Another domestic amusement is the collecting of shells, plants, and
specimens in geology and mineralogy, for the formation of cabinets.
If intelligent parents would procure the simpler works which have been
prepared for the young, and study them with their children, a taste
for such recreations would soon be developed. The writer has seen young
boys, of eight and ten years of age, gathering and cleaning shells
from rivers, and collecting plants and mineralogical specimens, with
a delight bordering on ecstasy; and there are few, if any, who by
proper influences would not find this a source of ceaseless delight
and improvement.
Another resource for family diversion is to be found in the various
games played by children, and in which the joining of older members
of the family is always a great advantage to both parties, especially
those in the open air.
All medical men unite in declaring that nothing is more beneficial to
health than hearty laughter; and surely our benevolent Creator would
not have provided risibles, and made it a source of health and enjoyment
to use them, if it were a sin so to do. There has been a tendency to
asceticism, on this subject, which needs to be removed.
Pages:
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442