MOTHERS AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 795 



ing disgust or fear of any natural object — even of toads, spiders, 

 and snakes — lest she foster in the child the common superstitions 

 which attach harm to innocent creatures. And if the child brings 

 a handful of frogs' eggs, sticky and dripping, the mother had bet- 

 ter not say, " Now go away and throw those horrid, dirty things 

 out ; I will not have the house filled up with them " ; and proceed 

 to chide him for soiling his clothes and dripping water on the 

 carpet. Let her show the child she is pleased with what he has 

 done ; get a jar in which to put the eggs, call the child's attention 

 to the tiny dark spot in each egg, awaken his interest by telling 

 him how the eggs were deposited and why they are fastened 

 together in such a gelatinous mass, and that if he keeps them and 

 gives them fresh water, a little animal may come out of each one. 

 This will keep alive the spirit of investigation ; and, after all this 

 has been done, she may show the child how he might have kept 

 from soiling his clothes and the carpet. A mother should never 

 make fun of a child or laugh at his preferences, but try to enter 

 into the child's thought and feeling, and, having done this, she 

 may lead him to what she wishes. She should be patient, too ; 

 for, while the child's perceptions are often more keen and true 

 than hers, he will find it hard to follow her reasoning processes 

 and to see relations which are very simple to her. A mother 

 should teach kindness by her own treatment of helpless creatures. 

 Let her not crush the insect in the house, nor pull the weed from 

 the garden with anger or impatience, but teach her child respect 

 and kindness for all life until he has reached years when he can 

 clearly distinguish between necessity and cruelty. 



Be glad when questions are asked ; hail them, if they grow nat- 

 urally from the lessons, as the dawn of a good day for the child. 

 Never say — as many a mother and, alas ! many a teacher does in 

 answer to a child's question — " Oh, that is too hard for you ; you 

 must wait until you are older." Is it surprising that children so 

 treated lose courage and go through life thinking of every new 

 difficulty, " Oh, that is too hard for me." There is a simple side 

 to every subject ; and if a child comprehend not a tenth of what 

 is said, he is helped and satisfied by the effort to treat him as an 

 intelligent being. If the child can not answer the mother's ques- 

 tions or his own, he should, if possible, be sent to Nature herself 

 to find the answer, the mother giving only so much help as to di- 

 rect his attention and insure his finding the answer within a rea- 

 sonable time. 



The child himself should handle the objects, manipulate the 

 materials in experiments, make and record observations, and so 

 learn to give accurate attention, and to keep exact accounts of 

 what is seen, to use his own hands and eyes, to do. He who can 

 do as well as think is twice armed against poverty or misfortune. 



