After the severe bereavement mentioned above, I still persevered in my favourite study, and learned more from my own

children than I did

before, having to act in the double capacity of father and mother. I am well aware of the loss my children sustained by the above calamity. In the
matter of training, nothing can replace a good mother,—and such indeed she eminently was! I felt the heavy stroke more severely, and my
children did also; but I consoled myself with the reflection, that my loss was her gain, and that she had lived to witness fruits of her unparalleled
labours, to the thorough abandonment of self, and the glory of her Maker. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these little ones, ye have
done it unto me." Night and day, when I had time to think, such promises as these cheered and sustained me in doing what I could for my own
motherless children, and more and more cemented my affections on the children of others, and, finally, enabled me to mature my plans, and
gave me strength and courage to carry them out, first in the villages and places near London, and, ultimately, single-handed and alone, through
more than a quarter of a century, in many of the chief cities, towns, and villages of the United Kingdom. Simply to state this fact is all that is
requisite here to answer my present purpose, and to enlarge more upon it is needless, as a full detail of the whole career is given in my "Early
Discipline Illustrated; or, the Infant System Progressing and Successful," third edition, published in 1840, and to which much more would require
adding to bring it down to the present time, if a further edition should be called for.

That prejudice should assail me, and objections be started as I came more out into the world, was to be expected. I knew my own intentions,
but the world did not, and I came in for a full share of obloquy and persecution. This did me much good, and was a preparatory discipline, to
make me careless of the opinion of mankind in the matter, so long as I felt that I was in the right, and had the approval of my own conscience.
The more I was opposed, the more were my energies lighted up and strengthened; opposition always sharpened my faculties, instead of
overcoming and depressing me. The whole gradually prospered from the first, under every disadvantage and notwithstanding the strenuous
efforts of the short-sighted and bigoted. These things laid my first patrons prostrate, and the Society of great names which followed, was soon
dissolved. Every effort was made by the enemies of true training and education, to crush the thing in the bud, and not only the thing, but also the
man who developed it and worked it out. Thank God, these inimical aims did not succeed. Though worldly patrons failed, I had one Patron who
never deserted me, but Who upheld and encouraged me from first to last, until the end was gained. Not, however, all that was aimed at, but
much of it, and the rest will follow or I am greatly mistaken. I have in various places seen things that I earnestly contended for, but which were
rejected at the time, at length established and their value seen. Look at the schools in existence now, bad as some of them are, and compare
them with those which existed a third of a century ago, and it will be found that they have progressed, and it may safely be anticipated that they
will still further progress, for there is much need of it. The system pourtrayed in this book is intended to act on all the faculties of a child,
especially the highest, and to strengthen them at the time the mere animal part of his nature is weak. The existing schools were not found fit to
take our children when they left us. The dull, monotonous, sleepy, heavy system pursued, was quite unadapted to advance such pupils. At this
point of the history much damage was done to our plans. The essence or kernel was omitted and the mere shell retained, to make infant
schools harmonise with the existing ones, instead of the contrary. There were and are however two great exceptions to this rule. The Model
Schools at Dublin under the Government Board of Education, and the Glasgow Training Schools for Scotland. At Dublin all is progression. The
infant department is the best in Europe,—I believe the best in the world. The other departments are equally good in most things, and are well
managed, as far as regards a good secular education being given, and better I think than any similar institution in England. At Glasgow the
same master whom I taught still exists. I have not seen the schools for many years, but I hear from those who have been trained there, that
nothing can work better. The Glasgow Committee, with Mr. Stow at their head, deserve the thanks of the whole community for having applied
the principles on which the Infant School System is based, to juveniles, and carried out and proved the practicability of it for the public good. I
told them this in lectures at Glasgow long ago, and exhibited before them children to prove the truths I promulgated, both there and in other
parts of Scotland, to convince a doubting and cautious public that my views were practicable. I may add, in passing, that I found the Scotch
took nothing on trust. They would listen to my lectures, but it always ended in my being obliged to prove it with children. To David Stow much
credit is due, for having written useful books and performed useful works. I am not the man to deprive him of this his just due, but I have such
faith in the honour of his countrymen in general, that I believe the time is not far distant when some one of them will give to me that credit
which is fairly and justly due to me with respect to the educational movements in Scotland. No class of men are better able to appreciate and
understand the principles on which a system of true education should be based than Scotchmen, and hence, though cautious in taking up new
things, or new views of things, they can do justice to, and appreciate, that which is worthy of their attention.

At the time I have been speaking of there were no lessons published suitable for us. I searched the print shops in the metropolis, and with the
aid of drawings from friends, supplied this deficiency. Next I had suitable lessons printed to accompany them, and also spelling lessons of such
words as could be acted and explained. Then followed suitable reading lessons, prints of objects, and the simple forms of geometry. When a
demand was created for all these, the publishing trade took them up, and thus the numerous excellent plates and lessons now published for the
purposes of teaching, had their first origin.

I ant thoroughly convinced that the first seven years of a child's life is the golden period, and if I can induce mankind generally to think with me,
and to act on the principles humbly laid open in the succeeding chapters of this book, I may feel some consolation that I have not lived in vain.
Sure I am that if the world will only give man a fair chance, and train him from the beginning with care, with prudence, with caution, with
circumspection, with freedom, and above all with love, he will bear such fruit, under the blessing of God, as will make even this world as a
paradise. From childhood up to age has this truth been perfecting and strengthening in me, and I have no more doubt that it is a truth, than I
have of my own existence. Who can look upon a child without admiring it, without loving it? With my feelings it is impossible! When I compare
the Revealed Will of God,—the Scriptures, with His other Great Book, the book of nature, which I read so early in life, and read with delight to this
present hour, I see the one illustrates the other. I see that the best ground produces the rankest weeds—but not if cultivated. What does not care
do for all things in nature, why not then for man? Let him run wild through neglect, and undoubtedly he produces weeds; but this, to my mind, is
an argument in his favour, and shews the ground is capable of producing rich fruits. When we study the true nature of his mind, with the same
assiduity as we now do study the nature of his body, then will mankind see it in this light, begin at the right end, and cultivate from the first the
beautiful faculties of his own species. I say beautiful! and are not the budding faculties of childhood both beautiful and lovely? "Feed my lambs,"
saith the Lord Jesus. But, reader, are they all duly fed in this rich, wealthy, and christian country? How many, on the contrary, are fed with evil
influences, street associations, and are thus poisoned at every pore, until their being is thoroughly contaminated through neglect, public and
private, and, when not orphans, even parental neglect also; and then after having increased our county rates, enlarged our prisons, and built
union workhouses (with respect to morals and training for the young, I say pest-houses) we add ragged schools. We allow them to become
contaminated, and when that is accomplished, we go to work to undo what has been done. If this does not succeed we punish by law the poor
neglected beings for taking the poisons we really offered them! Oh, rare consistency in this boasted age of light, and science, and learning! Let
us, therefore, first seek an education worthy of the name, and then find the best means of carrying it out. What exists at present is
fundamentally defective, especially by beginning too late, and as regards the plans and principles laid down for infants in many cases, much
has been merely travestied, and many of the most essential parts entirely set aside or overlooked.

The amount of solid information that may be given to an infant by a wise and judicious mother, during the first two years only, would appear to
many persons astonishing. I have as clear a recollection of what my mother taught me at two years old, as I have of that which she taught me
at the age of six. The facts crowd upon me so fast that I scarcely know where to stop. Those lessons were the germs of the inventions and
babyisms—the hand-clapping, arm-twisting, and the like—with which the infants are so delighted in their schools, and which, at the time they
were developed, about a third of a century since, were scouted, and the inventor looked upon as a good natured simpleton, or a well-meaning
fool. I have a rather vivid recollection of this fact, but in the end, as we proceeded, many who came to sneer, went away with very different
feelings. The plans were for infants, for infants they answered well, but I wish I could say that no excresences had grown upon them.