Before my reign eminent men, statesmen, legislators, and philosophers,
scarcely _condescended_ to notice such "trifles" as were comprised
in the nurture and care of infants. Perhaps in a worldly sense they were
right, for those who had attempted to instruct others in these
all-pregnant "trifles" had been invariably ridiculed for the interest
they took in "babies," and such-like "trivialities," which, in spite of
many lessons, the people would not regard as possibly prolific of serious
results.
The contempt thus thrown even on eminent men was the more extraordinary,
inasmuch as our sages had familiarized the people with the grand truth
that the greatest effects are often produced by trifling causes; that
out of the little egg came the large eagle of the country, and the huge
boa-constrictor; that innumerable mighty operations in nature have their
origin in small beginnings; that the narrow rivulet goes on gathering
strength till it becomes the Great Cataract; that the minute plague-spot
generated the virulent disease; that the acorn produces the oak; that
the impaired seed failed to produce goodly fruit; that a small drop of
leaven affected a huge mass. Lessons on the fecundity of little things
had indeed grown into commonplace household words.
Besides these lessons of the wise, love and respect for children were
mingled with the religions feelings of the people; for Elikoia, the
founder of our earliest civilization, was a child when he led the people
from idolatry to the worship of the living God.
All these considerations, however, were insufficient to shield great men
from the contempt thrown on them and on their words, when they had the
courage to let it be known that they occupied themselves with things
which, to an ordinary observer, seemed beneath notice.
From the first, however, I had been convinced of the importance of the
despised "little" things, and looked not so much to the dimensions of
the instrument as to the amount of good or evil it was capable of
effecting, having learned by experience that the magnitude of results
was often in an inverse ratio to the means employed, more especially
when applied in due season.
Soon I discovered that many of the maladies incident to children, to
youth, and to adults, owed their origin to the neglect and injudicious
treatment of the infant. I had seen numbers of interesting children,
with handsome features and well-formed limbs, who in their riper years
had become ugly, with ill-favoured features, sallow complexions, bad
expressions of countenance, misshapen forms, and crooked limbs. Many who
in early years had displayed great intelligence had become positively
stupid. It was not that the intelligence had been prematurely developed,
but that the organization had been prematurely injured, and the
brain-machine rendered incapable of giving proper expression to the
yearnings of the soul. None suffered more keenly from early physical
neglect than children of genius.
Satisfied that my observations were accurate, and that everything
contributing to husband the health, strength, beauty, and intelligence
of the child, would likewise contribute to the beauty, happiness, and
contentment of the adult, as well as his obedience to my laws, I
resolved to occupy myself with what proved to be the very important
subject of babies. In meditating on the mode of obtaining the desired
results, I considered nothing too insignificant,--not even so "small" a
thing as the scratch of a pin, sufficient at all events to make an
infant cry. The acts of crying and making wry faces disturb the lines of
the plastic clay of the child's countenance, and even the lines of the
form. The state of suffering calls off the vital electricity from its
duties in other parts of the organisation, and is attended with other
inconveniences, slight indeed in immediate perceptible effects, but so
powerful in their cumulative and germinating effects as to lead to
results which, were they related, would seem incredible.
I must content myself by saying, that although the march of these
cumulative effects is not one-tenth as visible as the almost
imperceptible movement of the hand that marks the seconds in one of our
smallest electrical watches, they nevertheless eventually show in their
result great and increasing evils, seriously affecting the child, the
youth, the adult, and the man. It would not be too much to say that the
traces of an injury, however slight, are never altogether obliterated,
whilst every successive injury and deprivation of force renders the
sufferer more open to every new inroad.
Although the minute hand of our electric watches moves almost
imperceptibly, marking minutes, hours, days, and years, it advances in
measured, limited progression; whereas the effects of suffering on the
child go on advancing in an increasing--nay, multiplying--ratio, by
which, up to a certain point, that of geometrical progression is far
exceeded. If you can realise the fact, which in Montalluyah is
incontestable, that even a scratch, however slight, will injure a child,
it will require little stretch of imagination to form some conception at
least of the injury caused to the beauty, form, health, strength, and
mind of the adult, by the many diseases and sufferings which were
allowed to leave their imprints on the young, impressionable clay and
delicate organisation of the infant. Our children were formerly
afflicted, like yours, with diseases resembling whooping-cough, croup,
measles, small-pox, and other maladies, forming an almost endless list,
and although the child survived the attacks and the incidental suffering
and waste, the evil consequences could never be effectually removed.
The precautions now taken are very numerous. Many by themselves alone
would be productive of great good, but when all are carried out, some
contemporaneously, others successively, a result is scarcely less
certain than the solution of a mathematical problem, based on accurate
premises, save of course in the case of inevitable accidents. My laws
provide for the protection of the child from its birth, nay, as I have
before stated, prior to its birth; for the protection of the parent
precedes that of the child. I knew that if the mother was sickly, or
indulged in injurious habits, the child would suffer. I enjoined
attention to these laws as a portion of the religious duties of the
people. Amongst other things I explained the value of beauty in the
human form, and how, when united with other qualities, it tended to the
happiness of the individual and the well-being of the world. This I did
at length, and in a manner to secure conviction, because it had been the
fashion to decry beauty as a matter of minor importance.
At the risk of repeating myself, I assert that I omitted nothing,
however seemingly insignificant, looking as I did upon my system as upon
one large continuous volume, in which every page had its value. The
absence of a single leaf would somewhat mar the general effect, but
still the remaining pages might retain their worth if pregnant with
good. On the other hand, if every leaf that was torn out had the effect
of loosening the rest, and causing them to be lost, till but a few would
be left in the cover, the effect would be far more serious.