tured, and their absurdity apparent; and so may they remain a permanent source of injury to the mental tranquillity, and by necessary consequence to the physical health. The superstitious weakness of Doctor Johnson,-and it may be, also, that dread of death which so continually haunted him, weighing like a nightmare on his moral energies, and imbittering his existence,--were, in all likelihood, the result of injudicious associations awakened in the education of his early years. We read in Plutarch that the Spartan nurses used the children "to any sort of meat, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all ill-humor and unmanly crying."*

Sporting with the timidity of children, as startling them with sudden and uncommon noises or sights, which appears to afford so much amusement to some inconsiderate people, cannot be too severely censured. And equally censurable is the practice of playing upon their natural fears as a mode of punishment, or to enforce their obedience, as shutting them up in the dark, threatening them with some of the many nursery spectres which have been created to help inefficient parents in subduing their misgoverned and therefore refractory offspring. The most melancholy consequences, as convulsions, deafness, idiocy, and even death, have sometimes happened to children from such culpable practices. Some mothers, to still their children to sleep, are in the habit of indiscreetly threatening them with Rawhead and Bloody-Bones, or other frightful spectres, thus oftentimes

* Life of Lycurgus.

inducing on their tender and naturally timid minds an impression, deep, lasting, and harmful. If a mother cannot quiet her child to rest in a more innocent way than by working upon its fears, she had better content herself to bear its noise till sleep comes of itself, which it always will do in proper time to the young, healthful, and crimeless. Objections equally forcible may be urged against terrifying and confounding the mind while yet unconfirmed, with the awful mysteries and punishments of religion; subjects which always perplex, and often disorder even the ripest intellects.

Why is it, it may be asked, that so large a proportion of young children, even at the present period of boasted light and philosophy, are afraid to be left a moment by themselves in the dark; are so loth to go to bed, or about the house alone after nightfall, although well assured that there are no earthly dangers to hurt them, but that their fancies have been unwisely wrought upon through the idle tales of superstition?

Children, I am convinced, suffer far more from the influence under notice than most persons are prone to suspect; since ashamed to be thought cowards-and at what period of life are we not?-they will studiously conceal the fears which are preying on their health, and crushing all their moral energies. Hence, bodily infirmities in them, excited and maintained by fear, may often be imputed to a physical origin, and they, in consequence, be made the subjects of medicinal treatment, which weakening yet further the powers of the constitution, and thereby adding to the

nervous susceptibility, serves but to aggravate the effect of the secret cause.

We can now unerstand how important it is, both as regards their moral and physical well-being, to keep the young as much as possible from the society of ignorant and superstitious domestics, who are always ready to administer to their eager cravings for supernatural marvels. Parents, to escape the noise and trouble of their children, are too prompt to submit them to the care of servants, so that many really receive a much larger share of their primary education in the kitchen than in the parlor. That such should be the case is certainly to be regretted, it belonging to our imitative nature readily to acquire the habits, manners, and modes of thinking and speaking of those with whom we habitually associate. And more especially is this true in early life, when the mind and body are unfolding themselves, and the brain, soft and delicate, receives with the greatest facility every new impression. Boerhaave relates that a schoolmaster near Leyden being squint-eyed, it was found that the children placed under his care soon exhibited a like obliquity of vision. It has been well observed, that there is a necessity for us either to imitate others, or to hate them.

Fearlessness and self-reliance, let me add, in conclusion of the present chapter, operate at all periods of life as a healthful stimulus alike to mind and body; wherefore such feelings ought ever, and in a more particular manner when the moral and physical functions are undergoing development, to be assiduously nurtured. To such salutary feel

ings, moreover, good conduct is always most propitious. The opposite being essentially blended with fear and distrust, must, therefore, however it may serve us in respect to mere external goods, be incompatible with the true interests. both of our mental and bodily constitution.

CHAPTER XX.

FEAR CONCLUDED.--THAT PECULIAR MODIFICATION

TERMED HORROR, SUMMARILY EXAMINED.

OF FEAR

THAT singular mental feeling which we express by the word horror, consists in a deep and painful detestation, almost always more or less mingled with fear, of particular and, commonly, familiar objects. This, I am aware, is not the only sense in which the term is used, but it is the one to which I shall especially restrict it in the present chapter; and, taking its original Latin meaning (a shivering or quaking, as from fear, or the cold fit of an ague), none certainly could better indicate the physical phenomena of this afflictive moral feeling.

The manifestations of horror, as exhibited in the physical organization, are mostly the same as those presented in simple fear-as sudden paleness, coldness, and contraction of the skin, with the consequent elevation of the hairs; also chills and rigors, or general tremors of the body, with panting, and oppression of the heart and lungs; and, when immoderate, it will give rise to the like train of melancholy