THE RESIDENCE OF DR. ISAAC WATTS. HERE is but to look into our own hearts, to scrutinise our own habits, to close our eyes on the tumultuous present, and recall, by a simple effort of memory, the past, to be convinced of the immense influence which the Literature of Infancy, so to speak, has exercised over our whole lives. Servants, in nine cases out of ten, are considered admirable care-takers of children, if they are good-tempered, clean, and careful; but they are suffered to remain altogether ignorant of moral training: they pet the child to keep it quiet; disorder its stomach by sedatives, or what is worse; and foster its evil passions, rather than either cause its tears to flow, or tell to parents the truth. However disposed we may be, and ought to be, to deal leniently with the errors of our fellow-beings as we advance in years-the judicious mother knows that the fault of a young child should never be passed over without reproof; for as surely as it is, it will be strengthened by repetition— "The child is father to the man.' What ill passions may be nursed-what dangerous habits contracted— what ruinous prejudices fostered-what bitter bondage to evil may be signed and sealed during the first years of life; while the unthinking and uneducated argue, that as the child knows no better,' no mischief can ensue. Yet moral as well as physical diseases may be contracted in childhood, nay, in infancy, which Time and Reason can never entirely eradicate. The great first lesson for the infant is obedience: it should be taught firmly, yet tenderly, before the rebellious spirit strengthens. The mother will, and must, suffer during the great sacrifice to duty she is called upon to make; but perseverance will go far to secure the happiness of both, and that of all with whom the future of the child may be associated or connected. The more difficult the task, the more needful that it be discharged faithfully. Blessed privilege! not only to bring forth heroes, but to arm them for the battle of life with the shield of endurance—a sure defence only when tempered by self-restraint! We could enlarge upon this theme-a theme often suggested to us by some line from the Divine and Moral Songs of Dr. Isaac Watts, as it rings upon our heart. Memories they are of verses learned almost before we could lisp them, but which, second in value only to maxims of Holy Writ, have come to us, like angels' whispers, amid the labours, and trials, and struggles-ay, and amid the pleasures and triumphs-of life. We do earnestly record our belief, that we never thought a complaint against the destiny that commands the daily and nightly toil of the inventive faculty, without the witness,'-as the 'Friends' call it within our breast,' taunting us with a reproach borrowed from Watts' Hymns or Moral Songs. Sometimes, when inclined to repose at the wrong time, The Little Busy Bee' will remind us of our duty, or 'The Voice of the Sluggard' rise up against us, and call to mind that terror of the wise, the consequences of indolent dreaminess. We might, indeed, quote such suggestions from nearly every page of his writings. It is extraordinary how a thinking people, as we are believed to be, can neglect, as we do, the infant training of the upper classes. We supply infant schools to the people,' and we admit none but teachers properly instructed in the duties they engage to perform, and yet we confide the children of the higher, and most influential middle orders, to the care of persons who, in most cases, failing in every other undertaking, with broken means and shattered reputations, become the Mentors of Preparatory Establishments:' the blue board or brass plate seeming sufficient to satisfy the credulous parent, that those who offer to conduct the great business of education are worthy of the trust they seek. Parents are not unfrequently content if the nursery governess be able to attend to the children's wardrobe, and is content with less as a 'salary' than the cook as 'wages.' She does very well for the children at present, and is not at all particular,' is a general observation: any one does for the first seven years who keeps them out of mischief.' Why, the first seven years' are the most important years of human life! There are plenty of superior' women engaged in what is called 'finishing,' and they will tell you that the greater portion of the time which ought to be dedicated to completing a young lady's education, is of necessity devoted to undoing what has been done bad habits to be got rid of, bad accents to be displaced, bad manners to be set aside, and what is worse, evil principles uprooted, so that when these things are accomplished in a degree, the time is up' the daughter is required to take her station at home, or in society; and the whole fabric, instead of presenting the result of a good foundation upon which a solid, as well as an ornamented, structure has been raised, is dilapidated and incongruous; exhibiting odds and ends of accomplishments-bits of gilding amid early mildew and decay, and the wrecks of half-developed systems. All this could be avoided were infant moral training attended to, and not confided to thoughtless or incompetent teachers. It is only a clear and comprehensive mind that can understand the workings' and demonstrations of childhood; they are so varied, that but for their impulse and truthfulness, they would be incomprehensible, from the very ductility-creating confusion-with which they fall into each other. The truly great never disdain to become-not only the instructors, but the playmates of children. None have, as yet, written down to the comprehensions they sought to elevate, so perfectly in prose, as Maria Edgeworth, or in verse, as Dr. Watts. There is a sublimity in the simplicity of childhood, which is almost divine! we see every moment as observation developes effects around it, the tint of the world soiling the purity of its nature. To prevent this—and what a task it is!—should be the chief care of the mother or her delegate; to impart knowledge, but not worldliness, her object; to see that nothing is implanted that must be uprooted; nothing encouraged that must thereafter be cast forth! · Government may found Universities and sustain Colleges, but until teachers, either for public or private purposes, are themselves taught beneath the State's eye, and are able to answer to competent and fixed judges, as to their fitness for the onerous duties they undertake,—until schools are placed under the surveillance of persons appointed to see that schoolmasters and schoolmistresses are fit for their now voluntary task ; until every private teacher is responsible to the State, and until a code of infant education is arranged and adopted, under the sanction and guardianship of authority,' we shall continue to pursue a perpetual course of doing and undoing. We are increasing the power of the people over the aristocracy by this negligence of the first principles of education; we are strengthening them-pouring new ideas into their minds, while aristocratic education stagnates. We are tardy in giving the Educator a position. As long as the brainless and disreputable commence our children's education, it is of comparatively little consequence by whom it is finished. The task of training infant minds would not degrade a Socrates; our Divine Master honoured children-he would have them come to him; he did not even send them to his disciples for instruction; he said, Suffer little children to come unto me.' The eagle that soars highest can also stoop lowest; those must be strangely blind, indeed, to the means of dignifying and purifying human nature, who neglect infant training. We may be considered enthusiasts, but we are none the less resolved to call aloud for the regeneration of the nursery, by means of a totally different class of nursery teachers. We would intreat others to demand that Government take this weighty matter into consideration. It is not only for the lower orders that teachers should be trained in Normal Schools. The training of subjects is the duty, the power, the privilege of the State; and its neglect an unpardonable State negligence. If the Educator were fitted for the great moral and intellectual duty of his, or her, calling, we should have none of the educational mistakes which strike at the foundations of Social Order. If properly conducted through infancy and childhood into youth, much that is evil would be altogether swept away from among us. No means should be neglected-not of preaching or lecturing a child—but of saturating its mind with that which must be of vital importance to its high moral existence. The moral maxims in our copy-books, which those of the early part of the present century often now recall, have been set aside for an accumulation of heavy strokes and hair strokes, conveying no definite idea to the young learner of the Caligraphic Art. The infant should have an idea sown in the mind, and left there to fructify; all its organs are capable of receiving impressions for afterthought, and all should be brought into active employment; the senses are its ministers of intelligence before it can give words to its sensations; they are, so to say, the great mental pores through which it receives food. The subject is one for grave consideration and for enlarged space; but it may not be inaptly introduced in reviewing the life of Dr. Isaac Watts, who, in 'condescending to things of small estate,' has been a large benefactor to mankind. It is a curious classification, but the simplicity of Watts and the cavernlike profoundness of Young, furnish the best of good thoughts for every-day existence. When a great authority said that Dr. Watts was a poet with whom Youth and Ignorance might be safely pleased, the tribute, properly considered, was of a high order. The office of teacher having its origin in Heaven, what so god-like as to instruct the innocent and enlighten the ignorant ! Sublime names went before the Minstrel of Childhood; great names have followed since his time: acting upon the spirit of the modest introduction to his Moral Songs' (such as we wish some happy and condescending genius would undertake for the use of children, and perform much better). Many have written lyrics for the young upon his plan, borrowing as he recommended, subjects from the Proverbs of Solomon, from all the common appearances of nature, from all the occurrences of civil life, both in city and country.' Some, as Mary Howitt, and the Taylors, have done excellently well; but still, Watts' Hymns,' Watts' Moral Songs,' have been encountered by no rival; they nestle into the softest places of the heart, and hover with the visions of Childhood round the bed of Age. It was but lately we heard of the passing away of a great spirit-learned, and of account; a man of strong mind, though very old as we count years; his intellect never became filmy, it was clear to the last, and discoursing with his friends, with true Christian hope and cheerfulness as to the prospect of the Future, he said, 'It is very singular how Watts' Hymns crowd my memory; I had forgotten them for years, · |