THE UNIVERSAL FAMILY PAPER FOR INTER-COMMUNICATIONS ON 



NATURAL HISTORY-POPULAR SCIENCE— THIN8S IN GEIERAL 



Conducted by WILLIAM kidd, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 

 Birds;" " Birds op Passage ; " "Instinct and Reason;" "The Aviary," &g. 



"the OBJECT op our work is to make men WISER, without obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS.— TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING AS WELL AS READING."— EVELYN. 



No. 48.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27. 



Price 3d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Trice Is. Id. 



THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. 



PICTURES OF SOCIETY— No. I. 

 EARLY EDUCATION. 



First Childhood comes, with all to learn; 

 And even more than all, to bear, — 

 Restraint, reproof, and punishment, 

 And pleasures seen, but not to share. 



L.E. L. 



YOU HAVE BROUGHT UNDER MY NOTICE, 



Mr. Editor, a subject with which you are 

 pleased to say I am familiar, — nay more, 

 a subject you say I am competent to dis- 

 cuss. It is at all events an interesting one. 



As regards education generally— opinions 

 vary so much, that I approach the matter 

 in hand with some little diffidence. On 

 one point however (you have yourself spoken 

 of it as " disgusting," in a former number), 

 there can be little variance. I mean the 

 prevailing fashion in children's dress. So 

 ingeniously are their garments contrived, 

 that they at once combine hideous ugliness 

 and indelicacy,with positive injury to health. 

 With respect to this latter, all medical men 

 are agreed ; and the ''other advantages" are so 

 palpably evident, that any argument thereon 

 would be idle. 



It required no inconsiderable skill, to 

 transform such beautiful creatures as Eng- 

 lish children are universally admitted to 

 be, into the accomplished " nondescripts" 

 they now appear. We readily admit that 

 the Mamma should hold undisputed sway 

 in the regions of the nursery, for the most 

 part ; but it becomes a positive duty for the 

 " Papa" to exercise his authority in pre- 

 venting his children being " deformed." He 

 has also a just right, to forbid their being- 

 habited as if in training for acrobats and 

 hallerine. 



Nor is the disregard paid to the physi- 

 cal condition of children the only prevail- 

 ing crime. What about the early dawn of 

 the mind? the awakening intelligence of 

 expanding ideas ? Are these any more closely 



watched over ? Among those to whose care 

 children are usually confided, how very few 

 are worthy of the charge — how very few merit 

 the loveable designation of bonnes, as they 

 are so happily and properly designated in 

 France ! 



Admitting that my opportunities for ob- 

 servation have been comparatively limited, 

 yet have I nowhere seen the vicious slaps, 

 violent shakings, and horrible frowns so pe- 

 culiar to the nurse-maids in this country. 

 Nor have I ever seen the cruel habit prac- 

 tised of placing children on the grass, wet 

 or dry ; while the nurse is amusing herself 

 in some other way. These habits are so 

 universally common in England, that a 

 gentle walk in the parks, or in Kensington 

 Gardens, on any fine day, would bring them 

 at once under the eye, and fill an obser- 

 vant spectator with horror. 



It would be unfeeling, were I to adduce 

 particular instances of victims crippled in 

 limbs, injured in health, ruined in temper, 

 perverted in mind, through the agency of 

 unworthy attendants ; you will therefore, 

 Mr. Editor, excuse the egotistical appear- 

 ance of commenting on individual expe- 

 rience. The well-recommended (of course !) 

 young person to whose care / was entrusted, 

 considered her own gratification and personal 

 comfort of infinitely more importance than 

 the discharge of her duty. She therefore 

 exercised my juvenile limbs by carrying me 

 in her arms to the try sting place, where, by 

 appointment, she was to meet the gamekeeper 

 of a neighboring property. Here I was 

 laid down upon the ground in a Scotch win- 

 ter : and carried back, cold as I was, to the 

 place whence I came ! The exquisite pain 

 I suffered, when the circulation was restored 

 by means of friction, warmth, and whiskey, 

 I shall never forget. Too indelibly is it graven 

 on my memory for the recollection of it 

 to be effaced. 



Ere I knew that grown-up persons become 

 old ; and that both old and young must die, 

 I was simply taught that children become 



Vol. IL 



