Of the use of History for Children.
CHILDREN are very fond of strange stories: it is common to see them in high delight, or in tears, at the recital of adventures: fail not to take advantage of this propensity; whenever you find them disposed to listen, tell them some short pretty fable, and let it be one relative to the animals, innocent and ingeniously composed: give them for what they are, fables; and explain the moral design of them.
As for the heathen stories, it will be happy for a girl to remain totally ignorant of them all her life-time; because they are impure, and abound with impious absurdities; but if you cannot prevent an acquaintance with some, do your endeavour to inspire an abhorrence of them.
When you have told one story, stay till the child asks for another, leaving as it were a craving upon him to be further informed; at length when his curiosity becomes excited, then have some select pieces of history to relate, in a compendious manner: let there be a connection between them, and tell a particular part one day, and another the next, that he may be held in suspence, and in impatience to hear the conclusion.
Animate your accounts with a lively tone of voice and expression; and make the personages speak: children of a lively imagination will fancy they both hear and see them: for example, recite the story of Joseph; make the brothers speak like brutish people; Jacob, like a fond afflicted father, Joseph, in his character, taking pleasure, when become the ruler over Egypt, in keeping himself from being known by his brethren, then putting them in dread of him, and at last discovering himself.
This natural representation, joined to the wonders of the history, will charm a child, provided he is not cloyed of such things, but left to ask for them, or be promised them under the notion of reward; and when he is grown wiser, and provided we never offer them by way of a task, nor oblige them to a repetition; for this is a force upon him, and what will destroy all the pleasure he takes in these historical pieces.
However, it is to be observed, that if he hath any degree of facility in speaking, he will be naturally prone to relate to those he loves, whatever stories have given him the greatest entertainment; but you are not to set him this for a rule: you may get some person that is free with him to pretend a desire to hear the story; the child will be quite delighted to tell it, and do not seem to mind him, nor take any notice of his mistakes; when he comes to be better practised, then you may with gentleness observe to him what is the best manner of telling a tale, to make it short, plain, and natural, by the choice of such circumstances as best set forth things as they truly were. If you have a number of children, use them by degrees to represent the several personages in the history they have learned: let one be Abraham, another Isaac, &c. this personating will delight them beyond other plays, and give them a habit of thinking and speaking serious matters with pleasure, and fix the transactions indelibly in their memory,
We ought to endeavour to give them a greater taste for sacred history than for any other; not by commending it as the finest, which perhaps they would not readily believe, but by bringing them to perceive it without a word said. Point out to their observation of what importance it is; how singular, marvellous, replete with natural paintings and nobly spiritous; the articles of the creation, the fall of Adam, the deluge, the call of Abraham, the sacrifice of Isaac, the adventures of Joseph abovementioned, the birth and flight of Moses, are not only proper to awake the curiosity of children, but at the same time that they discover the origin of religion, they also lay the foundations of it in the young mind.
It would argue a profound ignorance of the essence of religon, not to see that it is entirely historical: for by a web of marvellous facts, do we find its establishment, its perpetuity, and all that ought to engage us to the belief and practice thereof.
Let it not be imagined that we have any intention that people should dip into science when we propose these histories to them; for they are brief, various, and proper to please the most ordinary understandings. God, who best knows the spirit of man whom he created, hath thrown religion among popular facts, which far from overcharging the simple, assist them rather to conceive and retain the sense of its mystery: for instance, tell a child, that in God three co-equal persons make but one single nature; by hearing and repeating these terms, he will remember them; but, I doubt, not conceive the sense of them. Tell him then, how when Jesus Christ came out of the water of Jordan, the Father caused these words to be heard from heaven: ‘This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.’ Add, that the Holy Spirit descended upon our Saviour, in a bodily shape, like a dove, and you will make him sensibly perceive the Trinity in a passage which he will never forget: here are three persons whom he will ever distingush by their different actions; you have but to teach him, that all taken together constitute but one God.
This example suffices to show the use of history, which, though it seems to be a prolix method of instruction, is in reality the most compendious, and avoids the dry way of catechisms, wherein the mysteries are disjoined from the facts; and we may know, that in the antient times they taught by means of history. The admirable method of teaching which St. Austin prescribes, was not of that father’s introduction; it was the universal practice of the chuch: this consisted in demonstrating, by a series of historical facts, religion to be as old as the world, Jesus Christ expected in the old testament, Jesus Christ reigning in the new: this is the bottom of christian instruction.
This requires somewhat more time and application than the method of teaching to which some people confine themselves; however, by this series of history we are brought to a true knowledge of religion; whereas, when unacquainted with it, we have but confused notions of Jesus Christ, the gospel, the church, and of the foundation of those virtues with which the name of christian ought to inspire us.
The historical catechism printed a little while ago, a plain book, short, and much clearer than the common catechisms, includes all necessary to be known on that head, and of this no one will say that it requires a great deal of study.
To the passages I have beforementioned, let us add, the going thorough the Red Sea, the sojournment of the people in the desert, where they eat the bread which fell from heaven, and drank of the water which Moses, by the stroke of his rod, made to spring out of the rock.
Represent to them the miraculous conquest of the promised land, on which occasion the waters of Jordan turned back toward their source, and the walls of a city fell down of themselves in the view of the besiegers. Paint in natural colours the conflicts of Saul, and of David; shew the last, while yet a stripling, without arms, and in his dress of a shepherd, the vanquisher of that proud giant Goliah. Let not be forgotten the glory and wisdom of Solomon, his decision of the dispute between the two women about the child; but then describe him fallen from that height of wisdom, dishonouring himself by ease and indulgence, the almost unavoidable consequence of extreme prosperity.
Make the prophets speak to the king, in the name of the Lord; let them read futurity as a volume; appear humble, of austere life, and suffering continual persecution for the truth’s sake.
Place in its due point of time the first destruction of Jerusalem; describe the temple burned, and the holy city ruined for the sins of the people: relate the captivity in Babylon, where the Jews bewailed their beloved Sion: before their return bring in the pleasing relations of what befel Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Daniel.
It would have its usefulness, if children were brought to declare their thoughts on the different characters of these Saints, to know which affected them most: one would prefer Esther, another Judith: this would create a little contention, and so more strongly impress the stories upon their minds, and help to form their judgment.
After this, bring the people up to Jerusalem, and let them repair the ruins thereof; then form a lovely picture of the peace and prosperity of the city; in a short time after, give the portrait of that cruel and impious Antiochus, who died in hypocritical penitence.
Describe the victories of the Maccabees, under the reign of that persecutor; likewise the martyrdom of the seven brethren, of the same family. Proceed to the miraculous birth of John the Baptist; then in course recount that of Jesus Christ; after which it will be proper to select out of the gospels all the most striking passages of his life, his preaching at the Temple at 12 years of age, his baptism, his retreat into the wilderness, and temptation, his calling his Apostles, the miracle of the loaves, the conversion of that woman sinner that anointed his feet with precious unguent, washed them with her tears, and dried them with her hair.
Tell how he taught the Samaritan woman, how cured the man born blind, raised Lazarus from the dead; shew Jesus Christ entering triumphant into Jerusalem, shew him upon the cross, and at length rising out of the Sepulchre.—After this it should be remarked, with how much familiarity he consorted with his Disciples for forty days together, even till they beheld him ascend up into Heaven; —besides this, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the stoning of St. Stephen, the conversion of Paul, the calling of the centurion Cornelius, the travels of the apostles, and particularly of St. Paul, are exceedingly engaging: chuse out the most wonderful stories of the martyrs, and something in general of the heavenly life of the primitive Christians, interspersed with instances of the courage of young virgins, the astonishing austerities of the hermits, the conversion of the emperors and of the empire, the blindness of the Jews, and their terrible punishment, which lasteth to this day.
These narrations will, in a delightful manner, impress on the tender and lively imagination of a child an entire series of religion from the creation of the world to our days; give them noble ideas of it, and such as will never be effaced; they will perceive likewise in that history the hand of God ever lifted up to deliver the righteous, and to confound the wicked.
They will be used to see God, the efficient cause, in all things, drawing interceptibly into his designs those of his creatures that seem most repugnant to them.
But as to this collection of extracts, let it consist of such as afford the pleasantest, the most magnificent images; for we should by all means so manage it, that children may find religion charming, lovely, venerable; whereas their common notion of it is as of something melancholy, flat, and doleful.
Besides the inestimable benefit of thus teaching them religion, all these delightful narrations, so early infused into their memories, awaken a curiosity to be informed of things in their nature serious, render them sensible to the pleasures of the understanding, and interest them in whatever parts of history happen to bear any relation to such as they have already learned.
Yet, I say again, great care must be taken never to lay it down for a rule, that they must attend to you, must remember all; much more, never to prescribe stated lessons: no, let pleasure effect every thing.
Do not urge them, and you will bring it to bear: even for ordinary understandings, the point is not to overcharge them, but wait the gradual rise of their curiosity.
But it will be objected—to relate these several parts of history in a lively, concise, natural, and pleasing manner, where are the governesses capable of it? To which I answer, that, in proposing it, I mean that people should endeavour to procure for their children persons of good parts, and put them as much as possible into this method of teaching, and so every governess will perform according to her talent: but still, whatever her capacity is, matters will not go quite so wrong, when this natural and plain method is in practice.
To their narrations they may add the sight of prints or pictures, representing the sacred stories: prints will serve for general use. But if there should be an opportunity of shewing the children good pictures, let it not be neglected; for the glow of colours, and size of figures as big as the life, strike the imagination with much greater force.
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