In conducting the education of young people, it is a nice matter to inspire them with so much benevolent sympathy, or compassion, as may render them good and amiable; and yet not so much as to make them unhappy at the sight of incurable distress. We should endeavour to make them alive to sympathize with all remediable evils, and at the same time to arm them with fortitude to bear the sight of such irremediable evils, as the accidents of life must frequently present before their eyes. About this I have treated more at large in a plan for the conduct of a boarding school for ladies, which I intend to publish in the course of the next year.
[25]. Educatio heroica. From the kinds and degrees of insanities already enumerated, the reader will probably recollect many more from his own observation; he will perceive that all extraordinary exertions of voluntary action in consequence of some false idea or hallucination, which strongly affects us, may philosophically, though not popularly, be termed an insanity; he will then be liable to divide these voluntary exertions into disagreeable, pernicious, detestable, or into meritorious, delectable, and even amiable, insanities. And will lastly be induced to conceive, that a good education consists in the art of producing such happy hallucinations of ideas, as may be followed by such voluntary exertions, as may be termed meritorious or amiable insanities.
The old man of the mountain in Syria, who governed a small nation of people called Assassines, is recorded thus to have educated those of his army who were designed to assassinate the princes with whom he was at war. A young man of natural activity was chosen for the purpose, and thrown into a deep sleep by opium mixed with his food; he was then carried into a garden made to represent the paradise of Mahomet, with flowers of great beauty and fragrance, fruits of delicious flavor, and beautiful houries beckoning him into the shades. After a while, on being a second time stupified with opium, the young enthusiast was reconveyed to his apartment; and on the next day was assured by a priest, that he was designed for some great exploit, and that by obeying the commands of their prince, immortal happiness awaited him.
Hence it is easy to collect how the first impressions made on us by accidental circumstances in our infancy continue through life to bias our affections, or mislead our judgments. One of my acquaintance can trace the origin of his own energies of action from some such remote sources; which justifies the observation of M. Rousseau, that the seeds of future virtues or vices are oftener sown by the mother, than the tutor.
ORDO [II].
Decreased Volition.
GENUS [I].
With decreased Actions of the Muscles.
Our muscles become fatigued by long contraction, and cease for a time to be excitable by the will; owing to exhaustion of the sensorial power, which resides in them. After a short interval of relaxation the muscle regains its power of voluntary contraction; which is probably occasioned by a new supply of the spirit of animation. In weaker people these contractions cease sooner, and therefore recur more frequently, and are attended with shorter intervals of relaxation, as exemplified in the quickness of the pulse in fevers with debility, and in the tremors of the hands of aged or feeble people.