holding them by the button and gossipping with them about scenes and characters, studies and pastimes, which "in the long ago" figured so largely in their lives, and even now are so tenderly cherished in their memories. 66 Oh, happy years! once more who would not be—a boy?" "There is a spot of earth supremely blest, Definition of " a boy"-Boys not alike-Various types-The boy best studied "at home"-At school he loses his individuality-At home he may be seen as he is-Lord Macaulay's home-life in his boyhood -James Watt-Ferguson-Dr. Robertson-Faraday-Washington A protest against too much "play" The character must be shaped and good habits acquired at home-The boy in his relations to his father and his mother-"What will my mother think?" an anecdote-Great men and their mothers-Boys and their brothers and sisters-Brotherly love illustrated-On the importance of good manners -Politeness in the family-Kind words-Studying in the holidaysReading at home-Early rising-Anecdotes and examples-Pleasures of early rising-Perseverance-A short story-Sticking to one's work -Alexander Anderson-A golden word to remember-William Jackson-Hippolyte Flandrin -Longfellow's "Village Blacksmith ". Conquering a bad temper-Abauzit of Geneva-St. Francis de Sales -Miseries of a bad temper-Persevere !-Truthfulness-Anecdotes and examples-Fatal consequences of lying-A young hero-Keeping your eyes open-How to see and what to see-Anecdote of the Duke of Wellington-How some people wear glasses "-Doing in the day the day's work-Procrastination is the thief of time-A song for every day. F I were writing a treatise on natural history, and wanted to define the animal "boy," I should be greatly puzzled. That is, I should be greatly puzzled if I relied upon "authorities;" for they do not differ more respecting the chronology of Manetho or the object of the Great Pyramid than they do in reference to the A 2 DIFFICULTY OF DEFINITION. characteristics and qualifications of the said animal. Granted that he is a biped and a mammal, with a brain and a heart(but is this granted ?)-warm-blooded, five-fingered, and the like; what is to be said of his moral qualities? According to some, he is quarrelsome, refractory, idle, selfish; according to others, lazy, negligent, apathetic; according to others, high-spirited, active, generous, but stupid; and according to others again-but these are indulgent grandmothers-he is a miracle of physical energy and intellectual vivacity. His detractors say he is "fit for nothing," and (forgetting their own boyhood) never will be fit for anything; his friends (alas! they are few) affirm that he is gifted with all the virtues, and will inevitably work out a most brilliant career. And the difficulty is, not only that such diverse opinions prevail as to the genus, but that even as to a particular individual of the genus they are usually most astonishingly antagonistic. You will find the same boy described by A. as indolent and incapable'; by B. as a good lad, who might be anything if he tried; by C. as a noble fellow, who will laugh at the frowns of circumstance and conquer Fortune. Nay, more; you will find him characterised in the most contradictory manner by one and the same person. The boy who is pointed at as a monster in the morning will be eulogised as an angel before night! This violent oscillation of opinion is generally observed in female critics, the boy's "sisters, or his cousins, or his aunts;" but everybody will see that it helps to increase the dubiety with which an impartial naturalist approaches the subject. With regard to other animals, it is possible to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. There are fixed and authentic data to guide us. We know nowadays even what a chameleon is, and have settled the origin of a barnacle goose. We have ascertained that the lion is not half so fine a quadruped as he was painted; and everybody can tell you that the sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, does not deserve the English name he bears. You have only to visit the nearest aquarium to ascertain all about the octopus, and convict Monsieur Victor Hugo of tremendous exaggeration in his account of that monster of the deep. The animal world has been examined and classified and microscopified to the minutest fragment of protoplasm or bathybius. But when we turn to the genus "Puer" (family Homo, order Adolescens), VARIOUS TYPES OF BOYS. 3 we find ourselves launched all at once into an ocean of doubt and hesitation. Not for want of specimens-oh! dear no ; they abound-but because observers are apparently unable to agree in the result of their observations. It is true that Mr. Shirley Hibberd asserts that boys are all alike, except as to the colour of the hair or pinafore; that they all inherit the same pride, the same devil-may-care" ambition, the same spirit of mischief, and the same freemasonry of mutual confidence: but wiser and more careful critics know that this is a grave error. No doubt the genus has certain well-marked characteristics which are to be found in all its species and individuals; but as much may be said of the genus Felis or the genus Canis, and yet it would be wrong to say that all cats or all dogs are alike. Mr. Hibberd goes on to inquire:-"Where is the boy who is willing to be outdone by a playmate? Where is the boy who will acknowledge to being beaten in fight with one of another school?" But these questions prove nothing. They apply only to what naturalists call generic characters," and do not affect the distinctive qualifications of individuals. Boys all alike! Why, they differ as much as men! There are boy-Washingtons, boy-Borgias, boy-Napoleons, boy-Cromwells, boy-Wallaces, boy-Newtons. There is the boy who loves truth, and the boy who delights in fibs; the boy who shares his cake with his schoolfellow, as King Alfred shared his loaf with the beggar; and the boy who hoards it in his secret cell, as Elwes, the miser, hoarded his useless gold. There is the brave boy, with honour bright as a warrior's sword; and the cowardly boy, who, to save his skin or spare his comfort, descends to any meanness. There is the industrious boy, who sows that he may reap; and the idle boy, who cares neither for seed-time nor harvest. And it is just because of this vast variety in the species of the genus that the naturalist feels it so irksome a task to arrive at an accurate and comprehensive definition. After all, if we wish to attain to anything like exactness, we must study the boy at home. At school he loses much of his individuality, and assumes more of the "generic characters;" though the extent of this assumption necessarily depends upon the temperament and disposition of the individual. In a crowd everybody feels inclined to do what his neighbour does. If you plunge into a mob shouting, as London mobs shouted 4 INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION. upwards of a century ago, "Wilkes and Liberty!" the chances are that you will shout "Wilkes and Liberty" also. There is a certain magic in the influence of association to which we are all of us more or less subject. The calmest will share in the excitement of his neighbours; a member of the Peace Association will hurrah if involved in the midst of a multitude who are welcoming a successful warrior. That which makes us ourselves is temporarily overcome by that which makes our affinity with our fellows. So in the school or the playground; Aristides and Cato are Aristides and Cato no longer; they are scholars in the same class or members of the same "eleven;" and Aristides puts off his robe of justice, and Cato his toga of conscious rectitude, for the nonce. The best boys lose somewhat, and the worst boys gain somewhat, by contact with one another. Then, again, school-life seems to lead to a kind of unconscious deception—that is, the boy does not reveal himself exactly as he is,-he tones down this and he colours up that in order to win the good opinion of his neighbours. He does not intend to deceive; most probably he is wholly unconscious of what he is doing: he is insensibly acted upon by the genius loci and the spirit of companionship. No doubt this tendency may be carried to a dangerous extreme, and a boy may sink his own individuality with irreparable loss; but in general, and on the whole, it works well: it subdues aggressive and objectionable characteristics; it wakes latent sympathies, and frequently encourages shrinking and timid virtues. The school and the playground bring a boy down to his right level. "A year after the prodigy has been at academy," says Bulwer Lytton, "father and mother, uncle and aunt, plague you no more with his doings and sayings; the extraordinary infant has become a very ordinary little boy." Nowhere else are "windbags" pricked so pitilessly; nowhere else is the mask of pretence and affectation so ruthlessly stript off. It is at school, and only at school, that there is a little truth in Mr. Hibberd's dictum that boys are all alike. They are not all alike, but they are much more alike than when each is developing his real self under the sweet home influences; and this because no boy likes to appear singular and eccentric; to avoid such an appearance he glides into the uniformity maintained by his fellows. And this we take to be the reason that the greatness of so many great men has never been suspected or anticipated |