The Parents Assistant | Page 4

penned for the pleasure and instruction of the juvenile portion of the
community.
"For children," says Dr. Johnson, "he condescended to lay aside the
philosopher, the scholar, and the wit, to write little poems of devotion,
and systems of instruction adapted to their wants and capacities, from
the dawn of reason to its gradation of advance in the morning of life.
Every man acquainted with the common principles of human action,

will look with veneration on the writer, who is at one time combating
Locke, and at another time making a catechism for CHILDREN IN
THEIR FOURTH YEAR. A voluntary descent from the dignity of
science is perhaps the hardest lesson which humility can teach."
It seems, however, no very easy task to write for children. Those only
who have been interested in the education of a family, who have
patiently followed children through the first processes of reasoning,
who have daily watched over their thoughts and feelings--those only
who know with what ease and rapidity the early association of ideas are
formed, on which the future taste, character and happiness depend, can
feel the dangers and difficulties of such an undertaking.
Indeed, in all sciences the grand difficulty has been to ascertain facts-
-a difficulty which, in the science of education, peculiar circumstances
conspire to increase. Here the objects of every experiment are so
interesting that we cannot hold our minds indifferent to the result. Nor
is it to be expected that many registers of experiments, successful and
unsuccessful, should be kept, much less should be published, when we
consider that the combined powers of affection and vanity, of partiality
to his child and to his theory, will act upon the mind of a parent, in
opposition to the abstract love of justice, and the general desire to
increase the wisdom and happiness of mankind. Notwithstanding these
difficulties, an attempt to keep such a register has actually been made.
The design has from time to time been pursued. Though much has not
been collected, every circumstance and conversation that have been
preserved are faithfully and accurately related, and these notes have
been of great advantage to the writer of the following stories.
The question, whether society could exist without the distinction of
ranks, is a question involving a variety of complicated discussions,
which we leave to the politician and the legislator. At present it is
necessary that the education of different ranks should, in some respects,
be different. They have few ideas, few habits in common; their peculiar
vices and virtues do not arise from the same causes, and their ambition
is to be directed to different objects. But justice, truth, and humanity
are confined to no particular rank, and should be enforced with equal
care and energy upon the minds of young people of every station; and it
is hoped that these principles have never been forgotten in the
following pages.

As the ideas of children multiply, the language of their books should
become less simple; else their taste will quickly be disgusted, or will
remain stationary. Children that live with people who converse with
elegance will not be contented with a style inferior to what they hear
from everybody near them.
All poetical allusions, however, have been avoided in this book; such
situations only are described as children can easily imagine, and which
may consequently interest their feelings. Such examples of virtue are
painted as are not above their conception of excellence, or their powers
of sympathy and emulation.
It is not easy to give REWARDS to children which shall not indirectly
do them harm by fostering some hurtful taste or passion. In the story of
"Lazy Lawrence," where the object was to excite a spirit of industry,
care has been taken to proportion the reward to the exertion, and to
demonstrate that people feel cheerful and happy whilst they are
employed. The reward of our industrious boy, though it be money, is
only money considered as the means of gratifying a benevolent wish. In
a commercial nation it is especially necessary to separate, as much as
possible, the spirit of industry and avarice; and to beware lest we
introduce Vice under the form of Virtue.
In the story of "Tarlton and Loveit" are represented the danger and the
folly of that weakness of mind, and that easiness to be led, which too
often pass for good nature; and in the tale of the "False Key" are
pointed out some of the evils to which a well educated boy, on first
going to service, is exposed from the profligacy of his fellow servants.
In the "Birthday Present," and in the character of Mrs. Theresa Tattle,
the "Parent's Assistant" has pointed out the dangers which may arise in
education from a bad servant, or a common acquaintance.
In the "Barring