An education not provided in this manner, an apparatus set up independently of a popular choice and control, can never be valued as it must be to be availing.”
We gladly turn from the institutes of man to the ordinances of God. In the laws of that religion by which Jehovah reigned before His ancient people gloriously, there is no enactment which dissolves parental responsibility in the education of children; and none which transfers it. He spake of the great ancestor of that people the encomium which contained the germ of their government: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the law, to do justice and judgment.” This was to be the rule of transmission. “Teach them thy sons and thy sons’ sons.” “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house.” “He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children.” Not less tender, distinct, and authoritative is the Christian law: “Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.” No one can doubt that the Bible enjoins on parents the duty of carefully training up their children, and of making it the grand purpose of this life to prepare them for heaven.
By a beautiful provision for keeping up the healthy interaction of the social forces, when the period of adolescence is reached, the sympathies burst the boundary of the domestic circle, and, through delicate and often inscrutable affinities, seek objects of attachment in the outer world. The upper, the middle, and the lower classes, for various reasons must go out into society. That principles of character can be imparted is one of the plainest doctrines of the Bible, as well as one of the commonest facts of human experience. For this express purpose, all the educative agencies of home, the school, the platform, the press, and the pulpit, have been instituted, are kept in operation. The Christian Church was formed by its Divine Head that all those to whom His words are spirit and life, should impart them to others. Christianity is a propagandist system, and is designed to revolutionize not the opinions so much as the ideas and motives of humanity. When we look at hundreds of girls, in pairs and triads, engaged in incessant and animated conversation; when we think of the influences under which their characters are forming, and remember that these characters, in all probability, will last through life,—we almost shrink back from the reflection, that here are the mothers of the next generation! If there is contamination here, the consequences are more disastrous than we are able to compute. Mutual influence is a law that embraces all worlds, pervades all the kingdoms of nature, and reaches its climax in humanity. All the elements and laws of the lower kingdom are summed up here; and magnetism, affinity, and gravitation find their spiritual archetypes in the influence of mind on mind. The character is like a piece of potter’s clay, which when fresh and new, is easily fashioned according to the will of those into whose hands it falls; but its form once given, and hardened, either by the slow drying of time, or by its passage through the ardent furnace of the world, any one may break it to atoms, but never bend it again to another mould.
To borrow the language of a writer in the Quarterly Review: “However difficult it may be to account philosophically for what is called national character—to explain precisely in what it consists, or how exactly it is formed—no one will venture to deny that there is such a thing; some secret influence of climate and soil, combining with the still more inexplicable peculiarities of the races of men, and which seems to a considerable degree independent even of education or individual qualities. The steady English, the wary Scotch, the testy Welsh, the volatile French, the phlegmatic Dutch, the artistic Italian, the solemn Spaniard,—all these are crowded into so small a space of the earth’s surface as some twenty degrees of latitude and longitude; and having most of the essential circumstances of social influence common to all, yet are each marked with a national stamp, indelible in natives, and still frequently distinguishable for two or three generations in families that have migrated into other countries.” But although in each of the great national circles of society, we find characteristics which mark it out socially and morally from others, we must not judge individuals nationally. All the English are not freighted to the water with stability; nor are all the Scotch remarkably cautious; nor are the tempers of all the Welsh like touchwood or tinder; nor are all the French frivolous; nor are all the Dutch lazy; nor are all the Italians painters; nor are all the Spaniards distinguished for gravity. Still nations, as such, have their idiosyncrasies, as attested by well authenticated history and by present facts.
If we narrow the social circle, we find that where association is closer, characteristics are more distinct. Every religious denomination has its own features clearly marked and firmly set. In every province, city, and town, we see the influence of association in the formation of character. It is illustrated in every circle, from the kitchen of the maid-servant to the throne of the British queen.
IMPARTATIVE AND RECEPTIVE ELEMENTS.
All are conscious of a desire to imbue others with their sentiments. This ambition is always strong in a mind of high intensity. It is the natural yearning of active powers for appropriate activity—the mind’s impulse to develope its energies and extend its dominion. Minds that burn with the fire of genius, or the nobler fires of zeal and love, cannot repress their energies; but seek to distinguish themselves, and to influence those with whom they come in contact. There are magnetic souls that penetrate with their looks, and inspire with their ideas. In all ages and countries the gentler sex afford illustrations of a desire to impart themselves and mould others.
What then are those elements,—those sources of power and strength which are the vital mainsprings in the formation of your character?
Imitation plays an important part in this great work. The same passion that impels you to seek society, impels you to take part with your companions in their interests and inclinations. Insensibly you fall into their customs and manners, adopt their sentiments, their passions, and even their foibles. This principle is especially active in children; hence they love to mimic whatever strikes the organ of sense; and soon as the young idea begins to shoot, and the embryo of the character to appear, they form themselves unconsciously after the similitude of those with whom they converse. But for this their progress would be very slow, and their conformity to persons and things around them very slight. With this faculty spontaneously active, how soon they learn to talk, to adopt the peculiarities of others, and copy the mechanical and other inventions! Now, women are but children of larger growth, and are mightily influenced by imitation. Follow, therefore, the example of good women. As the moral virtues constitute the highest order of human excellence and endowment, copy them wherever you find them. Theatricals are the legitimate product of imitation. Shall they be patronized? Undoubtedly they might be so conducted as to become a great public blessing; but as they are at present managed, they are undoubtedly a great curse. Still, those who deplore the influence of the theatre should labour to correct it, rather than seek to demolish it altogether; for it is founded on a natural element of the human mind, and must live as long as humanity exists. Destroyed it can never be, any more than hunger or any other natural or legitimate product of any other faculty. All that remains is to sanctify and rightly wield its mighty power for good. Nevertheless, we must express our unequivocal disapproval of the theatre as now conducted, and warn you especially against it.
There is in human nature a strong tendency to sympathise with others in their modes of thought and feeling. All know something about the readiness with which the act of yawning is induced in a company if a single person begins to yawn; the facility with which hysterical convulsions are induced in a female hospital ward by a single case; the fascination of its prey by the serpent, apparently by the power of the eyes; the similar power exerted by so-called electro-biologists and mesmerists, and by which some can control even the fiercest carnivora. Sympathy is a mighty power, and may aid you mightily in the formation of your character. In no country is it more deeply felt than our own, where a free press, free speech, and free association, are in full operation. Just as matter has a tendency to conform to the temperature of surrounding matter, so mind has a tendency to cool or kindle with surrounding minds. An effort to benefit others operates beneficially upon those who put it forth; thus proving that people cannot be made a blessing to others without enjoying an enlarged blessing themselves. The great events of life, which stir the deepest feelings of the human heart—birth, marriage, death—occur in every household, lighting up with a common joy, or involving in the shadow of a common gloom, the palace and the cottage alike. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” How near does our beloved queen seem to be to the poorest widow in the land, now that, amid all the pomp of her royalty and the splendour of her unrivalled station, she is suffering from the painful sense of her great bereavement. Moreover, the heart of the country at once thrills with sympathy when tidings are heard of some great disaster, that has brought death to many, and desolation and misery to more; though they may be the poorest of the poor, and dwellers in some far-off land. It is not more true, however, that we weep with those who weep, than that we rejoice with those who rejoice. There is a charm in general gladness that steals upon us without our perceiving it; and if we have no cause of sorrow, it is sufficient for our momentary happiness that we be in the company of the happy.