Lectures on phrenology ... / [J.G. Spurzheim].

  • Spurzheim, J. G. (Johann Gaspar), 1776-1832
Date:
1837
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on phrenology ... / [J.G. Spurzheim]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    should say, take care, and you should take further measures to prevent it. We often lament the influence of vanity in the adult, but we forget that it exists in children; if we praise a child for his fine air, his fine dancing, and compliments, do not praise him too much, and do not flatter him too much; it is often, by encouraging little things, that habits become con- firmed. If you see a child inclined to tell lies, or fibs as they are called, injoke, do not encourage such fibs, for if you do, he will grow up a confirmed lar. A child may begin by stealing an apple, and afterwards other things of more conse- quence. Do notlet the powers, in their direction, be confounded with their application, As soon as a power becomes too active, exercise a check over it, by exciting another power, and then do not confound the power with its application. Another important object to be attended to in education is, that every individual is endowed with different degrees of faculties, that is, a great study, and that education gives no power, therefore we have to cultivate the powers as they exist. We lament very much in society that so many things are done as they are; we find even that education does not control sufficiently the natural propensities, even in those persons who have strong intellectual talents. It must be borne in mind, that the powers are given, and that education, although it may, if properly directed, cultivate the powers, that it can never create them. Again, the powers being observed, should be directed into a proper channel, and this can never be done, until persons are acquainted with the nature of the fundamental powers of the mind, A man may be a good mathematician, but a bad moralist, and yet such a man is brought up to the church; and you know there are many preachers who say you must do as I say, and not as I do. Persons fitted by nature for soldiers, are brought up to the gown, and the reverse. Employ every individual accord- ing to his natural gifts. The priests, who, during the dark ages, had the management of education, knew the importance