Not only are the impressions, from which ideas are copied, made, by the injudicious conduct of those to whom the destiny of infants is confided, to follow an order very different from the natural one, or that in which the grand sequences among events would naturally produce them ; but wrong trains of ideas, trains which have no correspondence to the order of events, are often introduced immediately by words, or other signs of the ideas, of other men. As we can only give very partial examples of a general error, we may content ourselves with one of the most common. When those who are about children express by their words, or indicate by other signs, that terrific trains of ideas are passing in their minds, when they go into the dark ; terrific trains, which have nothing to do with the order of events, come up also in the minds of the children in the dark, and often exercise an uncontrollable sway during the whole of their lives.—This is the grand source of' wrong education ; to this may be traced the greater proportion of all the wrong biases of the human mind.—If an order of ideas, correspondent to the order of events, were taught to come up in the minds of children when they go into the dark, they would think of nothing but the real dangers which are apt to attend it, and the precautions which are proper to be taken ; they would have no wrong feelings, and their conduct would be nothing but that which prudence, or a right conception of the events, would prescribe.—If the expressions, and other signs of the ideas, of those who are about children, indicate that trains, accompanied with desire and admiration, pass in their minds when the rich and powerful are named, trains accompanied with aversion and contempt when the weak and the poor; the foundation is laid of a chaiacter stained with servility to those above, and tyranny to those below.—If indication is given to children that ideas of disgust, of hatred, and detestation, are passing in the minds of those about them, when particular de scriptions of men are thought of ; as men of differ ent religions, different countries, or different politi cal parties in the same country, a similar train be comes habitual in the minds of the children, and those antipathies are generated which infuse so much of its bitterness into the cup of human life.
We can afford to say but very few words on the powers of domestic education with regard to Tem perance. That virtue bears a reference to pain and pleasure. The grand object evidently is, to connect with each pain and pleasure those trains of ideas, which, according to the order established among events, tends most effectually to increase the sum of pleasures upon the whole, and diminish that of *ns. If the early trains create a habit of over-va luing any pleasure or pain, too much will be sacri ficed during life to obtain the one, or avoid the _other, and the sum of happiness, upon the whole, will be impaired. The order in which children re ceive their impreisions, as well as the order of the trains which they copy from others, has a tendency to create impatience under privation ; in other words, to make them in prodigious baste to realize a plea sure as soon as desired, to extinguish a pain as soon as felt. A pleasure, however, can be realized in the best possible manner, or a pain removed, only by certain steps,—frequently numerous ones; and if impatience hurries a man to overlook those steps, he may sacrifice more than he gains. The desirable thing would be, that his ideas should always run over those very steps, and none but them ; and the skilful use of the powers we have over the impres sions and trains of his infancy would lay the strong est foundation for the future happiness of himself, and of all those over whom his actions have any sway. It is by the use of this power that almost
every thing is done to create wltat is called the tem= per of the individual ; to render him irascible on the one hand, or forbearing on the other ; severe and unforgiving, or indulgent and placable.
Intelligence and Temperance are sometimes spo ken of, as virtues which have a reference to the hap piness of the individual himself: Benevolence as a virtue which has a reference to the happiness of others. The truth is, that intelligence and temper ance have a reference not less direct to the happi ness of others than to that of the individual; and Benevolence cannot be considered' as less essential than they to the happiness of the individual. In reality, as the happiness of the individual is bound up with that of his species, that which affects the happiness of the one, must also, in general, affect that of the other.
It is not difficult, from the expositions we have alrehdy given, to conceive in a general way, how sequences may take place in the mind of the infant, which are favourable to benevolence, and how se quences may take place which are unfavourable to it. The difficulty is, so to bring forward and exhibit the details, as to afford the best possible instruction for practice. We have several books now in our own language, in particular those of Miss Edge worth, which afford many finely selected instances, and many detached observations of the greatest va lue, for the cultivation of benevolence in the infant mind. But the great task of the philoeopher, that of theorizing the whole, is yet • to be performed. What we mean by 41 theorizing the whole," after the explanations we have already afforded, is not, we should hope, obscure. It is, to observe exactly the facts; to make a perfect collection of them, no thing omitted that is of any importance, nothing included of none; and to record them in ;hat order and form, in which all that is best to be done in practice (that is, in what manner the sequences estab lished in nature may be turned most effectually to the production of a certain end) can be most imme diately and certainly perceived. • The order of the impressions which are made upon the child by the spontaneous order of events, is, to a certain degree, favourable to benevolence. The pleasures of those who are about him are most commonly the cause of pleasure to himself; their pains of pain. When highly pleased, they are com monly more disposed to exert themselves to gratify him. A period of pain or' grief in those about him, is a period of gloom,—a period in which little is done for pleasure,—a period in which the pleasures of the child are apt to be overlooked. Trains of pleasurable ideas are thus apt- to arise in his mind, at the thought of the pleasurable condition of those around him ; trains of painful ideas at the thought of the reverse ; and he is thus led to have an habi tual desire for the one,—aversion to the other. But if pleasures, whencesoever derived, of those about him, are apt to be the cause of good to himself, those pleasures which they derive from himself are in a greater degree • the cause of good to himself. If those about him are disposed to exert themselves to please him when they are pleased themselves, they are disposed to exert themselves in a much greater degree to please hint, in particular, when it is he who is the cause of the pleasure they enjoy. A train of ideas, in the highest degree pleasurable, may thus habitually pass through his mind at the thought of happiness to others, produced by himself; a train of ideas, in the highest degree painful,- at the thought of misery to others, produced by himself: and in this manner the foundation of a life of bene ficence is laid.