CONCLUSION.
Any person who has acquired the art of examining and analyzing his own
thoughts will generally find that the mental pictures which he forms of the
landscapes, or the interiors, in which the scenes are laid of the events or
incidents related in any work of fiction which interests him, are modelled
more or less closely from prototypes previously existing in his own mind,
and generally upon those furnished by the experiences of his childhood.
If, for example, he reads an account of transactions represented as taking
place in an English palace or castle, he will usually, on a careful
scrutiny, find that the basis of his conception of the scene is derived
from the arrangement of the rooms of some fine house with which he was
familiar in early life. Thus, a great many things which attract our
attention, and impress themselves upon our memories in childhood, become
the models and prototypes--more or less aggrandized and improved,
perhaps--of the conceptions and images which we form in later years.
_Nature of the Effect produced by Early Impressions_.
Few persons who have not specially reflected on this subject, or examined
closely the operations of their own minds, are aware what an extended
influence the images thus stored in the mind in childhood have in forming
the basis, or furnishing the elements of the mental structures of future
life. But the truth, when once understood, shows of what vast importance it
is with what images the youthful mind is to be stored. A child who ascends
a lofty mountain, under favorable circumstances in his childhood, has his
conceptions of all the mountain scenery that he reads of, or hears of
through life, modified and aggrandized by the impression made upon his
sensorium at this early stage. Take your daughter, who has always, we will
suppose, lived in the country, on an excursion with you to the sea-shore,
and allow her to witness for an hour, as she sits in silence on the cliff,
the surf rolling in incessantly upon the beach, and infinitely the smallest
part of the effect is the day's gratification which you have given her.
That is comparatively nothing. You have made a life-long change, if not in
the very structure, at least in the permanent furnishing of her mind, and
performed a work that can never by any possibility be undone. The images
which have been awakened in her mind, the emotions connected with them, and
the effect of these images and emotions upon her faculties of imagination
and conception, will infuse a life into them which will make her, in
respect to this aspect of her spiritual nature, a different being as long
as she lives.
_The Nature and Origin of general Ideas_.
It is the same substantially in respect to all those abstract and general
ideas on moral or other kindred subjects which constitute the mental
furnishing of the adult man, and have so great an influence in the
formation of his habits of thought and of his character. They are chiefly
formed from combinations of the impressions made in childhood. A person's
idea of justice, for instance, or of goodness, is a generalization of the
various instances of justice or goodness which ever came to his knowledge;
and of course, among the materials of this generalization those instances
that were brought to his mind during the impressible years of childhood
must have taken a very prominent part. Every story, therefore, which you
relate to a child to exemplify the principles of justice or goodness takes
its place, or, rather, the impression which it makes takes its place, as
one of the elements out of which the ideas that are to govern his future
life are formed.
_Vast Importance and Influence of this mental Furnishing,_
For the ideas and generalizations thus mainly formed from the images and
impressions received in childhood become, in later years, the elements
of the machinery, so to speak, by which all his mental operations are
performed. Thus they seem to constitute more than the mere furniture of
the mind; they form, as it were, almost a part of the structure itself. So
true, indeed, is this, and so engrossing a part does what remains in
the mind of former impressions play in its subsequent action, that some
philosophers have maintained that the whole of the actual consciousness of
man consists only in the _resultant_ of all these impressions preserved
more or less imperfectly by the memory, and made to mingle together in one
infinitely complicated but harmonious whole. Without going to any such
extreme as this, we can easily see, on reflection, how vast an influence on
the ideas and conceptions, as well as on the principles of action in mature
years, must be exerted by the nature and character of the images which
the period of infancy and childhood impresses upon the mind. All parents
should, therefore, feel that it is not merely the present welfare and
happiness of their child that is concerned in their securing to him a
tranquil and happy childhood, but that his capacity for enjoyment through
life is greatly dependent upon it. They are, in a very important sense,
intrusted with the work of building up the structure of his soul for all
time, and it is incumbent upon them, with reference to the future as well
as to the present, to be very careful what materials they allow to go into
the work, as well as in what manner they lay them.
Among the other bearings of this thought, it gives great weight to the
importance of employing gentle measures in the management and training
of the young, provided that such measures can be made effectual in the
accomplishment of the end. The pain produced by an act of hasty and angry
violence to which a father subjects his son may soon pass away, but the
memory of it does not pass away with the pain. Even the remembrance of it
may at length fade from the mind, but there is still an _effect_ which does
not pass away with the remembrance. Every strong impression which you make
upon his perceptive powers must have a very lasting influence, and even the
impression itself may, in some cases, be forever indelible.
Let us, then, take care that these impressions shall be, as far as
possible, such as shall be sources of enjoyment for them in future years.
It is true that we _must_ govern them. They are committed to our charge
during the long time which is required for the gradual unfolding of their
embryo powers for the express purpose that during that interval they may
be guided by our reason, and not by their own. We can not surrender this
trust. But there is a way of faithfully fulfilling the duties of it--if we
have discernment to see it, and skill to follow it--which will make the
years of their childhood years of tranquillity and happiness, both to
ourselves and to them.
THE END.
[Footnote A: See Frontispiece.]
[Endnote B: The "Boston Congregationalist."]