Chapter XXIV
"I labour to diffuse the important good Till this great truth by all be understood, That all the pious duty which we owe Our parents, friends, our country, and our God, The seeds of every virtue here below, From discipline and early culture grow." WEST.
The different chapters of a novel remind me of a convoy of vessels. Theincidents and _dramatis personae_ are so many respective freights, allunder the charge of the inventor, who, like a man-of-war, must see themall safely, and together, into port. And as the commanding officer, whentowing one vessel which has lagged behind up to the rest, finds that inthe meantime another has dropped nearly out of sight, and is obliged tocast off the one in tow, to perform the same necessary duty towards thesternmost, so am I necessitated for the present to quit Nicholas andNewton, while I run down to Edward Forster and his _protegee_.
It must be recollected that, during our narrative, "Time has rolled hisceaseless course," and season has succeeded season, until the infant, inits utter helplessness to lift its little hands for succour, has sprungup into a fair blue-eyed little maiden of nearly eight years old, lightas a fairy in her proportions, bounding as a fawn in her gait; her eyesbeaming with joy, and her cheeks suffused with the blush of health, whentripping over the sea-girt hills; meek and attentive when listening tothe precepts of her fond and adopted parent.
"Faithful," the Newfoundland dog, is no more, but his portrait hangsover the mantel-piece in the little parlour. Mrs Beazely, thehousekeeper, has become inert and querulous from rheumatism and theburden of added years. A little girl, daughter of Robertson, thefisherman, has been called in to perform her duties, while she basks inthe summer's sun or hangs over the winter's fire. Edward Forster's wholeemployment and whole delight has long been centred in his darling child,whose beauty of person, quickness of intellect, generous disposition,and affectionate heart, amply repay him for his kind protection.
Of all chapters which can be ventured upon, one upon education isperhaps the most tiresome. Most willingly would I pass it over, not onlyfor the reader's sake, but for mine own; for his--because it cannot wellbe otherwise than dry and uninteresting; for mine--because I do notexactly know how to write it.
But this cannot be. Amber was not brought up according to the prescribedmaxims of Mesdames Appleton and Hamilton; and as effects cannot besatisfactorily comprehended without the causes are made known, so itbecomes necessary, not only that the chapter should be written, but,what is still more vexatious, absolutely necessary that it should beread.
Before I enter upon this most unpleasant theme--unpleasant to allparties, for no one likes to teach, and no one likes to learn,--I cannothelp remarking how excessively _au fait_ we find most elderly maidenladies upon every point connected with the rearing of our unprofitablespecies. They are erudite upon every point _ab ovo_, and it would appearthat their peculiar knowledge of the _theory_ can but arise from theirattentions having never been diverted by the _practice_.
Let it be the teeming mother or the new-born babe--the teething infantor the fractious child--the dirty, pinafored urchin or sampler-spoilinggirl--school-boy lout or sapling Miss--voice-broken, self-admiringhobby-de-hoy, or expanding conscious and blushing maiden, the wholearcana of nature and of art has been revealed to them alone.
Let it be the scarlet fever or a fit of passion, the measles or ashocking fib--whooping-cough or apple-stealing--learning too slow oreating too fast--slapping a sister or clawing a brother--let the diseasebe bodily or mental, they alone possess the panacea; and bloomingmatrons, spreading out in their pride, like the anxious clucking hen,over their numerous encircling offspring, who have borne them with amother's throes, watched over them with a mother's anxious mind, andreared them with a mother's ardent love, are considered to be whollyincompetent, in the opinion of these dessicated and barren branches ofNature's stupendous, ever-bearing tree.
Mrs Beazely, who had lost her husband soon after marriage, was not fondof children, as they interfered with her habits of extreme neatness. Asfar as Amber's education was concerned, all we can say is, that if theold housekeeper did no good, she certainly did her no harm. As Amberincreased in years and intelligence, so did her thirst for knowledge ontopics upon which Mrs Beazely was unable to give her any correctinformation. Under these circumstances, when applied to, Mrs Beazely,who was too conscientious to mislead the child, was accustomed to placeher hand upon her back, and complain of the rheumatiz--"Such a stitch,my dear love, can't talk now--ask your pa when he comes home."
Edward Forster had maturely weighed the difficulties of the chargeimposed upon him, that of educating a female. The peculiarity of hersituation, without a friend in the wide world except himself; and hisdays, in all probability, numbered to that period at which she wouldmost require an adviser--that period, when the heart rebels against thehead and too often overthrows the legitimate dynasty of reason,determined him to give a masculine character to her education, as mostlikely to prove the surest safeguard through a deceitful world.
Aware that more knowledge is to be imparted to a child by conversationthan by any other means (for by this system education is divested of itsdrudgery), during the first six years of her life Amber knew little morethan the letters of the alphabet. It was not until her desire ofinformation was excited to such a degree as to render her anxious toobtain her own means of acquiring it that Amber was taught to read; andthen it was at her own request. Edward Forster was aware that a child ofsix years old, willing to learn, would soon pass by another who had beendrilled to it at an earlier age and against its will, and whose mind hadbeen checked in its expansive powers by the weight which constantlyoppressed its infant memory. Until the above age, the mind of Amber hadbeen permitted to run as unconfined through its own little regions offancy, as her active body had been allowed to spring up the adjacenthills--and both were equally beautified and strengthened by the healthyexercise.
Religion was deeply impressed upon her grateful heart; but it wassimplified almost to unity, that it might be clearly understood. It wasconveyed to her through the glorious channel of nature, and God wasloved and feared from the contemplation and admiration of His works.
Did Amber fix her eyes upon the distant ocean, or watch the rolling ofthe surf; did they wander over the verdant hills, or settle on thebeetling cliff; did she raise her cherub-face to the heavens, and wonderat the studded firmament of stars, or the moon sailing in her coldbeauty, or the sun blinding her in his warmth and splendour;--she knewthat it was God who made them all. Did she ponder over the variety ofthe leaf; did she admire the painting of the flower, or watch themotions of the minute insect, which, but for her casual observation,might have lived and died unseen;--she felt, she knew that all was madefor man's advantage or enjoyment, and that God was great and good. Herorisons were short, but they were sincere; unlike the child who, nightand morning, stammers through a "Belief" which it cannot comprehend,and whose ideas of religion are, from injudicious treatment, too soonconnected with feelings of impatience and disgust.
Curiosity has been much abused. From a habit we have contracted in thisworld of not calling things by their right names, it has been decried asa vice, whereas it ought to have been classed as a virtue. Had Adamfirst discovered the forbidden fruit he would have tasted it, without,like Eve, requiring the suggestions of the devil to urge him on todisobedience. But if by curiosity was occasioned the fall of man, it isthe same passion by which he is spurred to rise again, and reappear onlyinferior to the Deity. The curiosity of little minds may be impertinent;but the curiosity of great minds is the thirst for knowledge--the daringof our immortal powers--the enterprise of the soul, to raise itselfagain to its original high estate. It was curiosity which stimulated thegreat Newton to search into the laws of heaven, and enabled hismaster-mind to translate the vast mysterious page of Nature, ever beforeour eyes since the creation of the world, but never, till he appeared,to be read by mortal man. It is this passion which must be nurtured inour childhood, for upon its heal
thy growth and vigour depends the futureexpansion of the mind.
How little money need be expended to teach a child, and yet what aquantity of books we have to pay for! Amber had hardly ever looked intoa book, and yet she knew more, that is, had more general usefulknowledge than others who were twice her age. How small was EdwardForster's little parlour--how humble the furniture it contained!--acarpet, a table, a few chairs, a small China vase, as an ornament, onthe mantel-piece. How few were the objects brought to Amber's view intheir small secluded home! The plates and knives for dinner, a silverspoon or two, and their articles of wearing apparel. Yet how endless,how inexhaustible was the amusement and instruction derived from thesetrifling sources!--for these were Forster's books.
The carpet--its hempen ground carried them to the north, from whencethe material came, the inhabitants of the frozen world, their mannersand their customs, the climate and their cities, their productions andtheir sources of wealth. Its woollen surface, with its variousdyes--each dye containing an episode of an island or a state, a point ofnatural history, or of art and manufacture.
The mahogany table, like some magic vehicle, transported them in asecond to the torrid zone, where the various tropical flowers and fruit,the towering cocoa-nut, the spreading palm, the broad-leaved banana, thefragrant pine--all that was indigenous to the country, all that waspeculiar in the scenery and the clime, were pictured to the imaginationof the delighted Amber.
The little vase upon the mantel-piece swelled into a splendid atlas ofeastern geography, an inexhaustible folio describing Indian customs, theAsiatic splendour of costume, the gorgeous thrones of the descendants ofthe Prophet, the history of the Prophet himself, the superior instinctand stupendous body of the elephant; all that Edward Forster hadcollected of nature or of art, through these extensive regions, weresuccessively displayed, until they returned to China, from whence theyhad commenced their travels. Thus did the little vase, like the vesseltaken up by the fisherman in the "Arabian Nights," contain a giantconfined by the seal of Solomon--Knowledge.
The knife and spoon brought food unto the mind as well as to the body.The mines were entered, the countries pointed out in which they were tobe found, the various metals, their value, and the uses to which theywere applied. The dress again led them abroad; the cotton hung in podsupon the tree, the silkworm spun its yellow tomb, all the process ofmanufacture was explained. The loom again was worked by fancy, until thearticle in comment was again produced.
Thus was Amber instructed and amused: and thus, with nature for hishornbook, and art for his primer, did the little parlour of EdwardForster expand into the "universe."
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