Also all the motions to which children can
be subjected at their early age are very useful. But in order to
preserve their tender limbs from distortion, some nations have had
recourse to mechanical appliances which straighten their bodies. To
accustom children to the cold from their earliest years is also an
excellent practice, which greatly conduces to health, and hardens them
for military service. Hence many barbarians have a custom of
plunging their children at birth into a cold stream; others, like
the Celts, clothe them in a light wrapper only. For human nature
should be early habituated to endure all which by habit it can be made
to endure; but the process must be gradual. And children, from their
natural warmth, may be easily trained to bear cold. Such care should
attend them in the first stage of life.
The next period lasts to the age of five; during this no demand
should be made upon the child for study or labor, lest its growth be
impeded; and there should be sufficient motion to prevent the limbs
from being inactive. This can be secured, among other ways, by
amusement, but the amusement should not be vulgar or tiring or
effeminate. The Directors of Education, as they are termed, should
be careful what tales or stories the children hear, for all such
things are designed to prepare the way for the business of later life,
and should be for the most part imitations of the occupations which
they will hereafter pursue in earnest.
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