BUT touching the Affections and Passions of their Minds, great Care must be taken, that they be not provoked to Wrath or Anger, nor frighted with fearful Notions or Phantasms; since such Things make strong Impressions upon their soft Bodies, and frequently give Origin to Convulsions, Epilepsies, &c. However, as Children are naturally more prone to Evil than to Good, and to Vice rather than to Virtue, they are not to be too much indulged; but from their Infancy upwards, all such perverse Faculties and Passions of Mind are to be so curbed and moderated, that they may become subservient and obedient to Reason; and that because this very Age is the proper Time to lay the Foundation of their future good Qualities and Disposition, agreeable to the Rules and Præscripts of a right rational Oeconomy.
I know This is sometimes accounted a hard Task, but if we consider that the Whelps of Savage Bears and Lions may be so tamed, as to obey the Motions of their Keeper, how much more easily may the Sons of Men be inur’d to follow the Laws of right Reason? Their Passion first discover themselves most commonly by Crying and Tears, tho’ sometimes also otherways; wherefore such Fits of Anger or Passion ought to be prudently reprehended in them; and when neither Admonitions nor Commands may prevail, then Threats ought to take place, that all Frowardness and Obstinacy may be stifled in the Bud; for the Mind of Youth may be justly compar’d to a Mass of Wax or Clay, on which we may readily stamp what Impression we please to make.
FOR these Reasons, their Attendants, or such other Persons as may be occasionally about Children, ought carefully to avoid doing or saying any mean, base or vile Thing, especially in their Presence or to their Knowledge; since here the old Proverb holds most true, that, we are drawn by Precept, but led by Example. Wherefore to moderate and mitigate their Passions, Children ought to be allowed proper Diversions, and such Exercises of Body as their Age and Constitution will permit; and that also, because if they were to be brought up lazily or sluggishly, without Motion or Exercise, their Victuals which is now commonly given them both plentifully and frequently, could not possibly disperse itself nor digest, upon which the innate Heat would infallibly suffer a sensible Decay.
THESE Things being duly observed, it now only farther remains, that the Child be well train’d up, and carefully educated; instilling all along into its Mind the Principles of Humanity and Morality, and instructing it gradually in the Knowledge of Arts and Sciences; which it will even at this tender Age be found capable of Conceiving: For the Human Mind being naturally adapted to attain to the Cognition of all sublunary Things, may be thus endued and furnished with the most laudable Arts, before it can distinguish the Use of them; since according to the Philosopher’s wise saying[[185]], Nostrum scire nihil aliud est, quam Reminsisci. Because (I say) the Mind of Man perceives and comprehends the Notion and Knowledge of all temporal Things in it self, notwithstanding that it cannot easily display it self, by reason of the burthensome Oppression of the Body and its gross Humours: Like as a Fire, overlaid with Ashes, must be raised up and fomented, before its engender’d or retain’d Sparkles can exert themselves with any Lustre; so it is even with us, before the Light and Instinct of our Natures can shine forth: For as some Roots cast no Smell, or breathe no Fragrancy of themselves, unless they be softly touched or squeezed with the Hand; so neither do our Natural Powers and Faculties exert or show themselves, unless they be diligently exercised and cultivated.
THUS we have now guided and conducted the Child from its Birth, to the Seventh Year of his Age; which being only meant by the Infant, that was safely Born, and continued all along in Health; I come now in the next place, to hint upon what is farther Requisite towards the rearing of such Children, whole Misfortune it may be, either to come into the World with Infirmities, or to be afterwards subjected to them in their Cradles. And First,
CHAP. X.
Of the various Symptoms and Indispositions wherewith the Child may be Born.
SINCE some only, not all Children, happen to bring Infirmities with them into the World; and because such Indispositions as are chiefly meant here, discover themselves presently at the Time of Birth, and require immediate Cure; I shall concisely enter upon, and briefly comprehend them All here, as they most commonly fall out, in this present Chapter.
IN order to which, I shall previously observe, that such Inconveniencies happening to the Infant, may have a double Origin, and proceed either from a Defect in Nature, or the Effect of a difficult Birth: The First may take Rise from various Causes, such as of the Parental Seed, the Forming Faculty, the Maternal or Uterine Constitution, an illegitimate Time of Birth, and the like; as the Latter may also arrive, not only from a Difficult, or Preternatural Labour, &c. but also from the ignorant, rough Usage, or barbarous Treatment of the Midwife. However, not to insist too long on these Things, it very often, and too commonly happens.