726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they may be keen judges of character and conduct and "be well 

 able to hold their own in a bargain or an argument. Of a class 

 of about thirty girls from eight to thirteen years of age living 

 east of the Bowery, only three had been in Central Park and only 

 four had ever visited the country. When taken to Central Park 

 by a friend, they first asked if they might step on the grass, and 

 then, with the natural instinct of young animals, lay down and 

 rolled on it. 



As already remarked, it is natural for the young child to move 

 about and change its attitude almost incessantly ; in the words of 

 Sir William Jenner, " it joys to exercise every muscle " ; and it is 

 equally true that its eyes, attention, and mind should never be 

 directed continuously at one object for very long. A child loves 

 to glance at this object, pick up that, reach out for a third, not 

 restlessly but wonderingly, caressingly, and joyously, just as a 

 short time before the infant played contentedly with its rattle or 

 its ring, waving it about or putting it into its mouth with end- 

 less repetition, but always without studious observation or strain 

 of attention. I am afraid we often injure these small eyes and 

 tender brains by requiring continuous repose of body and fixa- 

 tion of eye and attention on some one object, as is often done in 

 the kindergarten and primary work, at the cost of ocular and 

 nervous strain; and this combined with bad light and general 

 driving may account for much of modern myopia, headache, and 

 nervous troubles. We should advance in the education of mus- 

 cle, eye, and brain from the general to the particular, and impose 

 no task requiring precision or intense application upon young 

 children. Nature is a good schoolmistress, and her lessons are fun- 

 damental ones, no matter how much we may supplement them at 

 school or university. The infant is learning fundamental lessons, 

 in the correlation of muscle, brain, and sense, through the almost 

 incessant activity of his arms and legs at first without purpose, 

 afterward in reaching, grasping, or trying to move about, and 

 also when it smiles back at its mother or is quieted by her voice ; 

 so is the child repeating nursery rhymes or busy with its quiet 

 play or romping games ; or the youth with his carpenter's tools, 

 or riding, swimming, or hunting, and learning just as truly, and 

 perhaps more truly, than the student burning midnight oil over 

 Greek and calculus. Nature is never systematic in the school 

 sense ; and, however much we may systematize, we must at the 

 same time cultivate our powers and round out our individuality 

 by keeping in touch with so much of Nature and man as lies with- 

 in our horizon in a restful, informal way. If a man is to develop 

 into something more than a machine or formula, he should be en- 

 couraged from childhood to bring all his powers into relation 

 with his environment and to seek a wide range of adjustments 



