3. Then it is safer that the brain be rightly consolidated before it begin to sustain labors; in an infant the whole cranium is scarcely closed, and the brain is not consolidated before the fifth or sixth year. It is sufficient, therefore, for this age to comprehend spontaneously, imperceptibly, in play, so much as is convenient in the domestic circle.
4. Besides, no benefit could arise from a different course. The shoot which is taken to be planted out while too tender, grows feebly and slowly, whereas the firmer one grows strongly and quickly. The young horse prematurely put to the carriage becomes weakened; but give him full time to grow, and he will draw the more strongly, and more than repay you for the delay.
5. In truth, it is no great delay to wait until the end of the sixth year or the beginning of the seventh, provided always that care be taken, as has been advised, that there be no failure at home during those first years of their age. If it happen that a child completes at home,[1] according to the manner prescribed, its elementary instruction in piety, good morals, reverence, obedience, and due respect to superiors; in wisdom, in promptness of action, and distinct pronunciation of words; it will by no means be too late to enter upon scholastic instruction at the termination of the sixth year.[2]
- ↑ Jean Paul Richter shares this responsibility with the father. He says: “Only by the union of manly energy and decision with womanly gentleness does the child rest and sail at the conflux of two streams. The sun raises the tide, and so does the moon; but he raises it only one foot, she three, and both united four. The husband only marks full stops in the child’s life; the wife, commas and semicolons.”
- ↑ Harriet Martineau, in her Household Education (Philadelphia, 1849), agrees with Comenius in deferring the time of sending a child to formal schools until the sixth or seventh year. She says: “School is no place of education for any children whatever till their minds are well put in action. This is the work which has to be done at home,
G
