compels the mother to get as much time as she can for her work, and a
child can rock the cradle. At first we had a cradle; and I rocked the
cradle, in great part, during the time that I was writing my first work,
that famous MAÎTRE D'ANGLAIS, which has long been the first book in
Europe, as well as in America, for teaching of French people the English
language. But we left off the use of the cradle as soon as possible. It
causes sleep more, and oftener, than necessary: it saves trouble; but to
take trouble was our duty. After the second child, we had no cradle,
however difficult at first to do without it. When I was not at my
business, it was generally my affair to put the child to sleep:
sometimes by sitting with it in my arms, and sometimes by lying down on
a bed with it, till it fell asleep. We soon found the good of this
method. The children did not sleep so much, but they slept more soundly.
The cradle produces a sort of _dosing_, or dreaming sleep. This is a
matter of great importance, as every thing must be that has any
influence on the health of children. The poor must use the cradle, at
least until they have other children big enough to hold the baby, and to
put it to sleep; and it is truly wonderful at how early an age they,
either girls or boys, will do this business faithfully and well. You see
them in the lanes, and on the skirts of woods and commons, lugging a
baby about, when it sometimes weighs half as much as the nurse. The poor
mother is frequently compelled, in order to help to get bread for her
children, to go to a distance from home, and leave the group, baby and
all, to take care of the house and of themselves, the eldest of four or
five, not, perhaps, above six or seven years old; and it is quite
surprising, that, considering the millions of instances in which this is
done in England, in the course of a year, so very, very few accidents or
injuries arise from the practice; and not a hundredth part so many as
arise in the comparatively few instances in which children are left to
the care of servants. In summer time you see these little groups rolling
about up the green, or amongst the heath, not far from the cottage, and
at a mile, perhaps, from any other dwelling, the dog their only
protector. And what fine and straight and healthy and fearless and acute
persons they become! It used to be remarked in Philadelphia, when I
lived there, that there was not a single man of any eminence, whether
doctor, lawyer, merchant, trader, or any thing else, that had not been
born and bred in the country, and of parents in a low state of life.
Examine London, and you will find it much about the same. From this very
childhood they are from necessity _entrusted with the care of something
valuable_. They practically learn to think, and to calculate as to
consequences. They are thus taught to remember things; and it is quite
surprising what memories they have, and how scrupulously a little
carter-boy will deliver half-a-dozen messages, each of a different
purport from the rest, to as many persons, all the messages committed to
him at one and the same time, and he not knowing one letter of the
alphabet from another. When I want to _remember_ something, and am out
in the field, and cannot write it down, I say to one of the men, or
boys, come to me at such a time, and tell me so and so. He is _sure_ to
do it; and I therefore look upon the _memorandum_ as written down. One
of these children, boy or girl, is much more worthy of being entrusted
with the care of a baby, any body's baby, than a servant-maid with
curled locks and with eyes rolling about for admirers. The locks and the
rolling eyes, very nice, and, for aught I know, very proper things in
themselves; but incompatible with the care of _your_ baby, Ma'am; her
mind being absorbed in contemplating the interesting circumstances which
are to precede her having a sweet baby of her own; and a _sweeter_ than
yours, if you please, Ma'am; or, at least, such will be her
anticipations. And this is all right enough; it is natural that she
should think and feel thus; and knowing this, you are admonished that it
is your bounden duty not to delegate this sacred trust to any body.
260. The _courage_, of which I have spoken, so necessary in the case of
washing the children in spite of their screaming remonstrances, is, if
possible, more necessary in cases of illness, requiring the application
of _medicine_, or of _surgical_ means of cure. Here the heart is put to
the test indeed! Here is anguish to be endured by a mother, who has to
force down the nauseous physic, or to apply the tormenting plaster! Yet
it is the mother, or the father, and more properly the former, who is to
perform this duty of exquisite pain. To no nurse, to no hireling, to no
alien hand, ought, if possible to avoid it, this task to be committed. I
do not admire those mothers who are _too tender-hearted_ to inflict this
pain on their children, and who, therefore, leave it to be inflicted by
others. Give me the mother who, while the tears stream down her face,
has the resolution scrupulously to execute, with her own hands, the
doctor's commands. Will a servant, will any hireling, do this? Committed
to such hands, the _least trouble_ will be preferred to the greater: the
thing will, in general, not be half done; and if done, the suffering
from such hands is far greater in the mind of the child than if it came
from the hands of the mother. In this case, above all others, there
ought to be no delegation of the parental office. Here life or limb is
at stake; and the parent, man or woman, who, in any one point, can
neglect his or her duty here, is unworthy of the name of parent. And
here, as in all the other instances, where goodness in the parents
towards the children gives such weight to their advice when the children
grow up, what a motive to filial gratitude! The children who are old
enough to deserve and remember, will witness this proof of love and
self-devotion in their mother. Each of them feels that she has done the
same towards them all; and they love her and admire and revere her
accordingly.
261. This is the place to state my opinions, and the result of my
experience, with regard to that fearful disease the SMALL-POX; a
subject, too, to which I have paid great attention. I was always, from
the very first mention of the thing, opposed to the Cow-Pox scheme. If
efficacious in preventing the Small-Pox, I objected to it merely on the
score of its _beastliness_. There are some things, surely, more hideous
than death, and more resolutely to be avoided; at any rate, more to be
avoided than the mere _risk_ of suffering death. And, amongst other
things, I always reckoned that of a parent causing the blood, and the
diseased blood too, of a beast to be put into the veins of human beings,
and those beings the children of that parent. I, therefore, as will be
seen in the pages of the Register of that day, most strenuously opposed
the giving _of twenty thousand pounds_ to JENNER _out of the taxes_,
paid in great part by the working people, which I deemed and asserted to
be a scandalous waste of the public money.
262. I contended, that this beastly application _could not, in nature,
be efficacious in preventing the Small-Pox_; and that, even if
efficacious for that purpose, _it was wholly unnecessary_. The truth of
the former of these assertions has now been proved _in thousands upon
thousands of instances_. For a long time, for _ten years_, the contrary
was boldly and brazenly asserted. This nation is fond of quackery of all
sorts; and this particular quackery having been sanctioned by King,
Lords and Commons, it spread over the country like a pestilence borne by
the winds. Speedily sprang up the 'ROYAL _Jennerian Institution_,' and
Branch Institutions, issuing from the parent trunk, set instantly to
work, impregnating the veins of the rising and enlightened generation
with the beastly matter. 'Gentlemen and Ladies' made the commodity a
pocket-companion; and if a cottager's child (in Hampshire at least),
even seen by them, on a common, were not pretty quick in taking to its
heels, it had to carry off more or less of the disease of the cow. One
would have thought, that one-half of the cows in England must have been
_tapped_ to get at such a quantity of the stuff.
263. In the midst of all this mad work, to which the doctors, after
having found it in vain to resist, had yielded, the _real small-pox_, in
its worst form, broke out in the town of RINGWOOD, in HAMPSHIRE, and
carried off, I believe (I have not the account at hand), _more than a
hundred persons_, young and old, _every one of whom had had the cow-pox
'so nicely_!' And what was now said? Was the quackery exploded, and were
the granters of the twenty thousand pounds ashamed of what they had
done? Not at all: the failure was imputed to _unskilful operators_; to
the _staleness of the matter_; to its not being of the _genuine
quality_. Admitting all this, the scheme stood condemned; for the great
advantages held forth were, that _any body_ might perform the operation,
and that the _matter_ was _every where abundant_ and cost-free. But
these were paltry excuses; the mere shuffles of quackery; for what do we
know now? Why, that in _hundreds_ of instances, persons cow-poxed by
JENNER HIMSELF, have taken the real small-pox afterwards, and have
either died from the disorder, or narrowly escaped with their lives! I
will mention two instances, the parties concerned being living and
well-known, one of them to the whole nation, and the other to a very
numerous circle in the higher walks of life. The first is Sir RICHARD
PHILLIPS, so well known by his able writings, and equally well known by
his exemplary conduct as Sheriff of London, and by his life-long labours
in the cause of real charity and humanity. Sir Richard had, I think, two
sons, whose veins were impregnated by the _grantee himself_. At any rate
he had one, who had, several years after Jenner had given him the
insuring matter, a very hard struggle for his life, under the hands of
the good, old-fashioned, seam-giving, and dimple-dipping small-pox. The
second is PHILIP CODD, Esq., formerly of Kensington, and now of Rumsted
Court, near Maidstone, in Kent, who has a son that had a very narrow
escape under the real small-pox, about four years ago, and who also had
been cow-poxed _by Jenner himself_. This last-mentioned gentleman I have
known, and most sincerely respected, from the time of our both being
about eighteen years of age. When the young gentleman, of whom I am now
speaking, was very young, I having him upon my knee one day, asked his
kind and excellent mother, whether he had been _inoculated_. 'Oh, no!'
said she, 'we are going to have him _vaccinated_.' Whereupon I, going
into the garden to the father, said, 'I do hope, Codd, that you are not
going to have that beastly cow-stuff put into that fine boy.' 'Why,'
said he, 'you see, Cobbett, it is to be done by _Jenner himself_.' What
answer I gave, what names and epithets I bestowed upon Jenner and his
quackery, I will leave the reader to imagine.
264. Now, here are instances enough; but, every reader has heard of, if
not seen, scores of others. Young Mr. Codd caught the small-pox at a
_school_; and if I recollect rightly, there were several other
'vaccinated' youths who did the same, at the same time. Quackery,
however, has always a shuffle left. Now that the cow-pox has been
_proved_ to be no _guarantee_ against the small-pox, it makes it'
_milder_' when it comes! A pretty shuffle, indeed, this! You are to be
_all your life in fear of it_, having as your sole consolation, that
when it comes (and it may overtake you in a _camp_, or on the _seas_),
it will be '_milder_!' It was not too mild to _kill_ at RINGWOOD; and
its _mildness_, in case of young Mr. Codd, did not restrain it from
_blinding him_ for a suitable number of days. I shall not easily forget
the alarm and anxiety of the father and mother upon this occasion; both
of them the best of parents, and both of them now punished for having
yielded to this fashionable quackery. I will not say, _justly_ punished;
for affection for their children, in which respect they were never
surpassed by any parents on earth, was the cause of their listening to
the danger-obviating quackery. This, too, is the case with other
parents; but parents should be under the influence of _reason_ and
_experience_, as well as under that of affection; and _now_, at any
rate, they ought to set this really dangerous quackery at nought.
265. And, what does _my own experience_ say on the other side? There are
my seven children, the sons as tall, or nearly so, as their father, and
the daughters as tall as their mother; all, in due succession,
inoculated with the good old-fashioned face-tearing small-pox; neither
of them with a single mark of that disease on their skins; neither of
them having been, that we could perceive, _ill for a single hour_, in
consequence of the inoculation. When we were in the United States, we
observed that the Americans were _never marked_ with the small-pox; or,
if such a thing were seen, it was very rarely. The cause we found to be,
the universal practice of having the children inoculated _at the
breast_, and, generally, at _a month_ or _six weeks old_. When we came
to have children, we did the same. I believe that some of ours have been
a few months old when the operation has been performed, but always while
_at the breast_, and as early as possible after the expiration of six
weeks from the birth; sometimes put off a little while by some slight
disorder in the child, or on account of some circumstance or other; but,
with these exceptions, done at, or before, the end of six weeks from the
birth, and _always at the breast_. All is then _pure_: there is nothing
in either body or mind to favour the natural fury of the disease. We
always took particular care about the _source_ from which the infectious
matter came. We employed medical men, in whom we could place perfect
confidence: we had their _solemn word_ for the matter coming from some
_healthy child_; and, at last, we had sometimes to _wait_ for this, the
cow-affair having rendered patients of this sort rather rare.
266. While the child has the small-pox, the mother should abstain from
food and drink, which she may require at other times, but which might be
too gross just now. To suckle a hearty child requires good living; for,
besides that this is necessary to the mother, it is also necessary to
the child. A little forbearance, just at this time, is prudent; making
the diet as simple as possible, and avoiding all violent agitation
either of the body or the spirits; avoiding too, if you can, _very hot_
or _very cold_ weather.
267. There is now, however, this inconvenience, that the far greater
part of the present young women have been _be-Jennered_; so that they
may _catch the beauty-killing disease from their babies_! To hearten
them up, however, and more especially, I confess, to record a trait of
maternal affection and of female heroism, which I have never heard of
any thing to surpass, I have the pride to say, that my wife had eight
children inoculated at her breast, and _never had the small-pox in her
life_. I, at first, objected to the inoculating of the child, but she
insisted upon it, and with so much pertinacity that I gave way, on
condition that she would be inoculated too. This was done with three or
four of the children, I think, she always being reluctant to have it
done, saying that it looked like distrusting the goodness of God. There
was, to be sure, very little in this argument; but the long experience
wore away the alarm; and there she is now, having had eight children
hanging at her breast with that desolating disease in them, and she
never having been affected by it from first to last. All her children
knew, of course, the risk that she voluntarily incurred for them. They
all have this indubitable proof, that she valued their lives above her
own; and is it in nature, that they should ever wilfully do any thing to
wound the heart of that mother; and must not her bright example have
great effect on their character and conduct! Now, my opinion is, that
the far greater part of English or American women, if placed in the
above circumstances, would do just the same thing; and I do hope, that
those, who have yet to be mothers, will seriously think of putting an
end, as they have the power to do, to the disgraceful and dangerous
quackery, the evils of which I have so fully proved.
268. But there is, in the management of babies, something besides life,
health, strength and beauty; and something too, without which all these
put together are nothing worth; and that is _sanity of mind_. There are,
owing to various causes, some who are _born_ ideots; but a great many
more become insane from the misconduct, or neglect, of parents; and,
generally, from the children being committed to the care of _servants_.
I knew, in Pennsylvania, a child, as fine, and as sprightly, and as
intelligent a child as ever was born, made an ideot for life by being,
when about three years old, shut into a dark closet, by a maid servant,
in order to terrify it into silence. The thoughtless creature first
menaced it with sending it to '_the bad place_,' as the phrase is there;
and, at last, to reduce it to silence, put it into the closet, shut the
door, and went out of the room. She went back, in a few minutes, and
found the child in _a fit_. It recovered from that, but was for life an
ideot. When the parents, who had been out two days and two nights on a
visit of pleasure, came home, they were told that the child had had _a
fit_; but, they were not told the cause. The girl, however, who was a
neighbour's daughter, being on her death-bed about ten years afterwards,
could not die in peace without sending for the mother of the child (now
become a young man) and asking forgiveness of her. The mother herself
was, however, the greatest offender of the two: a whole lifetime of
sorrow and of mortification was a punishment too light for her and her
husband. Thousands upon thousands of human beings have been deprived of
their senses by these and similar means.
269. It is not long since that we read, in the newspapers, of a child
being absolutely _killed_, at Birmingham, I think it was, by being thus
frightened. The parents had gone out into what is called an evening
party. The servants, naturally enough, had their party at home; and the
mistress, who, by some unexpected accident, had been brought home at an
early hour, finding the parlour full of company, ran up stairs to see
about her child, about two or three years old. She found it with its
eyes open, but _fixed_; touching it, she found it inanimate. The doctor
was sent for in vain: it was quite dead. The maid affected to know
nothing of the cause; but some one of the parties assembled discovered,
pinned up to the curtains of the bed, _a horrid figure_, made up partly
of a frightful mask! This, as the wretched girl confessed, had been done
to keep the child _quiet_, while she was with her company below. When
one reflects on the anguish that the poor little thing must have
endured, before the life was quite frightened out of it, one can find no
terms sufficiently strong to express the abhorrence due to the
perpetrator of this crime, which was, in fact, a cruel murder; and, if
it was beyond the reach of the law, it was so and is so, because, as in
the cases of parricide, the law, in making no provision for punishment
peculiarly severe, has, out of respect to human nature, supposed such
crimes to be _impossible_. But if the girl was criminal; if death, or a
life of remorse, was her due, what was the due of her parents, and
especially of the mother! And what was the due of the _father_, who
suffered that mother, and who, perhaps, tempted her to neglect her most
sacred duty!
270. If this poor child had been deprived of its mental faculties,
instead of being deprived of its life, the cause would, in all
likelihood, never have been discovered. The insanity would have been
ascribed to '_brain-fever_,' or to some other of the usual causes of
insanity; or, as in thousands upon thousands of instances, to some
unaccountable cause. When I was, in No. IX., paragraphs from 227 to 233,
both inclusive, maintaining with all my might, the unalienable right of
the child to the milk of its mother, I omitted, amongst the evils
arising from banishing the child from the mother's breast, to mention,
or, rather, it had never occurred to me to mention, the _loss of reason_
to the poor, innocent creatures, thus banished. And now, as connected
with this measure, I have an argument of _experience_, enough to terrify
every young man and woman upon earth from the thought of committing this
offence against nature. I wrote No. IX. at CAMBRIDGE, on Sunday, the
28th of March; and before I quitted SHREWSBURY, on the 14th of May, the
following facts reached my ears. A very respectable tradesman, who, with
his wife, have led a most industrious life, in a town that it is not
necessary to name, said to a gentleman that told it to me: 'I wish to
God I had read No. IX. of Mr. Cobbett's ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN fifteen
years ago!' He then related, that he had had ten children, _all put out
to be suckled_, in consequence of the necessity of his having the
mother's assistance to carry on his business; and that _two out of the
ten_ had come home _ideots_; though the rest were all sane, and though
insanity had never been known in the family of either father or mother!
These parents, whom I myself saw, are very clever people, and the wife
singularly industrious and expert in her affairs.
271. Now the _motive_, in this case, unquestionably was good; it was
that the mother's valuable time might, as much as possible, be devoted
to the earning of a competence for her children. But, alas! what is this
competence to these two unfortunate beings! And what is the competence
to the rest, when put in the scale against the mortification that they
must, all their lives, suffer on account of the insanity of their
brother and sister, exciting, as it must, in all their circle, and even
in _themselves_, suspicions of their own perfect soundness of mind! When
weighed against this consideration, what is all the wealth in the world!
And as to the parents, where are they to find compensation for such a
calamity, embittered additionally, too, by the reflection, that it was
in their power to prevent it, and that nature, with loud voice, cried
out to them to prevent it! MONEY! Wealth acquired in consequence of this
banishment of these poor children; these victims of this, I will not
call it avarice, but over-eager love of gain! wealth, thus acquired!
What wealth can console these parents for the loss of reason in these
children! Where is the father and the mother, who would not rather see
their children ploughing in other men's fields, and sweeping other men's
houses, than led about parks or houses of their own, objects of pity
even of the menials procured by their wealth?
272. If what I have now said be not sufficient to deter a man from
suffering _any_ consideration, _no matter what_, to induce him to
_delegate_ the care of his children, when very young, to _any body
whomsoever_, nothing that I can say can possibly have that effect; and I
will, therefore, now proceed to offer my advice with regard to the
management of children when they get beyond the danger of being crazed
or killed by nurses or servants.
273. We here come to the subject of _education_ in the _true sense_ of
that word, which is _rearing up_, seeing that the word comes from the
Latin _educo_, which means to _breed up_, or to _rear up_. I shall,
afterwards, have to speak of _education_ in the now common acceptation
of the word, which makes it mean, _book-learning_. At present, I am to
speak of _education_ in its true sense, as the French (who, as well as
we, take the word from the Latin) always use it. They, in their
agricultural works, talk of the 'éducation du Cochon, de l'Alouette,
&c.,' that is of the _hog_, the _lark_, and so of other animals; that is
to say, of the manner of breeding them, or rearing them up, from their
being little things till they be of full size.
274. The first thing, in the rearing of children, who have passed from
the baby-state, is, as to the _body_, plenty of _good food_; and, as to
the _mind_, constant _good example in the parents_. Of the latter I
shall speak more by-and-by. With regard to the former, it is of the
greatest importance, that children be well fed; and there never was a
greater error than to believe that they do not need good food. Every one
knows, that to have fine horses, the _colts_ must be kept well, and that
it is the same with regard to all animals of every sort and kind. The
fine horses and cattle and sheep all come from the _rich pastures_. To
have them fine, it is not sufficient that they have _plenty of food_
when young, but that they have _rich food_. Were there no land, no
pasture, in England, but such as is found in Middlesex, Essex, and
Surrey, we should see none of those coach-horses and dray-horses, whose
height and size make us stare. It is the _keep when young_ that makes
the fine animal.