Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

strongest impressions are often caused by a sudden stroke which takes the mind by surprise; and we leave a powerful engine to be directed by chance, if we neglect in the first instance to gain possession of it ourselves.

Whether then you desire to preserve your child from the wild errors of fanaticism, or from the desolation of a life without hope, there is only one plan to be pursued ; —inspire him with the gentle feelings of a cheerful piety. The religion which has been imbibed in infancy takes its hue from this happy age, and is associated with all its innocent occupations. Thus, connected with both its pleasures and its studies, religion becomes neither gloomy nor bigotted. Intellectual culture and religious culture, proceeding together, follow the same path, and communicate to each other a spirit of rational piety. The whole business of education is rendered more easy. Religious feeling, the inmost feeling of the soul, gives additional energy to the natural affections. Scarcely has religion sprung up in the heart before she begins to perform her office- to connect our children with us in the same manner as she connects us with God; they submit to our authority with a more decided feeling of respect and even the impression made by our strictness is softened, from their persuasion that we are not in this respect free agents, but that

our necessary severity is the effect of our obedience to the universal law. We are to them the representatives of that Supreme Being whom we adore in common with them; and a certain feeling of sacredness, which no human imperfection can destroy, seems to descend on earthly parents, from the sublime idea of a heavenly Father.

CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

WITH children, to believe in God and to adore Him, are almost the same thing; faith and religious worship are so closely connected, that if the idea of a Creator be once firmly established, the soul will naturally be excited by it to expressions of gratitude and love. But as these two objects may be considered separately, it will be asked, how are we to make children first acquainted with the existence of God? and I would answer, that the best method we can adopt is to pursue the same plan which God himself has followed in revealing himself to mankind, and to relate to them the different events which have accompanied each successive revelation. "Religion," says Fenelon, "is altogether historical: its establishment, its perpetuity, every thing which should induce us to believe in it, and to practise it, -all consist in a series of miraculous facts." These words afford us the key of all religious instruction: history furnishes the connecting link by which all eternal truths, whether relating to morality, or faith, are bound together: it gives the mother

[blocks in formation]

an opportunity of explaining these truths; and, by the pleasure which it affords the child, predisposes his mind to receive them.

It is true that some ideas of a more exalted nature,- such as those of the existence of God, his principal attributes, the immateriality of the soul, seem necessary in order fully to understand the facts related in the Bible. But there are many parts of the sacred history which may be related to children, and understood by them, before they are able to comprehend these sublime truths. We are hardly aware to what extent we often, in the course of education, anticipate the comprehension of children in our explanations to them; it is frequently much easier to them to guess at the meaning of words or expressions, than to understand our definitions of them. The state of their minds, when any new subject is placed before them, may be compared to a mist clearing away by degrees; and as the words of which we make use can be explained only by other words, which themselves require an explanation, we feel that we must often trust to the instinct of divination for gradually enlightening their confused ideas.

Still it is our duty as much as possible to assist and develope this instinct. In relating to a child the history of the creation, of a terrestrial paradise, or any other narrative taken from the Bible, you may pause as you mention

the word God, and without alarming him by too direct inquiries, may easily find out what idea he attaches to this sacred name. The interrogative mode of teaching, judiciously employed, leads children not only to discover the truth, but we may almost say to invent it. Animated by the pleasure of the discovery, they appropriate to themselves, what has in reality been suggested to them, and preserve as their own property the idea which they have been led to entertain. This mode of teaching, which was practised long ago, and is now very generally employed, is one of the most useful we possess for teaching very young children.

Yet as all are not equally capable of making use of it, and as children of a timid and shy disposition are sometimes rendered unhappy by being forced to answer questions, too much importance must not be attached to this method of instruction. The simple declaration of a truth, whenever an occasion is offered of bringing it forward, will succeed almost as well, provided we possess the art of exciting the curiosity. To interest children is a most essential point. At this age all knowledge must be imperfect, and its greatest value is derived from the recollection of the pleasure associated with its acquisition; for it is this recollection which will hereafter incite the pupil to continue and extend the cultivation of his mind. With regard to

« FöregåendeFortsätt »