Correspondents and Critics. 279 



a moment can be repaired. I have put this 

 upon the ignorant nurse, but the supposedly 

 well educated parents are not one whit better. 

 Educated ! Yes, by courtesy, we say so, but 

 what a deviation from the exact state of affairs ! 

 Can any one be considered educated who has 

 absolutely no knowledge of Nature ? To daily 

 handle objects and yet know nothing of their 

 origin, to know a brick and never to have 

 heard of clay, is not to be worthily educated. 

 If a child's mind is led in the right direction 

 at the very start and inquisitiveness, which is 

 natural, is judiciously encouraged rather than 

 savagely repressed, there will be obviated the 

 great defect now so prominent, when we survey 

 the minds of the masses, indifference as to 

 Nature. Strangely enough, in later years, the 

 mistake of neglecting natural knowledge is rec- 

 ognized by many, and yet no pains are taken to 

 prevent the children from undergoing their own 

 sad experiences. This is culpable. To see a 

 child taught a downright lie and not lift a finger 

 to prevent it occurs every day, yet the bystander 

 knows that the child will suffer as he or she has 

 done. There never was a child of sound mind 



