A poor little dog was once going along the streets of
a town, and a
carriage which was coming up the street very fast, ran over it, and
the poor thing was very nearly killed, but it had still strength to
crawl over to a house where a boy was standing at the door, and it
began to whine and looked up in the boy's face, as if to say, you see
how much I am hurt, so please take me in and try and cure me; but the
boy was a very cruel boy, and had no pity on the poor dog, but took
a
large pot of boiling water and threw it over the poor wounded little
dog, so that it died soon after in very dreadful pain. But the chief
governor of the place, that is, the person whom the king had put there
to punish wicked people, heard of what a cruel thing this bad boy had
done. So he brought him up to the market place, and he made a man take
off this cruel boy's clothes, and lash him on the bare back before all
the people of the town, in order that he might know a little of the
pain that the poor dog had felt. From this story, little children, you
may learn, that you must not begin to be cruel, if you do, the habit
will grow up with you as it did with this bigger boy, and will never
leave you, even when you are men.
Such lessons as these, given at proper times and when the infant mind
is in a fit state to receive them, will do more to prevent what you
wish to avoid, than any thing which could be possibly done at a more
advanced age; this is indeed moral training, and when such is given
generally in infant schools, we may look forward to a generation very
superior to the present, in the genuine parts of Christianity, and in
every moral and social virtue.
The beneficial results of moral training have been practically shown
in every infant school where the subject has been properly understood
and carried out, and numerous anecdotes illustrative of its beneficial
effects might be here introduced, which would convince those who have
any doubt on the subject, of the good effects of exercising kindness
and consideration for others, in opposition to reckless mischief,
hardheartedness, and cruelty, vices which render the lower orders
dangerous and formidable; but as a complete collection of such
anecdotes would form in themselves a volume, we will for the present
lay before our readers a few taken at random, to illustrate the
subject; they are from the appendix of the first report of the
Edinburgh Infant School Society, the model school of which was
organized by the author of this book.
"Two of the children, brothers, about five and four years of age,
coming one morning late into school, were to go to their seats without
censure, if they could give an account of what they had been doing,
which should be declared satisfactory by the whole school, who should
decide; they stated separately that they had been contemplating
the proceedings of a large caterpillar, and noticing the different
positions of its body as it crossed their path, that it was now
horizontal, and now perpendicular, and presently curved, and finally
inclined, when it escaped into a tree. The master then asked them
abruptly, Why did you not kill it? The children stared. Could you
have killed it? asked the teacher. Yes, but that would have been
cruel and naughty, and a sin against God. The little moralists were
acquitted by acclamation; having, infants as they were, manifested a
character which, were it universal in the juvenile population, would
in another generation reduce our moral code to a mass of waste paper,
in one grand department of its bulk.
"This anecdote illustrates the good effect of inculcating into
the
infant mind an abhorrence of cruelty to animals, which is too often
a
seed sown in the young heart, which goes on increasing daily with
the growth of the child, until a fearful career of crime is ended by
murder, and its necessary expiation on the scaffold. How many men who
have suffered death for murder, could date their first steps towards
it, from the time when in infancy they tortured a fly, or spun a
cock-chaffer.
"The teacher mentioned to the children one day, that he had been
occupied about a boy and a girl who had no father or mother, and whose
grandfather and grandmother, who took care of them, were bed-rid and
in great poverty. The boy was seven years of age, too old for the
infant school, but some gentlemen, he said, were exerting themselves
to get the boy into one of the hospitals. Here he purposely stopped
to try the sympathies of his audience for the girl. He was not
disappointed, several little voices called out at once, 'Oh! master!
What for no the lassie too?' he assured them the girl was to come to
the infant school, and to be boarded there; which intelligence was
received with loud plaudits."
Here we see the seeds of philanthropy sown in the young mind,
beginning, even in infancy, to burst and blossom forth, giving promise
in after years of a glorious and abundant harvest. The germ of love
and mercy is in every breast, and cannot fail to be developed, if
early called into action; and by the blessing of Almighty God, who
is the great First Cause of all good results, the day is fast
approaching, yea, is now at hand, when the fierce passions, the love
of self, the long catalogues of debasing crimes, which have so long
disgraced human nature, will give way before a golden age of true
Christianity; when man will not be arrayed against his fellow-men, but
all will go hand in hand together in the bond of love, seeking to do
good, and to accomplish the purposes for which they were created by
an
all-wise and all-benevolent God.
The following anecdote illustrates the subject still further:--
"One day, when the children were in the play-ground, four boys
occupied the boys' circular swing, while a stranger gentleman was
looking on with the teacher. Conscious of being looked at, the little
fellows were wheeling round with more than usual swiftness and
dexterity, when a little creature of two or three years made a sudden
dart forward into their very orbit, and in an instant must have
been knocked down with great force. With a presence of mind and
consideration, and with a mechanical skill,--which to admire most we
knew not, one of the boys, about five years old, used the instant of
time in which the singular movement was practicable, threw his whole
body into a horizontal position, and went clear over the infant's
head. But this was not all; in the same well employed instant it
occurred to him that that movement was not enough to save the little
intruder, as he himself was to be followed as quick as thought by the
next swinger; for this he provided, by dropping his own feet to the
ground, and stopping the whole machine the instant he had cleared the
child's head. The spectator of this admirable specimen of intellect
and good feeling, which was all necessarily the thought and act of a
moment, had his hand instinctively in his pocket for a shilling, but
was stopped by the teacher, who disowns all inferior motives for acts
of kindness and justice. The little hero, however, had his reward,
for the incident was related by the teacher in a full school, in the
presence of the strangers, and was received with several rounds of
hearty applause."
We will quote another anecdote illustrative of the good effects of
exercising the kindly feelings.
J.J. accused H.S. of having eaten up J.J.'s dinner. It was proved by
several witnesses that H.S. not only appropriated the dinner, but used
force: the charge being proved to the satisfaction of the jury (the
whole school), the same tribunal were requested by the teacher to
decide what should be the consequence to the convict. One orator rose,
and suggested that as H.S. had not yet eat his own dinner, he ought
to give it to J.J. This motion, for the children always welcome
any reasonable substitute for corporal punishment, was carried by
acclamation. When one o'clock came, and the dinner was handed over,
"coram publico," to J.J., H.S. was observed by him to be
in tears,
and lingering near his own dinner. They were by this time nearly
done, but the teacher was watching the result. The tears were too much
for J.J., who went to H.S., threw his arms round his neck, told him
not to cry, but to sit down and take half. This invitation was of
course accepted by H.S., who manifested a great inferiority of
character to the other, and furnished an example of the blindness of
the unjust to the justice of retribution, which they always feel to
mere revenge and cruelty. He could not bear to see J.J. even sharing
his dinner, and told him with bitterness that he would tell his
mother. "Weel, weel!" said the generous child, "I'll
gin y'd a'
back again." Of course the teacher interfered to prevent this gross
injustice, and in the afternoon made their school-fellows perfectly
aware of the part each had acted. It is not easy to render a character
like H.S. liberal, but a long course of such practice, for precept is
impotent in such cases, might modify what in after life would have
turned out a selfish, unjust, and unsocial character.
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