very much worse to stimulate it. By acting otherwise, the parents who, on rare occasions, have a Doctor of Philosophy before the time, will often have a Bachelor of Arts, and oftener a Fool. The vine, at first luxuriating too much and sending forth clusters thickly, will, no doubt, grow to a great height, but its root will be deprived of vigor, and nothing will be durable. On the contrary, there are also slower natural capacities with which it may scarcely be possible to begin anything useful in the seventh or eighth year. Consequently, the counsel here given must be understood as applying to children of ordinary abilities, whose number is always the greater. In case any one has a child of superior or inferior talents, such would do well to consult with the teachers or inspectors of the school.
9. The signs by which the child’s ability to attend the public schools may be discovered, are the following: 1. If the child has really acquired what it behooved it to learn in the maternal school. 2. If there be discovered in the child attention and appreciation of questions, with some power of judgment. 3. If a child display some desire for further instruction.
COLLATERAL READING.
the age of twelve, without his being able to tell his right hand from his left, from your very first lessons the eyes of his understanding would open to reason.” Again; “Look on all delays as so many advantages: it is a great gain to advance toward the goal without loss. Let childhood ripen in childhood.”
