RIDICULE ATTACHING TO THE SUBJECT OF BABIES.

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.