The Value of Encouraging Boys
By Companion
ONE of the greatest of English divines, Isaac Barrow, received in his boyhood only blame from his father, who thought him stupid. He used to express his contempt for him, by saying that if it pleased God to take from him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac. Yet when the University of Cambridge sought for a successor to the great Newton, stupid Isaac Barrow was the man they selected. Mr. William Matthews tells an anecdote which illustrates the stupidity of some parents and teachers. A boy was brought one day to General Salem Towne, labeled as an incorrigible dunce. No master had been able to make him learn, and if Mr. Towne couldn't, he should be apprenticed to a trade. Mr. Towne proceeded299to examine him. The boy made a mistake and instantly dodged, as if frightened. "Why do you do that?" asked the master. "Because I was afraid you were going to strike me." "Why should you think so?" "Because I have always been struck whenever I made a mistake." "You need never fear being struck by me," said Mr. Towne. "That is not my way of treating boys who do as well as they can." Under the wise teacher's judicious encouragement the boy showed so much intelligence that he was sent to college. In after years he became a lawyer, an editor, a judge, a governor, United States Senator, and Secretary of War and of State. That boy was William L. Marcy, of New York. —Companion.