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FIRESIDE EDUCATION. |
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parrot of the Brazilian grove, uttering his wild jargon in freedom, is a superior bird to the imprisoned parrot, who has been taught to speak, and who, as a diploma given in evidence of his liberal education, has his tongue severed in twain. But speech is essential to man. It is evidently the design of the Creator that man should be the master of an articulate language, and that this should be the great instrument, not only of communicating ideas, but of unfolding and amplifying the intellectual powers.
Thus, while the animal tribes have their language by intuition, man must acquire his through the process of education. The tongue, the ear, the lungs, all the oral mechanism, consisting of a thousand nerves, muscles, and fibres, must each and all be instructed, each and all must be taught of experience, each and all must receive line upon line, and precept upon precept. The first articulate syllable of an infant is a gigantic effort. The acquisition of a language, simple as it may seem, is the result of innumerable efforts of a similar kind.
Thus far, our remarks have been chiefly confined to the physical powers of man and animals. While the latter come to their perfection in a few hours or a few months after their birth, and reach the full development of their faculties |
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