Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health.
- Amariah Brigham
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![—do not owe their greatness to.any early mental application or discipline. On the contrary, it often appears that those who are kept from school by ill health, or some other cause, in early life, and left to follow their own incli¬ nation as respects study,* manifest in * Shakspeare, Moliere, Gibbon, Thomas Scott, Niebuhr, Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Franklin, Ritten- house, R. Sherman, Professor Lee, Gifford, Herder, Davy, Adam Clarke, &c. The last named person was a very unpromising child, and learned but little before he was eight or ten years old. But at this age he was “uncommonly hardy,” and possessed bodily strength superior to most children. He was considered a “grievous dunce,” and was seldom after life powers of mind which make them the admiration of the world. praised by his father but for his ability to roll large stones,—an ability, however, which I conceive a pa¬ rent should be prouder to have his son possess, pre¬ vious to the age of seven or eight, than that which would enable him to recite all that is contained in all the manuals, magazines, and books for infants that have ever been published. [Sir Richard Rlackmore, himself a physician,' and man of observation, remarks, that “ particular per¬ sons, by their peculiar complexion, come early to their parts, and, like summer fruit, thrive and ripen apace; while others of a less sprightly and volatile constitution advance slowly to maturity. The first make a fine bloom, and quickly bring forth, but the last are most capable of strong and durable produc¬ tion.”—Blackmore on Writing. Essays, vol. ii. 1717—S.] SECTION IV. OPINIONS OF CELEBRATED PHYSICIANS RESPECTING EARLY MENTAL CULTIVATION. Of the danger of developing the minds of children to a great degree at a very early age, I have no doubt from my own observation; but I cannot expect to produce a change in public sentiment on this subject by the publication of my own views and opinions, especially in those parts of the country where parents are generally strenuous advocates for infant schools, and early mental excite¬ ment. But I request all who have the care of children, and are desirous of giving them sound minds and sound bo¬ dies, to consider attentively the obser¬ vations of those whose situations in life, great learning, and experience, have eminently qualified them to be high authorities on this subject. Let us then inquire what are the opinions of learned and experienced medical men, as re¬ gards the cultivation of the infant mind. The celebrated Tissot, a learned and practical physician, honoured by sove¬ reigns, and the friend and intimate com¬ panion of Zimmerman, and Haller, and the most distinguished men of his time, published a work on the Health of Men of Letters, which has been greatly com¬ mended, and in Europe has had great influence. In this work he says, “ The effects of study vary much, according to the age of the student. Long conti¬ nued application in infancy destroys life. I have seen young children, of great mental activity, who manifested a pas¬ sion for learning far above their age; and I foresaw, with grief, the fate that awaited them. They commenced their career as prodigies, and finished by be¬ coming idiots, or persons of very weak minds. The age of infancy is conse¬ crated by nature to those exercises which fortify and strengthen the body, and not to study, which enfeebles it, and prevents its proper increase and development.'” After referring to in¬ stances, observed by himself and others, of disease and death caused by great mental application in youth, he adds, u I have elsewhere mentioned the in¬ jury that peasants do their children, by requiring of them more bodily labour than they ought to perform. But thosd injudicious parents who require from their children too much labour of the intellect, inflict upon them an injury far greater. No custom is more improper and cruel than that of some parents, who exact of their children much in¬ tellectual labour, and great progress in study. It is the tomb of their talents and of their health.” He concludes with this advice ; “ The employments for which your children are destined in after life should regulate their studies in youth ; not requiring (as is the cus-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30352241_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
