la; but they are important to all.

I have said that the motion of the child, on the arm, should be gentle.
Many are in the habit of tossing infants about. There can be no
objection to a slight and slow movement up and down, for a minute or so
at a time; indeed, it is rather to be recommended, as likely to give
strength and vigor no less than pleasure to the child. But when such
movements are carried to excess, so as to frighten the child, they are
highly reprehensible. The shock thus produced to the nervous system has
sometimes been so great as to produce sudden death. Nor is it safe to
run, jump, or descend stairs hastily or violently, with a child in our
arms; and for similar reasons.

Infants should not be carried always on the same arm, for there is
danger of contracting a habit of leaning to one side, and thus of
becoming crooked. On this account, the arm on which they rest should be
often changed. Nor should they be grasped too firmly. A skilful mother
will hold a child quite loosely, with the most perfect safety; while an
inexperienced one will grasp him so hard as to expose the soft bones to
be bent out of their place, and yet be quite as liable to let him fall
as she who handles him with more ease and freedom.

SEC. 3. _Creeping._

"Mankind must creep before they can walk," is an old adage often used to
remind us of that patient application which is so indispensable to
secure any highly important or valuable end. But it is as true
literally, as it is figuratively. The act of creeping exercises in a
remarkable degree nearly all the muscles of the body; and this, too,
without much fatigue.

Some mothers there indeed are, who think it a happy circumstance if a
child can be taught to walk without this intermediate step. But such
mothers must have strange ideas of the animal economy. They must never
have thought of the pleasure which creeping affords the mind, or of the
vigor it imparts to the body.

Children are wonderfully pleased with their own voluntary efforts. What
they can do themselves, yields them ten-fold greater pleasure than if
done by the mother or the nurse. Yet the latter are exceedingly prone to
forget or overlook all this--and to say, at least practically, that the
only proper efforts are those to which themselves give direction.

They are moreover exceedingly fond of display. Some mothers seem to
act--in all they do with and for children--as if all the latter were
good for, was display a