18

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

want of food, had I not found at Mr. Barnard’s house aready slice of bread and butter, or a still more welcomeone of cold meat.

Beware, oh ye parents, how ye trust your children to thecare of those who fatten upon the leanness of their pupils.We infants at Bridzor school were made to be most rigidobservers of all the fast and meagre days of the Popish andProtestant calendars combined. For the good of our“ souls,” (and Mr. Jones’s pocket) our bodies were extenu-ated and checked in their due developement. Good meat,or animal food of some description is, in this our northernclimate, absolutely necessary, and daily, for all childrenwho have got their teeth. The idea of sending infants ofseven or eight years old to a distant boarding school, is quitepreposterous and unnatural! At such an age, they stillrequire as much paternal and maternal care, as when “ inarms.” Various maladies are yet to he endured, as thoughthey were inherent to our human nature. Measles, hooping-cough, &c., a change of teeth, ’ere the first set is hardygrown, require the care of home, and the anxious solicitudeof a watchful parent. As to “ learning,”—let any one whoreads this book, inwardly refer to his or her particular ex-perience, and I will venture to premise that they will allow,that until twelve or fourteen years of age, nothing they weretaught made any permanent impression on their minds,except the mechanical acquirements of reading and writing.Children of tender ages may be made to repeat ivords uponany given subject, even better than any parrot; but untilthe intellect becomes engaged, curiosity excited, satisfactionfelt, nothing useful (save handicrafts) can be acquired, muchless retained, by the joint faculties of perception and un-derstanding. When a lesson ceases to he a task, then alonecan it be properly acquired. The first care of parentsought to be, to lay the foundation of a healthful and