The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond.

  • Drummond, W. B. (William Blackley), 1868-1937.
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bodies placed near them, so that they can walk about freely and avoid obstacles even in a strange place. If such a remarkable and far-reaching series of organic changes can be brought about by a change in the physical environment, what may not result from a change in the social, or the mental, or the moral world in which the child grows up? Every child, no matter what his parentage, comes into the world with numerous possi- bilities; with numerous tendencies both good and evil. What these are depends upon his nature; which of them are to develop and what form they are to take depend upon his nurture. Let him come into the world with strong social instincts, these may atrophy if he is brought up in solitude, or may make of him, according to his nurture, a society man, or a philanthropist, or an anarchist. The importance of education both for the purpose of imparting instruction and for moulding character is of course well recognised. What is not sufficiently realised is the importance of these early months and years which nature has set apart in order that each generation may start afresh. The past acquirements of the race are not simply transmitted to the infant. They have in large measure to be re-acquired by each individual. There should be far more earnestness in our endeavour to understand the child, the hope of the family and of the nation, and to surround him with every helpful and wholesome influence. ‘‘ During earliest childhood,” said Plato, “ the soul of the nursling should be made cheerful and kind, by keeping away from him sorrow and fear and pain, by soothing him with the sound of the pipe and with rhythmical movement.” HEREDITY.—Yet though I speak strongly of the influence of nurture, I would not be thought to under- value the importance of a good stock. Children are not