Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / [Amariah Brigham].

  • Amariah Brigham
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / [Amariah Brigham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tioii 73 Not only should the propensity of the youth to imitation be regarded in teaching “ accomplishments, and every thing connected with grace,” but in forming the moral character also. Every person knows that “ the imitation of any expression strongly marked by the countenance and gestures of another person, has a tendency to excite, in some degree, the correspond- ing passion in our own minds;’’and when it is considered how prone children are to imitation, we shall feel the importance of habitually exhibiting, both in looks and actions, only such feelings as we wish them to possess. Parents w'ho are constantly mani- festing fretful and unhappy dispositions, will do much towards producing like dispositions in their children. From these observations, those who have the care of educating children cannot fail to see the importance 73 See his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. 3. Chapter on the Principle of Law of Sympathetic Imitation. The whole chapter is very deserving of attention. After remarking that this principle has important effects in relation to onr morai constitution, he adds, “The reflection which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of Falstaff, with respect to the manners of Justice Shal. low and his attendants, and which Sir John c.'ipresses with all the precision of a philosophical observer, and all the.dignity of a moralist, may be extended to the most serious concerns of life. It is a won. derful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men’s spirits and bis; they, by observing of him, do bear themselves like foolish Justices; he by conversing with them, is turned into a.justice-like serving-man. Their spirits are so married in conjunction, with the Ijarticipatiou of society, that they flock together in concert, like wild geese. It is certain that either ivise hearing or ignorant car- riage is caught as men take disease; therefore, let meu take heed of their coni]jauy.” 71 Stewart.