CHAPTER XVII.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
_Exercise--Various positions--Exercise blended with instruction--Arithmetical and geometrical amusements_.
* * * * * "Would you make infants happy, give them variety, for novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand." * * * * * As an Infant School may be regarded in the light of a combination of the school and nursery, the _art of pleasing_, forms a prominent part in the system; and as little children are very apt to be fretful, it becomes expedient to divert as well as teach there.

If children of two years old and under are not diverted, they will naturally cry for their mothers: and to have ten or twelve children crying in the school, it is very obvious would put every thing into confusion.

But it is possible to have two hundred, or even three hundred children assembled together, the eldest not more than six years of age, and yet not to hear one of them crying for a whole day.

Indeed I may appeal to the numerous and respectable persons who have visited Infant Schools, for the truth of this assertion; many of whom have declared, in my hearing, that they could not have conceived it possible that such a number of little children could be assembled together, and all be so happy as they had found them, the greater part of them being so very young.

I can assure the reader, that many of the children who have cried heartily on being sent to school the first day or two, have cried as much on being kept at home, after they have been in the school but a very short time: and I am of opinion that when children are absent, it is generally the fault of the parents.