VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.
I labour to diffuse the important good Till this great truth by all be understood, That all the pious duty which we owe Our parents, friends, our country, and our God, The seed of every virtue here below, From discipline and early culture grow. WEST.
The different chapters of a novel remind me of a convoy of vessels. Theincidents and _dramatis personae_ are so many respective freights, allunder the charge of the inventor, who, like a man-of-war, must see themall safely, and together, into port. And as the commanding officer,when towing one vessel which has lagged behind up to the rest, findsthat in the mean time another has dropped nearly out of sight, and isobliged to cast off the one in tow, to perform the same necessary dutytowards the stern-most, so am I necessitated for the present to quitNicholas and Newton, while I run down to Edward Forster and his_protegee_.
It must be recollected that during our narrative, "Time has rolled hisceaseless course," and season has succeeded season, until the infant, inits utter helplessness to lift its little hands for succour, has sprungup into a fair blue-eyed little maiden of nearly eight years old, lightas a fairy in her proportions, bounding as a fawn in her gait; her eyesbeaming with joy, and her cheeks suffused with the blush of health, whentripping over the sea-girt hills; meek and attentive when listening tothe precepts of her fond and adopted parent.
Faithful, the Newfoundland dog is no more, but his portrait hangs overthe mantle-piece in the little parlour. Mrs Beazeley, the housekeeper,has become inert and querulous from rheumatism and the burden of addedyears. A little girl, daughter of Robinson, the fisherman has beencalled in to perform her duties, while she basks in the summer's sun orhangs over the winter's fire. Edward Forster's whole employment andwhole delight has long been centred in his darling child, whose beautyof person, quickness of intellect, generous disposition, andaffectionate heart, amply repay him for his kind protection.
Of all chapters which can be ventured upon, one upon education isperhaps the most tiresome. Most willingly would I pass it over, notonly for the reader's sake, but for mine own; for his--because it cannotwell be otherwise than dry and uninteresting; for mine--because I do notexactly know how to write it.
But this cannot be. Amber was not brought up according to theprescribed maxims of Mesdames Appleton and Hamilton; and as effectscannot be satisfactorily comprehended without the causes are made known,so it becomes necessary, not only that the chapter should be written,but, what is still more vexatious, absolutely necessary that it shouldbe read.
Before I enter upon this most unpleasant theme--unpleasant to allparties, for no one likes to teach and no one likes to learn, I cannothelp remarking how excessively _au fait_ we find most elderly maidenladies upon every point connected with the rearing of our unprofitablespecies. They are erudite upon every point _ab ovo_, and it wouldappear that their peculiar knowledge of the _theory_ can but arise fromtheir attentions having never been diverted by the _practice_.
Let it be the teeming mother or the new-born babe--the teething infantor the fractious child--the dirty, pin-before urchin or sampler-spoilinggirl--school-boy lout or sapling Miss--voice-broken, self-admiringhobby-de-hoy, or expanding conscious and blushing maiden, the wholearcana of nature and of art has been revealed to them alone.
Let it be the scarlet-fever or a fit of passion, the measles or ashocking fib--whooping-cough or apple-stealing--learning too slow oreating too fast--slapping a sister or clawing a brother--let the diseasebe bodily or mental, they alone possess the panacea; and bloomingmatrons, spreading out in their pride, like the anxious chuckling hen,over their numerous encircling offspring, who have borne them with amother's throes, watched over them with a mother's anxious mind, andreared them with a mother's ardent love, are considered to be whollyincompetent, in the opinion of these desiccated and barren branches ofnature's stupendous, ever-bearing tree.
Mrs Beazeley, who had lost her husband soon after marriage, was notfond of children, as they interfered with her habits of extremeneatness. As far as Amber's education was concerned, all we can say is,that if the old housekeeper did her no good, she certainly did her noharm. As Amber increased in years and intelligence, so did her thirstfor knowledge on topics upon which Mrs Beazeley was unable to give herany correct information. Under these circumstances, when applied to,Mrs Beazeley, who was too conscious to mislead the child, wasaccustomed to place her hand upon her back, and complain of therheumatiz--"Such a stitch, my dear love, can't talk now--ask your pa'when he comes home."
Edward Forster had maturely weighed the difficulties of the chargeimposed upon him, that of educating a female. The peculiarity of hersituation, without a friend in the wide world except himself; and hisdays, in all probability, numbered to that period at which she wouldmost require an adviser--that period, when the heart rebels against thehead, and too often overthrows the legitimate dynasty of reason,determined him to give a masculine character to her education, as mostlikely to prove the surest safeguard through a deceitful world.
Aware that more knowledge is to be imparted to a child by conversationthan by any other means (for by this system education is divested of itsdrudgery), during the first six years of her life Amber knew little morethan the letters of the alphabet. It was not until her desire ofinformation was excited to such a degree as to render her anxious toobtain her own means of acquiring it that Amber was taught to read; andthen it was at her own request. Edward Forster was aware that a childof six years old, willing to learn, would soon pass by another who hadbeen drilled to it at an earlier age and against its will, and whosemind had been checked in its expansive powers by the weight whichconstantly oppressed its infant memory. Until the above age the mind ofAmber had been permitted to run as unconfined through its own littleregions of fancy as her active body had been allowed to spring up theadjacent hills--and both were equally beautified and strengthened by thehealthy exercise.
Religion was deeply impressed upon her grateful heart; but it wassimplified almost to unity, that it might be clearly understood. It wasconveyed to her through the glorious channel of nature, and God wasloved and feared from the contemplation and admiration of his works.
Did Amber fix her eyes upon the distant ocean, or watch the rolling ofthe surf; did they wander over the verdant hills, or settle on thebeetling clift; did she raise her cherub-face to the heavens, and wonderat the studded firmament of stars, or the moon sailing in her coldbeauty, or the sun blinding her in his warmth and splendour; she knewthat it was God who made them all. Did she ponder over the variety ofthe leaf; did she admire the painting of the flower, or watch themotions of the minute insect, which, but for her casual observation,might have lived and died unseen;--she felt--she knew that all was madefor man's advantage or enjoyment, and that God was great and good. Herorisons were short, but they were sincere; unlike the child who, nightand morning, stammers through a "Belief" which it cannot comprehend, andwhose ideas of religion are, from injudicious treatment, too soonconnected with feelings of impatience and disgust.
Curiosity has been much abused. From a habit we have contracted in thisworld of not calling things by their right names, it has been decried asa vice, whereas it ought to have been classed as a virtue. Had Adamfirst discovered the forbidden fruit, he would have tasted it, without,like Eve, requiring the suggestions of the devil to urge him on todisobedience. But if by curiosity was occasioned the fall of man, it isthe same passion by which he is spurred to rise again, and reappear onlyinferior to the Deity. The curiosity of little minds may beimpertinent; but the curiosity of great minds is the thirst forknowledge--the daring of our immortal powers--the enterprise of thesoul, to raise itself again to its original high estate. It wascuriosity which stimulated the great Newton to search into the laws ofheaven, and enabled his master-mind to translate the vast mysteriouspage of Nature, ever before our eyes since the creation of the world,but never till he appeared, to be read by mortal man. It is thispassion which must be nurtured in our childhood,
for upon its healthygrowth and vigour depend the future expansion of the mind.
How little money need be expended to teach a child, and yet what aquantity of books we have to pay for! Amber had hardly ever looked intoa book, and yet she knew more, that is, had more general usefulknowledge than others who were twice her age. How small was EdwardForster's little parlour--how humble the furniture it contained!--acarpet, a table, a few chairs, a small China vase, as an ornament, onthe mantle-piece. How few were the objects brought to Amber's view intheir small secluded home! The plates and knives for dinner, a silverspoon or two, and their articles of wearing apparel. Yet how endless,how inexhaustible was the amusement and instruction derived from thesetrifling sources!--for these were Forster's books.
The carpet--its hempen ground carried them to the north, from whence thematerial came, the inhabitants of the frozen world, their manners andtheir customs, the climate and their cities, their productions and theirsources of wealth. Its woollen surface, with its various dyes--each dyecontaining an episode of an island or a state, a point of naturalhistory, or of art and manufacture.
The mahogany table, like some magic vehicle, transported them in asecond to the torrid zone, where the various tropical flowers and fruit,the towering cocoa-nut, the spreading palm, the broad-leaved banana, thefragrant pine--all that was indigenous to the country, all that waspeculiar in the scenery and the clime, were pictured to the imaginationof the delighted Amber.
The little vase upon the mantle-piece swelled into a splendid atlas ofeastern geography, an inexhaustible folio, describing Indian customs,the Asiatic splendour of costume, the gorgeous thrones of thedescendants of the Prophet, the history of the Prophet himself, thesuperior instinct and stupendous body of the elephant; all that EdwardForster had collected of nature or of art, through these extensiveregions, were successively displayed, until they returned to China, fromwhence they had commenced their travels. Thus did the little vase, likethe vessel taken up by the fisherman in the Arabian Nights, contain agiant confined by the seal of Solomon--Knowledge.
The knife and spoon brought food unto the mind as well as to the body.The mines were entered, the countries pointed out in which they were tobe found, the various metals, their value, and the uses to which theywere applied, The dress again led them abroad; the cotton hung in podsupon the tree, the silkworm spun its yellow tomb, all the process ofmanufacture was explained. The loom again was worked by fancy, untilthe article in comment was again produced.
Thus was Amber instructed and amused; and thus, with nature for hishornbook, and art for his primer, did the little parlour of EdwardForster expand into "the universe."
Newton Forster; Or, The Merchant Service Page 24