JOYS OF HOME. 43 



her never lift her arms over her head. The second joy is 

 when the child appears. At once let it have some fine 

 honey, with a few grains of powdered hyacinth or emerald. 

 It may be weaned when the first teeth appear, but long 

 lactation is a good thing ; Plotinus is said to have been 

 suckled until he was seven years old. 



But it is when infants first begin to use their feet that 

 " they first become delightful, and this is the third joy of 

 parents. As the joy increases, greater still becomes the 

 fear : for they are both one feeling. And as the fear in- 

 creases, greater still becomes the solicitude and watchful 

 care. If they become frightened, let them at once be 

 steadied by the helping nurse." Surely we have here an 

 insight into Jerome's heart ! 



Let the young child, he further says, be shut out from 

 the sight or hearing of all ill. When he is about seven 

 years old, let him be taught elements of geometry to cul- 

 tivate his memory and his imagination. With syllogisms 

 cultivate his reason. Let him be taught music, and espe- 

 cially to play upon stringed instruments ; let him be in- 

 structed in arithmetic and painting, so that he may ac- 

 quire a taste for them, but not be led to immerse himself 

 in such pursuits. He should be taught also a good hand- 

 writing, astrology, and when he is older, Greek and Latin 1 . 



1 The preceding summary is taken from Cardan's Proxenata, seu 



