Part 15 (1/2)
”I knew nothing of this,” said the delighted mother, while we were all admiring the elegant arrangements of this little fete. The purple clematis, twisting its flexile branches with those of the pale woodbine, formed a sweet and fragrant canopy to the arched bower, while the flowery tendrils hung down on all sides. Large bunches of roses, intermixed with the silver stars of the jessamine, were stuck into the moss on the inside as a temporary decoration only. The finest plants had been brought from the green-house for the occasion. It was a delicious evening, and the little fairy festivity, together with the flitting about of the airy spirits which had prepared it, was absolutely enchanting. Sir John, always poetical, exclaimed in rapture,
”Hesperian fables true, If true, here only.”
I needed not this quotation to bring the garden of Eden to my mind, for Lucilla presided. Ph[oe]be was all alive. The other little ones had decorated Kate's flaxen hair with a wreath of woodbines. They sung two or three baby stanzas, which they had composed among themselves, in which Kate was complimented as queen of the fete. The youngest daughter of Lady Aston, who was about Kate's age, and two little girls of Dr.
Barlow's, were of the children's party on the green. The elder sisters of both families made part of the company within.
When we were all seated in our enchanting bower, and drinking our tea, at which we had no other attendants than the little Hebes themselves, I asked Kate how it happened that she seemed to be distinguished on this occasion from her little sisters. ”Oh, sir,” said she, ”it is because it is my birth-day. I am eight years old to-day. I gave up all my gilt books, with pictures, this day twelvemonth, and to-day I give up all my little story books, and I am now going to read such books as men and women read.”
She then ran to her companions who ranged themselves round a turf seat at a little distance before us, to which were transferred a profusion of cakes and fruit from the bower. While they were devouring them, I turned to Mr. Stanley and desired an explanation of Kate's speech.
”I make,” said he, ”the renouncing their baby books a kind of epocha, and by thus distinctly marking the period, they never think of returning back to them. We have in our domestic plan several of these artificial divisions of life. These little celebrations are eras that we use as marking-posts, from which we set out on some new course.”
”But as to Kate's books?” said Lady Belfield.
”We have,” replied Mr. Stanley, ”too many elementary books. They are read too much and too long. The youthful mind, which was formerly sick from inanition, is now in danger from a plethora. Much, however, will depend on capacity and disposition. A child of slower parts may be indulged till nine years old with books which a lively genius will look down upon at seven. A girl of talents _will_ read. To _her_ no excitement is wanting. The natural appet.i.te is a sufficient incentive.
The less brilliant child requires the allurement of lighter books. She wants encouragement as much as the other requires restraint.”
”But don't you think,” said Lady Belfield, ”that they are of great use in attracting children to love reading?”
”Doubtless they are,” said Mr. Stanley. ”The misfortune is, that the stimulants used to attract at first, must be not only continued but heightened, to keep up the attraction. These books are novels in miniature, and the excess of them will lead to the want of novels at full length. The early use of savory dishes is not usually followed by an appet.i.te for plain food. To the taste thus pampered, history becomes dry, grammar laborious, and religion dull.
”My wife, who was left to travel through the wide expanse of Universal History, and the dreary deserts of Rapin and Mezerai, is, I will venture to a.s.sert, more competently skilled in ancient, French, and English history, than any of the girls who have been fed, or rather starved, on extracts and abridgments. I mean not to recommend the two last named authors for very young people. They are dry and tedious, and children in our day have opportunities of acquiring the same knowledge with less labor. We have brighter, I wish I could say safer, lights. Still fact, and not wit, is the leading object of history.
”Mrs. Stanley says, that the very tediousness of her historians had a good effect; they were a ballast to her levity, a discipline to her mind, of which she has felt the benefit in her subsequent life.
”But to return to the ma.s.s of children's books. The too great profusion of them protracts the imbecility of childhood. They arrest the understanding, instead of advancing it. They give forwardness without strength. They hinder the mind from making vigorous shoots, teach it to stoop when it should soar, and to contract when it should expand. Yet I allow that many of them are delightfully amusing, and to a certain degree instructive. But they must not be used as the basis of instruction, and but sparingly used at all as refreshment from labor.”
”They inculcate morality and good actions surely,” said Lady Belfield.
”It is true,” replied Mr. Stanley, ”but they often inculcate them on a worldly principle, and rather teach the pride of virtue, and the profit of virtue, than point out the motive of virtue, and the principle of sin. They reprobate bad actions as evil and injurious to others, but not as an offense against the Almighty. Whereas the Bible comes with a plain, straightforward, simple, but powerful principle--'How shall I do this great wickedness against G.o.d?' 'Against THEE, THEE only have I sinned, and done this evil in THY sight.'
”Even children should be taught that when a man has committed the greatest possible crime against his fellow creature, still the offense against G.o.d is what will strike a true penitent with the most deep remorse. All morality which is not drawn from this scriptural source is weak, defective, and hollow. These entertaining authors seldom ground their stories on any intimation that human nature is corrupt; that the young reader is helpless, and wants a.s.sistance; that he is guilty, and wants pardon.”
”Surely, my dear Mr. Stanley,” said Lady Belfield, ”though I do not object to the truth and reasonableness of any thing you have said, I can not think that these things can possibly be made intelligible to children.”
”The framers of our catechism, madam, thought otherwise,” replied Mr.
Stanley. ”The catechism was written for children, and contains all the seeds and principles of Christianity for men. It evidently requires much explanation, much development; still it furnishes a wide and important field for colloquial instruction, without which young persons can by no means understand a composition so admirable, but so condensed. The catechism speaks expressly of 'a death unto sin'--of 'a new birth unto righteousness'--of 'being born in sin'--of being the 'children of wrath'--of becoming the 'children of grace'--of 'forsaking sin by repentance'--of 'believing the promises of G.o.d by faith.' Now while children are studying these great truths in the catechism, they are probably, at the same time, almost constantly reading some of those entertaining stories which are grounded and built on a quite opposite principle, and do not even imply the existence of any such fundamental truths.”
”Surely,” interrupted Lady Belfield, ”you would not have these serious doctrines brought forward in story books?”
”By no means, madam,” replied Mr. Stanley; ”but I will venture to a.s.sert that even story books should not be founded on a principle directly _contradictory_ to them, nay, totally _subversive_ of them. The Arabian Nights, and other oriental books of fable, though loose and faulty in many respects, yet have always a reference to the religion of the country. Nothing is introduced against the law of Mohammed; nothing subversive of the opinions of a Mussulman. I do not quarrel with books for having _no_ religion, but for having a _false_ religion. A book which in nothing opposes the principle of the Bible, I would be far from calling a bad book, though the Bible was never named in it.”
Lady Belfield observed, ”That she was sorry to say her children found religious studies very dry and tiresome; though she took great pains, and made them learn by heart a mult.i.tude of questions and answers, a variety of catechisms and explanations, and the best abridgments of the Bible.”
”My dear Lady Belfield,” replied Mr. Stanley, ”you have fully accounted for the dryness and dullness of which you complain. Give them the _Bible itself_. I never yet knew a child who did not delight in the Bible histories, and who would not desire to hear them again and again. From the histories, Mrs. Stanley and I proceed with them to the parables; and from them to the miracles, and a few of the most striking prophecies.
When they have acquired a good deal of this desultory knowledge, we begin to weave the parts into a whole. The little girl who had the honor of dining with you to-day, has begun this morning to read the Scriptures with her mother systematically. We shall soon open to her something of the _scheme_ of Christianity, and explain how those miracles and prophecies confirm the truth of that religion in which she is to be more fully instructed.