Part 5 (1/2)

But I have known as intimately some other parents who made predominant, perhaps extreme use of Mother Goose and fairy literature Their children ot coe, had a tendency to art, especially literary art, in their own activity, and were earlier interested in human history, and all varieties of human experience reflected in the literature of nations; but perhaps were slower in attaining practical ability for life's labors Each direction of education has its advantages and disadvantages in the religious relation, and I think it is the better way to arten, where the objective point is to cultivate the understanding, which needs that we should appreciate the facts and order of external nature as the exponent of God's wisdoive substantiality to the creative action of the huently entreated to be reasonable, or we shall have Caliban instead of Ariel or Prospero, as I have said before

I cannot find out whether Frbel has anywhere expressed hirotesque ies and no fairy stories in the mother's prattle with her children over pictures, and in the out-door walks which are suggested in the _Mutterspiele und Kose-Lieder_; but children are led to recognize the poetical symbolism of nature, and its invisible and impalpable substances and forces; the invisible forces of air, heat, and light are used to lead them out from the world of matter towards the more substantial spiritual world where the soul meets and communes with God, the omnipresent Spirit to be apprehended only by the spirit within us, whose organs are ideas[9]

In the kindergarten, as in the nursery, children learn language by using it e as they play is what is first to be done by the kindergartner The things seen and done give a clear definition and precise significance to the words used, which beco-stones of the round of the understanding into the heaven of invention and iinative art, plastic and heroic; and thence to communion with God

But before children are put to reading, before proceeding frohts, and frons, and frons to their written or printed representations, it is wise to consider the signs theies or anything that is abstract It is not doing so, for instance, to ask children what is the difference between the words _see_ and _look_ (Can you see without looking? Can you look without seeing?) It gives precision to the understanding to discriminate what are often called synony, unless, in our _potpourri_ of a language they are mere translations, as for instance _morsel_ and _bit_, respective derivatives frolish-speaking child should not be troubled with the derivation of _morsel_, but is pleased to be called to notice that of _bit_ Wefroe children into the unknoithout a clue

That children understand and use figurative language readily, shows that without going out of their childish world we can define syulating fancy But Ithis[10] I can now only affirnify by words not s and their correlations, but their feelings and thoughts, it would be iun in the nursery, or to be carried on in the kindergarten, as Frbel proposes it shall be

It is only by na or cause, or rather by leading the child to naious thinking which is necessary to keep pure fro, while his blind sense of God is changing froht of the e Frbel would have take place very early But this is the ion of consciousness to enter, and we reat care that we do not profane instead of consecrating the process by e do and say Words that are adequate and living naenerate spiritual thoughts in natural relation with them And this reminds eman, illustrative of what I mean

This poor child was deprived, when two years old, of her sight and hearing, and partially of taste and smell, by the scarlet fever, which left her but one avenue of knowledge of h that the practical benevolence of Dr Hoon a way to her iht with her by means of words; and she even learned to read in the raised type for the blind The whole story is i and ih of the properties of s_, and h her own and others' activity; but hoas she to be taught about God and spiritual things? Dr Howe reserved to hi all others to do so, and watched for his opportunity

My sister Sophia went over to the asylum to model Laura's bust, and one day asked her teacher (ith her always) to translate into spoken words the conversation that she saas passing between thee Very soon occurred the following:--

_Laura_ I want to go to walk

_Teacher_ You cannot go to-day, because it rains

_Laura_ Whoa direct reply, the teacher went on to explain how moisture exhaled from the earth by the action of the sun, and was collected in masses which were called clouds, and when the clouds were so full as to be heavier than the air, it fell to the earth in drops of rain

Laura said, reverently, ”God is very full”

The teacher was startled, and said, ”Who told you about God?”

_Laura_ No one toldto tell me about him when I know more words But I think about God all times

The teacher said to my sister, ”This is very iood dealhe ca at our house to talk about it He said that nearly a year before, if not longer, Laura had co, and i of the word According to his directions, she was then sent to him, and he was so anxious not to do any harhten her with the idea of Infinite Pohich is the hteen hundred years after Christ's manifestation of Infinite _Love_), that he was embarrassed, and said to her that she did not yet know other words enough to explain the word _God_, but when she had learned more words, he would tell her, and meanwhile he wished she would not ask any one else But noas pondering as the best way to proceed I suggested that perhaps Laura could teach him more than he could teach her about God, and asked as the sentence in which she had found the word But this he had never known It was then suggested that probably the word had explained itself, for no sentence could possibly contain the word, not even in an exclaest to such a perfectly clear thinking mind as Laura had always shown, the fact of supre to make sentences I do not knohat he finally concluded to do or say to Laura I think certainly that the true ould have been to have drawn her out, and according to what she said or seeive, taking great care not to negate any of her positive assertions; for we could not doubt that God was ination of her heart, if not yet in the for

If I had kno to use the hand language, I would have solicited the privilege of going to learn what this hermit soul could have told y, which did not originate in children,--

”On who all our lives to find,”

but in the inal purity of soul that ”sees God” ”I think about God all ti it would be to know exactly what she thought! That it was nothing terrific or painful was evident from her habitual mood, which was even joyous So careful had the Doctor been to educate every bodily and ement, inelasticity, and indolence of enial, educating assistance was always around her, but careful not to weaken her by doing anything for her that she could learn to do for herself

Obstacles, therefore, only stihtful was her sense of overcoly when sewing if her thread beca there was some little difficulty to be surmounted Her faith in herself seemed never to have been broken; but she rested on the fulcrum of Infinite God, in who”

The only thing we ought to do in the religious nurture of childhood is to _preserve_ this faith which co God even s See to it that you use language so as more clearly to define and not to blot out the divine vision, as old Dr Barnard's cocked hat and black silk gown and seat in the clouds eclipsed the sweet face hich my Creator seemed to own me as his child, as I told you in my last lecture

Anothera visit that I ht to say the Lord's prayer by the servant who put ht happen to me in my sleep if I did not do this, and was also told that God would be displeased withit But I was involuntarily conscious of having es, while the words of the prayer were ehts, I would try to rush through the words quickly, going back to the beginning over and over again But this artificial duty was not associated with the instruction of eneral very happy in what she said toto it everything delightful,us paint, and cut paper, with other little a us happy, while the rest of the week she was busy; for she kept a large school, and Sunday was, as she often said, her only and blessed day of rest Long after, at a tiious controversy and so-called revival, I was i aunt ofthat wewas fanatically unreasonable: ”Yes, if prayingover prayers; but spiritual prayers mean a devotional attitude of ”

This sentence seeht into a shady place