doing, the brain-work necessary to the father for bringing grist to the mill, the busy house. hold and social cares that fall to the share of the mother, often complicated by sickness, suddenly demanding all the available time and power. Yet they are at ease in their belief in a home as happy as they can make it, supplied to the best of their ability with picture-books, lesson-books, playfellows, wholesome food, and strengthening exercise. When to all this is added an ever-watchful, fostering love, and the providing of every educational advantage within their reach and income, are they to be told that all this is by no means enough for the young person, who must surely be a lineal descendant of the horse-leech's daughter? These exponents of a revised code for parents have not been long in effecting their remorseless purpose. A "Parents' Educational Union is already formed," and (as if in cruel jest) "formed just before the summer holidays this year" (presumably 1889). "There were only about a dozen present," we are told, "and of those all were not clear as to what was intended. Had the scheme anything to do with refuge work?" One's heart melts at this terrible suggestion; that the guarded nursery, full of curly heads and rosy faces, can have already come to this ! "In the course of discussion," however, "it became clear that the object of the society was the study of the laws of education, as they bear on the bodily development, the moral training, the intellectual work, and the religious training of the children. The phrase laws of education 'probably struck some of us as a mere façon de parler, but it passed without question." We think we have heard of the phrase before, and would almost have hazarded the opinion that it (and the laws it refers to) were older than the society. But let us emulate the twelve members in passing it without question, the more gladly that it leaves us the hope that where there is no law there is no sin, and that these otherwise inconceivably blind and misguided parents may escape censure. Now, having, we hope, sufficiently enlisted the sympathies of our readers with the parents, let us see how the children fare? How stands it with the little ones, least able to defend themselves from the tide of meddling (which by the way, we see is called elsewhere in the same number of the magazine before us, "educating popular opinion ")—the tide of meddling, kindly or otherwise, which at the present time threatens to lay waste all individuality of thought and action, and to wear us out of all independence of judgment? The society propose “to hold meetings, say four, during a winter session, with a definite purpose of discussion. If the four parts of education " (physical, mental, moral, and religious which we here repeat, in case the startled parent has failed to realize them) " can be taken up consecutively, so much the better, the topic of the day to be ventilated by means of an original paper or other reading, to be followed by discussion," which, it is hopefully assumed, will be both lively and profitable. There is an instructive anecdote which we would recommend to be read at the next meeting of the educational society a tale of a centipede who, unable to satisfy a thoughtless enquirer which foot he advanced first on preparing to walk, at last gave up all hope of deciding or of moving, and "lay distracted in a ditch." But now, as we read on, bursts upon us the full enormity of the scheme from the children's point of view. "It would be a hopeful sign (whether of the common sense of the nation, or of what other desirable trait, we are not told) "if the parents sent in queries signed or unsigned (the italics are ours) "to the secretary, dealing with practical difficulties as they come up. How would you deal with a greedy or a sullen child? or a child with too active a brain? How would you treat a boy who says 'I shan't'?" Here is meddling brought to a pitch indeed. Imagine what a dynamic collection these queries, with or without signature, but always, one would think, in these days of universal societies and secretaries pretty easily localized, what a collection, we say, will these queries form in any but a very prudent hand. Give a dog a bad name, etc., is the truest of proverbs when applied to the young. Their little faults and inconsistencies, as much as their parents' faults and inconsistencies, are entitled to the tender oblivion and privacy of home life, in which (no doubt from not having an educational society to consult) families have planted themselves ever since the earliest one of all. This is to "set a mark" on erring humanity indeed! There are even daring spirits who affirm that the less their children are intimately known of their relations during their tran- | ings of the union." We have heard, but sition stages, the better, since judgments of course without crediting, that a certain hastily formed from an accidental fit of amount of harmless discussion of one's obstinacy, or access of fretfulness, are very apt to crystallize into an unshaken conviction that "John was always pigheaded," or Mary was never good-humored," long after John and Mary have become the most reasonable and amiable of beings. 66 neighbor's affairs is not considered to interfere with the sacred rites of afternoon tea. But only surely in the Cannibal Islands could such an unnatural feast be spread as is here darkly indicated. "One or two mothers' cottage meetings also will be arranged for." Mrs. Ewing has a lively tale of a village matron who returned a tract on the subject of the unsteady householder and the rebellious family given her by a well-meaning visitor, with the dignified protest: "My 'usband do not drink, and I have no unrewly children." Let us hope that in some cottages at least this fine spirit of independence may still be found flourishing. "The joyes of Parents are Secret," says Bacon, "and so are their Griefes and Feares: They cannot utter the one; nor they will not utter the other." What then is to be said of this new Newgate Calendar" of our upper classes, branding and localizing each poor little offender by name and nature? Is it seriously held that outside advice, however good in the abstract, can ever, except by an accidental happy "The question of the inclusion of young hit, be of practical use in another and unmarried persons has been tacitly deunknown household? Who is to know cided in the negative." This is, we think, the other side of the question, the con- the highest wisdom, if the existence of the ditions of the home where the boy is al-new union is dear to the hearts of the ways sullen, or the training of the one who promoters. The young unmarried persays "I shan't," a form of speech which is likely to be alarmingly on the increase if foreign influences are to be called in to aid the native authorities? sons may not, alas! remain young, but they will surely, if made fully aware of their tremendous future, remain unmarried. Prevention is better than cure. This is a credulous age with all its This, says the Parents' Educational learning, only too apt to accept a dictum Union, "is, roughly speaking, our profrom a written source however unknown. gramme for the first year. We may see By all means risk your health, your hair, our way to more work than we pledge ouryour complexion, if it so pleases you, by selves to. For instance, we may set on following the recipes to be had for the foot work under our examination scheme asking from the bold pioneers in the paths in the case of parents being found willing of health and beauty, but do not expose to undertake a definite course of reading your children to these haphazard methods. in education and its kindred science with They will be quick enough to see if an a view to examination. Further delightalien system is being tried upon them in- ful visions loom in the distance, hardly stead of mother's tender insight into their yet within measurable distance." This little weaknesses, and firm help in their programme to our alarmed vision bas, for makings for good. If conduct is three- its first year, enough and to spare. We fourths of life, so is character, and char-will not add to the already sombre foreacter is not formed by these leading-reins to guard a child from ever giving way to a natural impulse. Character is mainly formed by finding out what is expected of you in this life. Do not away with the hard knocks of experience and failure, and imagine that you can teach a child the workings of a sum by showing him the answer. bodings of the poor "human paternity." We will not even remind him of the poor figure he will cut, returning "plucked from his ordeal of examination at the nearest "local centre " of the new society, by the same train, perhaps, as conveys his own sons rejoicing in their success at a great public school,- a school, moreover, where play is recognized as well as work. No summer cricket, no winter football, will temper the rigor of poor paterfamilias's Continuation School. It seems a base return for that worm in his beak! But we must get through our extracts. "The secretary," it is stated, "would pass on beforehand one such query to a capable member, whose answer at the meeting would open the way for general These are delightful visions, indeed, discussion. One or two drawing-room but it would not surprise us if "human meetings especially for mothers will be paternity "does not fret at their being arranged for. Here we have a modest" 'hardly yet within measurable distance.' programme of work for the winter meet For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. Laugh on; your brisk and boyish joy Nor takes my youth nor can restore. Time shall the brightest eyes destroy, We, far at sea, still love the shore, While shadows creep across the floor. In azure distance slow withdrawn, We love the mocking face we wore, Ere age came near and youth had gone. Too soon would ruthless Time's annoy Chase smiles from lips whose May is o'er, Life's brightest gold prove base alloy, Save that we human love implore. And mute the lark her skies upbore, He bids revive the faded lawn, And, as of old, the larks outpour, Ere age came near and youth had gone. ENVOY. Who loves his kind can Time ignore Chicago Herald. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. By wintry sun's declining glow |