Charlotte M. Mason (continued 7)

May I hope, in concluding this short review of the subjects proper for a child’s intellectual education, that enough has been said to show the necessity of grave consideration on the mother’s part before she allows promiscuous little lesson-books to be put into the hands of her children, or trusts ill-qualified persons to strike out methods of teaching for themselves?

FOOTNOTES:

PART VI THE WILL—THE CONSCIENCE—THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE CHILD

I.—THE WILL

Government of Mansoul.—​We have now to consider a subject of unspeakable importance to every being called upon to sustain a reasonable life here, with the hope of the fuller life hereafter; I mean, the government of the kingdom of Mansoul. Every child who lives long enough in the world is invested, by degrees, with this high function, and it is the part of his parents to instruct him in his duties, and to practise him in his tasks. Now, the government of this kingdom of Mansoul is, like that of some well-ordered states, carried on in three chambers, each chamber with its own functions, exercised, not by a multitude of counsellors, but by a single minister.

Executive Power vested in the Will.—​In the outer of the three chambers sits the Will. Like that Roman centurion, he has soldiers under him: he says to this man, Go, and he goeth; to another, Come, and he cometh; to a third, Do this, and he doeth it. In other words, the executive power is vested in the will. If the will have the habit of authority, if it deliver its mandates in the tone that constrains obedience, the kingdom is, at any rate, at unity with itself. If the will be feeble, of uncertain counsels, poor Mansoul is torn with disorder and rebellion.

What is the Will?—​I do not know what the will is; it would appear to be an ultimate fact, not admitting of definition: but there are few subjects on which those who have the education of children in their hands make more injurious mistakes; and therefore it is worth while to consider, as we may, what are the functions of the will, and what are its limitations.

Persons may go through life without deliberate act of Will.—​In the first place, the will does not necessarily come into play in any of the aspects in which we have hitherto considered the child. He may reflect and imagine; be stirred by the desire of knowledge, of power, of distinction; may love and esteem; may form habits of attention, obedience, diligence, sloth, involuntarily—that is, without ever intending, purposing, willing these things for himself. So far is this true, that there are people who live through their lives without an act of deliberate will: amiable, easy-going people, on the one hand, hedged in by favouring circumstances; and poor souls, on the other, whom circumstances have not saved, who have drifted from their moorings, and are hardly to be named by those to whom they belong. Great intellectual powers by no means imply a controlling will. We read how Coleridge had to be taken care of, because he had so little power of willing. His thoughts were as little under his own volition as his actions, and the fine talk people went to hear was no more than an endless pouring forth of ideas connected by no other link than that of association; though so fine was his mind, that his ideas flowed methodically—of their own accord, so to speak.

Character the Result of Conduct regulated by Will.—​It is not necessary to say a word about the dignity and force of character which a confirmed will gives to its possessors. In fact, character is the result of conduct regulated by will. We say, So-and-so has a great deal of character, such another is without character; and we might express the fact equally by saying, So-and-so has a vigorous will, such another has no force of will. We all know of lives, rich in gifts and graces, which have been wrecked for the lack of a determining will.

Three Functions of the Will.—​The will is the controller of the passions and emotions, the director of the desires, the ruler of the appetites. But observe, the passions, the desires, the appetites, are there already, and the will gathers force and vigour only as it is exercised in the repression and direction of these; for though the will appears to be of purely spiritual nature, yet it behaves like any member of the body in this—that it becomes vigorous and capable in proportion as it is duly nourished and fitly employed.

A Limitation of the Will disregarded by some Novelists.—​The villain of a novel, it is true, is, or rather used to be, an interesting person, because he was always endowed with a powerful will, which acted, not in controlling his violent passions, but in aiding and abetting them: the result was a diabolical being out of the common way of nature. And no wonder, for, according to natural law, the member which does not fulfil its own functions is punished by loss of power; if it does not cease to be, it becomes as though it were not; and the will, being placed in the seat of authority, is not able to carry its forces over to the mob—the disorder would be too fearful; just as when the executive powers of a state are seized upon by a riotous mob, and there are shootings in the highways and hangings from the lanterns, infinite confusion everywhere.

Parents fall into this Metaphysical Blunder.—​I am anxious to bring before you this limitation of the will to its own proper functions, because parents often enough fall into the very metaphysical blunder we have seen in the novel-writer. They admire a vigorous will, and rightly. They know that if their child is to make his mark in the world, it must be by force of will. What follows? The baby screams himself into fits for a forbidden plaything, and the mother says, ‘He has such a strong will.’ The little fellow of three stands roaring in the street, and will neither go hither nor thither with his nurse, because ‘he has such a strong will.’ He will rule the sports of the nursery, will monopolise his sisters’ playthings, all because of this ‘strong will.’ Now we come to a divergence of opinion: on the one hand, the parents decide that, whatever the consequence, the child’s will is not to be broken, so all his vagaries must go unchecked; on the other, the decision is, that the child’s will must be broken at all hazards, and the poor little being is subjected to a dreary round of punishment and repression.

Wilfulness indicates want of Will Power.—​But, all the time, nobody perceives that it is the mere want of will that is the matter with the child. He is in a state of absolute ‘wilfulness,’—the rather unfortunate word we use to describe the state in which the will has no controlling power; willessness, if there were such a word, would describe this state more truly. Now, this confusion, in the minds of many persons, between the state of wilfulness and that of being dominated by will, leads to mischievous results even where wilfulness is not fostered nor the child unduly repressed: it leads to the neglect of the due cultivation and training of the will, that almost divine possession, upon the employment of which every other gift, be it beauty or genius, strength or skill, depends for its value.

What is Wilfulness?—​What, then, is wilfulness, if it be not an exercise of will? Simply this: remove bit and bridle—that is, the control of the will—from the appetites, the desires, the emotions, and the child who has mounted his hobby, be it resentment, jealousy, desire of power, desire of property, is another Mazeppa, borne along with the speed of the swift and the strength of the strong, and with no power at all to help himself. Appetite, passion, there is no limit to their power and their persistence if the appointed check be removed; and it is this impetus of appetite or of passion, this apparent determination to go in one way and no other, which is called wilfulness and mistaken for an exercise of will. Whereas the determination is only apparent; the child is, in fact, hurried along without resistance, because that opposing force which should give balance to his character is undeveloped and untrained.

The Will has Superior and Inferior Functions.—​The will has its superior and its inferior, what may be called its moral and its mechanical functions; and that will which, for want of practice, has grown flaccid and feeble in the exercise of its higher functions, may yet be able for the ordering of such matters as going or coming, sitting or standing, speaking or refraining from speech.

The Will not a Moral Faculty.—​Again, though it is impossible to attain moral excellence of character without the agency of a vigorous will, the will itself is not a moral faculty, and a man may attain great strength of will in consequence of continued efforts in the repression or direction of his appetites or desires, and yet be an unworthy man; that is, he may be keeping himself in order from unworthy motives, for the sake of appearances, for his own interest, even for the injury of another.

A Disciplined Will necessary to Heroic Christian Character.—​Once again, though a disciplined will is not a necessary condition of the Christian life, it is necessary to the development of the heroic Christian character. A Gordon, a Havelock, a Florence Nightingale, a St Paul, could not be other than a person of vigorous will. In this respect, as in all others, Christianity reaches the feeblest souls. There is a wonderful Guido ‘Magdalen’ in the Louvre, with a mouth which has plainly never been set to any resolve for good or ill—a lower face moulded by the helpless following of the inclination of the moment; but you look up to the eyes, which are raised to meet the gaze of eyes not shown in the picture, and the countenance is transfigured, the whole face is aglow with a passion of service, love, and self-surrender. All this the divine grace may accomplish in weak unwilling souls, and then they will do what they can; but their power of service is limited by their past. Not so the child of the Christian mother, whose highest desire is to train him for the Christian life. When he wakes to the consciousness of whose he is and whom he serves, she would have him ready for that high service, with every faculty in training—a man of war from his youth; above all, with an effective will, to will and to do of His good pleasure.

The sole Practical Faculty of Man.—​Before we consider how to train this ‘sole practical faculty of man,’ we must know how the will operates—how it manages the ordering of all that is done and thought in the kingdom of Mansoul. “Can’t you make yourself do what you wish to do?” says Guy, in the Heir of Redclyffe, to poor Charlie Edmonston, who has never been in the habit of making himself do anything. There are those, no doubt, who have not even arrived at wishing, but most of us desire to do well; what we want to know is, how to make ourselves do what we desire. And here is the line which divides the effective from the non-effective people, the great from the small, the good from the well-intentioned and respectable; it is in proportion as a man has self-controlling, self-compelling power that he is able to do, even of his own pleasure; that he can depend upon himself, and be sure of his own action in emergencies.

How the Will operates.—​Now, how does this autocrat of the bosom behave? Is it with a stern ‘Thou shalt,’ ‘Thou shalt not,’ that the subject man is coerced into obedience? By no means. Is it by a plausible show of reasons, mustering of motives? Not this either. Since Mr John Stuart Mill taught us that “all that man does, or can do, with matter” is to “move one thing to or from another,” we need not be surprised if great moral results are brought about by what seem inadequate means; and a little bit of nursery experience will show better than much talking what is possible to the will. A baby falls, gets a bad bump, and cries piteously. The experienced nurse does not “kiss the place to make it well,” or show any pity for the child’s trouble—that would make matters worse; the more she pities, the more he sobs. She hastens to ‘change his thoughts,’ so she says; she carries him to the window to see the horses, gives him his pet picture-book, his dearest toy, and the child pulls himself up in the middle of a sob, though he is really badly hurt. Now this, of the knowing nurse, is precisely the part the will plays towards the man. It is by force of will that a man can ‘change his thoughts,’ transfer his attention from one subject of thought to another, and that, with a shock of mental force of which he is distinctly conscious. And this is enough to save a man and to make a man, this power of making himself think only of those things which he has beforehand decided that it is good to think upon.

The Way of the Will—Incentives.—​His thoughts are wandering on forbidden pleasures, to the hindrance of his work; he pulls himself up, and deliberately fixes his attention on those incentives which have most power to make him work, the leisure and pleasure which follow honest labour, the duty which binds him to the fulfilling of his task. His thoughts run in the groove he wills them to run in, and work is no longer an effort.

Diversion.—​Again, some slight affront has called up a flood of resentful feeling: So-and-so should not have done it, he had no right, it was mean, and so on, through all the hard things we are ready enough to say in our hearts of an offender against our amour propre. But the man under the control of his own will does not allow this to go on: he does not fight it out with himself, and say, ‘This is very wrong in me. So-and-so is not so much to blame, after all.’ He is not ready for that yet; but he just compels himself to think of something else—the last book he has read, the next letter he must write, anything interesting enough to divert his thoughts. When he allows himself to go back to the cause of offence, behold, all rancour is gone, and he is able to look at the matter with the coolness of a third person. And this is true, not only of the risings of resentment, but of every temptation that besets the flesh and spirit.

Change of Thought.—​Again, the sameness of his duties, the weariness of doing the same thing over and over, fills him with disgust and despondency, and he relaxes his efforts;—but not if he be a man under the power of his own will, because he simply does not allow himself in idle discontent; it is always within his power to give himself something pleasant, something outside of himself, to think of, and he does so; and, given what we call a ‘happy frame of mind,’ no work is laborious.

The Way of the Will should be taught to Children.—​It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children. Are you cross? Change your thoughts. Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts. Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change your thoughts; there is a power within you, your own will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right. And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the will acts; this is the sole secret of the power over himself which the strong man wields—he can compel himself to think of what he chooses, and will not allow himself in thoughts that breed mischief.

Power of Will implies Power of Attention.—​But you perceive that, though the will is all-powerful within certain limits, these are but narrow limits after all. Much must go before and along with a vigorous will if it is to be a power in the ruling of conduct. For instance, the man must have acquired the habit of attention, the great importance of which we have already considered. There are bird-witted people, who have no power of thinking connectedly for five minutes under any pressure, from within or from without. If they have never been trained to apply the whole of their mental faculties to a given subject, why, no energy of will, supposing they had it, which is impossible, could make them think steadily thoughts of their own choosing or of anyone else’s. Here is how the parts of the intellectual fabric dovetail: power of will implies power of attention; and before the parent can begin to train the will of the child, he must have begun to form in him the habit of attention.

Habit may Frustrate the Will.—​Again, we have already considered the fatal facility in evil, the impulse towards good, which habit gives. Habit is either the ally or the opponent, too often the frustrator, of the will. The unhappy drunkard does will with what strength there is in him; he turns away the eyes of his mind from beholding his snare; he plies himself assiduously with other thoughts; but alas, his thoughts will only run in the accustomed groove of desire, and habit is too strong for his feeble will. We all know something of this struggle between habit and will in less vital matters. Who is without some dilatory, procrastinating, in some way tiresome, habit, which is in almost daily struggle with the rectified will? But I have already said so much about the duty of parents to ease the way of their children by laying down for them the lines of helpful habits, that it is unnecessary to say a word more here of habit as an ally or a hinderer of the will.

Reasonable Use of so effective an Instrument.—​And, once more, only the man of cultivated reason is capable of being ruled by a well-directed will. If his understanding does not show good cause why he should do some solid reading every day, why he should cling to the faith of his fathers, why he should take up his duties as a citizen,—the movement of his will will be feeble and fluctuating, and very barren of results. And, indeed, worse may happen: he may take up some wrong-headed, or even vicious, notion and work a great deal of mischief by what he feels to be a virtuous effort of will. The parent may venture to place the power of will in the hands of his child only in so far as he trains him to make a reasonable use of so effective an instrument.

How to Strengthen the Will.—​One other limitation of the will we shall consider presently; but supposing the parent take pains that the child shall be in a fit state to use his will, how is he to strengthen that will, so that by and by the child may employ it to control his own life by? We have spoken already of the importance of training the child in the habit of obedience. Now, obedience is valuable only in so far as it helps the child towards making himself do that which he knows he ought to do. Every effort of obedience which does not give him a sense of conquest over his own inclinations, helps to enslave him, and he will resent the loss of his liberty by running into license when he can. That is the secret of the miscarrying of many strictly brought-up children. But invite his co-operation, let him heartily intend and purpose to do the thing he is bidden, and then it is his own will that is compelling him, and not yours; he has begun the greatest effort, the highest accomplishment of human life—the making, the compelling of himself. Let him know what he is about, let him enjoy a sense of triumph, and of your congratulation, whenever he fetches his thoughts back to his tiresome sum, whenever he makes his hands finish what they have begun, whenever he throws the black dog off his back, and produces a smile from a clouded face.

Habit of Self-management.—​Then, as was said before, let him know the secret of willing; let him know that, by an effort of will, he can turn his thoughts to the thing he wants to think of—his lessons, his prayers, his work, and away from the things he should not think of;—that, in fact, he can be such a brave, strong little fellow, he can make himself think of what he likes; and let him try little experiments—that if he once get his thoughts right, the rest will take care of itself, he will be sure to do right then; that if he feels cross, naughty thoughts coming upon him, the plan is, to think hard about something else, something nice—his next birthday, what he means to do when he is a man. Not all this at once, of course; but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as opportunity offers. Let him get into the habit of managing himself, controlling himself, and it is astonishing how much self-compelling power quite a young child will exhibit. “Restrain yourself, Tommy,” I once heard a wise aunt say to a boy of four, and Tommy restrained himself, though he was making a terrible hullabaloo about some small trouble.

Education of the Will more important than that of the Intellect.—​All this time, the will of the child is being both trained and strengthened; he is learning how and when to use his will, and it is becoming every day more vigorous and capable. Let me add one or two wise thoughts from Dr Morell’s Introduction to Mental Philosophy: “The education of the will is really of far greater importance, as shaping the destiny of the individual, than that of the intellect.... Theory and doctrine, and inculcation of laws and propositions, will never of themselves lead to the uniform habit of right action. It is by doing, that we learn to do; by overcoming, that we learn to overcome; and every right act which we cause to spring out of pure principles, whether by authority, precept, or example, will have a greater weight in the formation of character than all the theory in the world.”

II.—THE CONSCIENCE

Conscience is Judge and Lawgiver.—​But the will by no means carries on the government of the kingdom of Mansoul single-handed. True, the will wields the executive power; it is only by willing we are enabled to do; but there is a higher power behind, whose mandate the will does no more than express. Conscience sits supreme in the inner chamber. Conscience is the lawgiver, and utters the ‘Thou shalt’ and the ‘Thou shalt not’ whereon the will takes action; the judge, too, before whom the offending soul is summoned; and from the ‘Thou art the man’ of conscience, there is no appeal.

‘I am, I ought, I can, I will.’—‘I am, I ought, I can, I will’—these are the steps of that ladder of St Augustine, whereby we

‘I am’—we have the power of knowing ourselves. ‘I ought’—we have within us a moral judge, to whom we feel ourselves subject, and who points out and requires of us our duty. ‘I can’—we are conscious of power to do that which we perceive we ought to do. ‘I will’—we determine to exercise that power with a volition which is in itself a step in the execution of that which we will. Here is a beautiful and perfect chain, and the wonder is that, so exquisitely constituted as he is for right-doing, error should be even possible to man. But of the sorrowful mysteries of sin and temptation it is not my place to speak here; you will see that it is because of the possibilities of ruin and loss which lie about every human life that I am pressing upon parents the duty of saving their children by the means put into their hands. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that ninety-nine out of a hundred lost lives lie at the door of parents who took no pains to deliver their children from sloth, from sensual appetites, from wilfulness, no pains to fortify them with the habits of a good life.

Inertness of Parents not supplemented by Divine Grace.—​We live in a redeemed world, and infinite grace and help from above attend every rightly directed effort in the training of the children; but I do not see much ground for hoping that divine grace will step in as a substitute for any and every power we choose to leave unused or misdirected. In the physical world, we do not expect miracles to make up for our neglect of the use of means; the rickety body, the misshapen limb, for which the child has to thank his parents, remain with him through life, however much else he may have to thank God for; and a feeble will, bad habits, an uninstructed conscience, stick by many a Christian man through his life, because his parents failed in their duty to him, and he has not had force enough in himself to supply their omission.

Conscience not an Infallible Guide.—​In this matter of conscience, for instance, the laissez-faire habit of his parents is the cause of real wrong and injury to many a child. The parents are thankful to believe that their child is born with a conscience; they hope his conduct may be ruled thereby: and the rest they leave; the child and his conscience may settle it between them. Now this is to suppose, either that a fully-informed conscience is born into an infant body, or that it grows, like the hair and the limbs, with the growth of the body, and is not subject to conditions of spiritual progress proper to itself. In other words, it is to suppose that conscience is an infallible guide, a delusion people cling to in spite of common sense and of everyday experience of the wrong-headed things men do from conscientious motives. The vagaries of the uninstructed conscience are so familiar as to have given rise to popular proverbs: ‘Honour among thieves,’ ‘To strain out the gnat and swallow the camel,’ point to cases of misguided conscience; while ‘The wish is father to the thought,’ ‘None is so blind as he who won’t see,’ point to the still more common cases, in which a man knowingly tricks his conscience into acquiescence.

But a real Power.—​Then, if conscience be not an infallible guide—if it pass blindfold by heinous offences, and come down heavily upon some mere quibble, tithing mint, rue, and all manner of herbs, and neglecting the weightier matters of the law—if conscience be liable to be bamboozled, persuaded into calling evil good and good evil, when Desire is the special pleader before the bar, where is its use, this broken reed? Is this stern lawgiver of the breast no more, after all, than a fiction of the brain? Is your conscience no more than what you happen to think about your own actions and those of other people? On the contrary, these aberrations of conscience are perhaps the strongest proof that it exists as a real power. As Adam Smith has well said, “The supreme authority of conscience is felt and tacitly acknowledged by the worst, no less than by the best, of men; for even they who have thrown off all hypocrisy with the world, are at pains to conceal their real character from their own eyes.”

That Spiritual Sense whereby we know Good and Evil.—​What conscience is, how far it lies in the feelings, how far in the reason, how far it is independent of both, are obscure questions which it is not necessary for practical purposes to settle; but this much is evident—that conscience is as essential a part of human nature as are the affections and the reason, and that conscience is that spiritual sense whereby we have knowledge of good and evil. The six-months-old child who cannot yet speak exhibits the workings of conscience; a reproving look will make him drop his eyes and hide his face. But, observe, the mother may thus cover him with confusion by way of an experiment when the child is all sweetness, and the poor little untutored conscience rises all the same, and condemns him on the word of another.

Facts like this afford a glimpse of the appalling responsibility that lies upon parents. The child comes into the world with a moral faculty, a delicate organ whereby he discerns the flavour of good and evil, and at the same time has a perception of delight in the good—in himself or others,—of loathing and abhorrence of the evil. But, poor little child, he is like a navigator who does not know how to box his compass. He is born to love the good, and to hate the evil, but he has no real knowledge of what is good and what is evil; what intuitions he has, he puts no faith in, but yields himself in simplicity to the steering of others. The wonder that Almighty God can endure so far to leave the very making of an immortal being in the hands of human parents is only matched by the wonder that human parents can accept this divine trust with hardly a thought of its significance.

A Child’s Conscience an Undeveloped Capability rather than a Supreme Authority.—​Looking, then, upon conscience in the child rather as an undeveloped capability than as a supreme authority, the question is, how is this nascent lord of the life to be educated up to its high functions of informing the will and decreeing the conduct? For though the ill-taught conscience may make fatal blunders, and a man may carry slaughter amongst the faithful because his conscience bids; yet, on the other hand, no man ever attained a godly, righteous, and sober life except as he was ruled by a good conscience—a conscience with not only the capacity to discern good and evil, but trained to perceive the qualities of the two. Many a man may have the great delicacy of taste which should qualify him for a tea-taster, but it is only as he has trained experience in the qualities of teas that his nice taste is valuable to his employers, and a source of income to himself.

The Uninstructed Conscience.—​As with that of the will, so with the education of the conscience; it depends upon much that has gone before. Refinement of conscience cannot coexist with ignorance. The untutored savage has his scruples that we cannot enter into; we cannot understand to this day how it was that the horrors of the Indian Mutiny arose from the mere suspicion that a mixture of hog’s lard and beef fat had been used to grease the cartridges dealt out to the Sepoys. Those scruples which are beyond the range of our ideas we call superstitions and prejudices, and are unwilling to look upon conduct as conscientious, even when prompted by the uninstructed conscience, unless in so far as it is reasonable and right in itself.

The Processes implied in a ‘Conscientious’ Decision.—​Therefore, it is plain that before conscience is in a position to pronounce its verdict on the facts of a given case, the cultivated reason must review the pros and cons; the practised judgment must balance these, deciding which have the greater weight. Attention must bring all the powers of the mind to bear on the question; habits of right action must carry the feelings, must make right-doing seem the easier and the pleasanter. In the meantime, desire is clamorous; but conscience, the unbiassed judge, duly informed in full court of the merits of the case, decides for the right. The will carries out the verdict of conscience; and the man whose conduct is uniformly moulded upon the verdicts of conscience is the conscientious man, of whose actions and opinions you may be sure beforehand. But life is not long enough for such lengthy process; a thousand things have to be decided off-hand, and then what becomes of these elaborate proceedings? That is just the advantage of an instructed conscience backed by a trained intelligence; the judge is always sitting, the counsel always on the spot.

The Instructed Conscience nearly always right.—​Here is, indeed, a high motive for the all-round training of the child’s intelligence; he wants the highest culture you can give him, backed by carefully formed habits, in order that he may have a conscience always alert, supported by every power of the mind; and such a conscience is the very flower of a noble life. The instructed conscience may claim to be, if not infallible, at any rate nearly always right. It is not generally mature until the man is mature; young people, however right-minded and earnest, are apt to err, chiefly because they fix their attention too much upon some one duty, some one theory of life, at the expense of much besides.

The Good Conscience of a Child.—​But even the child, with the growing conscience and the growing powers, is able to say, ‘No, I can’t; it would not be right’; ‘Yes, I will; for it is right.’ And once able to give either of these answers to the solicitations that assail him, the child is able to live; for the rest, the development, and what may be called the adjustment, of conscience will keep pace with his intellectual growth. But allowing that a great deal of various discipline must go to secure that final efflorescence of a good conscience, what is to be done by way of training the conscience itself, quickening the spiritual taste so that the least soupçon of evil is detected and rejected?

Children play with Moral Questions.—​There is no part of education more nice and delicate than this, nor any in which grown-up people are more apt to blunder. Everyone knows how tiresome it is to discuss any nice moral question with children; how they quibble, suggest a hundred ingenious explanations or evasions, fail to be shocked or to admire in the right place—in fact, play with the whole question; or, what is more tiresome still, are severe and righteous overmuch, and ‘deal damnation round’ with much heartiness and goodwill. Sensible parents are often distressed at this want of conscience in the children; but they are not greatly in fault; the mature conscience demands to be backed up by the mature intellect, and the children have neither the one nor the other. Discussions of the kind should be put down; the children should not be encouraged to give their opinions on questions of right and wrong, and little books should not be put into their hands which pronounce authoritatively upon conduct.

The Bible the Chief Source of Moral Ideas.—​It would be well if the reticence of the Bible in this respect were observed by the writers of children’s books, whether of story or history. The child hears the history of Joseph (with reservations) read from the Bible, which rarely offers comment or explanation. He does not need to be told what was ‘naughty’ and what was ‘good’; there is no need to press home the teaching, or the Bible were written in vain, and good and bad actions carry no witness with them. Let all the circumstances of the daily Bible reading—the consecutive reading, from the first chapter of Genesis onwards, with necessary omissions—be delightful to the child; let him be in his mother’s room, in his mother’s arms; let that quarter of an hour be one of sweet leisure and sober gladness, the child’s whole interest being allowed to go to the story without distracting moral considerations; and then, the less talk the better; the story will sink in, and bring its own teaching, a little now, and more every year as he is able to bear it. One such story will be in him a constantly growing, fructifying moral idea.

Tales fix attention upon Conduct.—​The Bible (the fitting parts of it, that is) first and supreme; but any true picture of life, whether a tale of golden deeds or of faulty and struggling human life, brings aliment to the growing conscience. The child gets into the habit of fixing his attention on conduct; actions are weighed by him, at first, by their consequences, but by degrees his conscience acquires discriminating power, and such and such behaviour is bad or good to him whatever its consequences. And this silent growth of the moral faculty takes place all the more surely if the distraction of chatter on the subject is avoided; for a thousand small movements of vanity and curiosity and mere love of talk are easily called into play, and these take off the attention from the moral idea which should be conveyed to the conscience. It is very important, again, that the child should not be allowed to condemn the conduct of the people about him. Whether he is right or wrong in his verdict, is not the question; the habit of bestowing blame will certainly blunt his conscience, deaden his sensibility to the injunction, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Ignorance of a Child’s Conscience.—​But the child’s own conduct: surely he may be called upon to look into that? His conduct, including his words, yes; but his motives, no; nothing must be done to induce the evil habit of introspection. Also, in setting the child to consider his ways, regard must be had to the extreme ignorance of the childish conscience, a degree of ignorance puzzling to grown-up people when they chance to discover it, which is not often, for the children, notwithstanding their endless chatter and their friendly, loving ways, live very much to themselves. They commit serious offences against truth, modesty, love, and do not know that they have done wrong, while some absurd featherweight of transgression oppresses their souls. Children will bite and hurt one another viciously, commit petty thefts, do such shocking things that their parents fear they must have very bad natures: it is not necessarily so; it is simply that the untaught conscience sees no clear boundary line between right and wrong, and is as apt to err on the one side as the other. I once saw a dying child of twelve who was wearing herself out with her great distress because she feared she had committed ‘the unpardonable sin,’ so she said (how she picked up the phrase nobody knew); and that was—that she had been saying her prayers without even kneeling up in bed! The ignorance of children about the commonest matters of right and wrong is really pathetic; and yet they are too often treated as if they knew all about it, because ‘they have consciences,’ as if conscience were any more than a spiritual organ waiting for direction!

Instructing the Conscience—Kindness.—​That the children do wrong knowingly is another matter, and requires, alas, no proving; all I am pressing for is the real need there exists to instruct them in their duty; and this, not at haphazard, but regularly and progressively. Kindness, for instance, is, let us say, the subject of instruction this week. There is one of the talks with their mother that the children love—a short talk is best—about kindness. Kindness is love, showing itself in act and word, look and manner. A well of love, shut up and hidden in a little boy’s heart, does not do anybody much good; the love must bubble up as a spring, flow out in a stream, and then it is kindness. Then will follow short daily talks about kind ways, to brothers and sisters, to playmates, to parents, to grown-up friends, to servants, to people in pain and trouble, to dumb creatures, to people we do not see but yet can think about—all in distress, the heathen. Give the children one thought at a time, and every time some lovely example of loving-kindness that will fire their hearts with the desire to do likewise.

Take our Lord’s parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ for a model of instruction in morals. Let tale and talk make the children emulous of virtue, and then give them the “Go and do likewise,” the law. Having presented to them the idea of kindness in many aspects, end with the law: Be kind, or, “Be kindly affectioned one to another.” Let them know that this is the law of God for children and for grown-up people. Now, conscience is instructed, the feelings are enlisted on the side of duty, and if the child is brought up, it is for breaking the law of kindness, a law that he knows of, that his conscience convicts him in the breaking. Do not give children deterrent examples of error, because of the sad proclivities of human nature, but always tell them of beautiful ‘Golden Deeds,’ small and great, that shall stir them as trumpet-calls to the battle of life.

The Conscience made effective by Discipline.—​Be courteous, be candid, be grateful, be considerate, be true; there are aspects of duty enough to occupy the attention of mother and child for every day of the child-life; and all the time, the idea of duty is being formed, and conscience is being educated and developed. At the same time, the mother exercises the friendly vigilance of a guardian angel, being watchful, not to catch the child tripping, but to guide him into the acting out of the duty she has already made lovely in his eyes; for it is only as we do that we learn to do, and become strong in the doing. As she instructs her child in duty, she teaches him to listen to the voice of conscience as to the voice of God, a ‘Do this,’ or ‘Do it not,’ within the breast, to be obeyed with full assurance. It is objected that we are making infallible, not the divinely implanted conscience, but that same conscience made effective by discipline. It is even so; in every department of life, physical or spiritual, human effort appears to be the condition of the Divine energising; there must be a stretching forth of the withered arm before it receives strength; and we have every reason to believe that the instructed conscience, being faithfully followed, is divinely illuminated.

III.—THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE CHILD

“The very Pulse of the Machine.”—It is evident we have not yet reached

“The very pulse of the machine.”

Habits, feeling, reason, conscience—we have followed these into the inmost recesses of the child’s life; each acts upon the other, but what acts upon the last: what acts upon them all? “It is,” says a writer who has searched into the deep things of God—“it is a King that our spirits cry for, to guide them, discipline them, unite them to each other; to give them a victory over themselves, a victory over the world. It is a Priest that our spirits cry out for, to lift them above themselves to their God and Father,—to make them partakers of His nature, fellow-workers in carrying out His purposes. Christ’s Sacrifice is the one authentic testimony that He is both the Priest and King of men.”[43]

Parents have some Power to Enthrone the King.—​Conscience, we have seen, is effective only as it is moved from within, from that innermost chamber of Mansoul, that Holy of Holies, the secrets of which are only known to the High-Priest, who “needed not that any man should tell Him, for He knew what was in man.” It is necessary, however, that we should gather up crumbs of fact and inference, and set in order such knowledge as we have; for the keys even of this innermost chamber are placed in the hands of parents, and it is a great deal in their power to enthrone the King, to induct the Priest, that every human spirit cries for.

The Functions and Life of the Soul.—​We take it for granted in common speech that every soul is a ‘living soul,’ a fully developed, full-grown soul; but the language of the Bible and that of general experience seem to point to startling conclusions. It has been said of a great poet—with how much justice is not the question here—that if we could suppose any human being to be made without a soul, he was such an abortive attempt; for while he had reason, imagination, passions, all the appetites and desires of an intelligent being, he appeared to exercise not one of the functions of the soul. Now, what are these functions, the suspension of which calls the very existence of a man’s soul in question? We must go back to the axiom of Augustine—“The soul of man is for God, as God is for the soul.” The soul has one appetite, for the things of God; breathes one air, the breath, the Spirit of God; has one desire, for the knowledge of God; one only joy, in the face of God. “I want to live in the Light of a Countenance which never ceases to smile upon me,”[44] is the language of the soul. The direct action of the soul is all Godward, with a reflex action towards men. The speech of the soul is prayer and praise, the right hand of the soul is faith, the light of the soul is love, the love of God shed abroad upon it. Observe, these are the functions, this, the life of the soul, the only functions, the only life it can have: if it have not these, it has no power to turn aside and find the “life of its hand” elsewhere. As the conscience, the will, the reason, is ineffective till it be nourished with its proper food, exercised in its proper functions, so of the soul; and its chamber is dull, with cobwebbed doors and clouded windows, until it awake to its proper life; not quite empty, though, for there is the nascent soul; and the awakening into life takes place, sometimes with the sudden shock, the gracious miracle, which we call conversion; sometimes, when the parents so will, the soul of the child expands with a gentle, sweet growth and gradual unfolding as of a flower. There are torpid souls, which are yet alive; there are feeble, sickly souls, which are yet alive; and there are souls which no movement Godward ever quickens.

What is the Life of the Soul?—​This life of the soul, what is it? Communicated life, as when one lights a torch at the fire? Perhaps; but it is something more intimate, more unspeakable: “I am the Life”; “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”; “Abide in Me and I in you.” The truth is too ineffable to be uttered in any words but those given to us. But it means this, at least, that the living soul does not abide alone in its place; that place becomes the temple of the living God. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place!”

The Parent must present the Idea of God to the Soul of the Child.—​But this holy mystery, this union and communion of God and the soul, how may human parents presume to meddle with it? What can they do? How can they promote it? and is there not every risk that they may lay rude hands upon the ark? In the first place, it does not rest with the parent to choose whether he will or will not attempt to quicken and nourish this divine life in his child. To do so is his bounden duty and service. If he neglect or fail in this, I am not sure how much it matters that he has fulfilled his duties in the physical, moral, and mental culture of his child, except in so far as the child is the fitter for the divine service should the divine life be awakened in him. But what can the parent do? Just this, and no more: he can present the idea of God to the soul of the child. Here, as throughout his universe, Almighty God works by apparently inadequate means. Who would say that a bee can produce apple trees? Yet a bee flies from an apple tree laden with the pollen of its flowers: this it unwittingly deposits on the stigmas of the flowers of the next tree it comes to. The bee goes, but the pollen remains, but with all the length of the style between it and the immature ovule below. That does not matter; the ovule has no power to reach the pollen grain, but the latter sends forth a slender tube, within the tube of the style; the ovule is reached; behold, then, the fruit, with its seed, and, if you like, future apple trees! Accept the parable: the parent is little better in this matter than the witless bee; it is his part to deposit, so to speak, within reach of the soul of the child some fruitful idea of God; the immature soul makes no effort towards that idea, but the living Word reaches down, touches the soul,—and there is life; growth and beauty, flower and fruit.

Must not make Blundering Efforts.—​I venture to ask you to look, for once, at these divine mysteries from the same philosophical standpoint we have taken up in regarding all the capabilities and functions of the child, partly, because it is instructive to see how the mysteries of the religious life appear when it is looked at from without its own sphere; partly, because I wish to rise by unbroken steps to the supreme function of the parent in the education of his child. For here the similitude of the bee and the apple tree fails. The parent must not make blundering, witless efforts: as this is the highest duty imposed upon him, it is also the most delicate; and he will have infinite need of faith and prayer, tact and discretion, humility, gentleness, love, and sound judgment, if he would present his child to God, and the thought of God to the soul of his child.

God presented to Children as an Exactor and a Punisher.—“If we think of God as an exactor and not a giver,” it has been well said, “exactors and not givers shall we become.” Yet is not this the light in which God is most commonly set before the children—a Pharaoh demanding his tale of bricks, bricks of good behaviour and right-doing? Do not parents deliberately present God as an exactor, to back up the feebleness of their own government; and do they not freely utter, on the part of God, threats they would be unwilling to utter on their own part? Again, what child has not heard from his nurse this, delivered with much energy, ‘God does not love you, you naughty boy! He will send you to the bad place!’ And these two thoughts of God, as an exactor and a punisher, make up, often enough, all the idea the poor child gets of his Father in heaven. What fruit can come of this but aversion, the turning away of the child from the face of his Father? What if, instead, were given to him the thought well expressed in the words, “The all-forgiving gentleness of God”?

Parents must select Inspiring Ideas.—​These are but two of many deterrent thoughts of God commonly presented to the tender soul; and the mother, who realises that the heart of her child may be irrevocably turned against God by the ideas of Him imbibed in the nursery, will feel the necessity for grave and careful thought, and definite resolve, as to what teaching her child shall receive on this momentous subject. She will most likely forbid any mention of the Divine Name to the children, except by their parents, explaining at the same time that she does so because she cares so much that her children should get none but right thoughts on this great matter. It is better that children should receive a few vital ideas that their souls may grow upon than a great deal of indefinite teaching.

We must Teach only what we Know.—​How to select these few quickening thoughts of the infinite God? The selection is not so difficult to make as would appear at first sight. In the first place, we must teach that which we know, know by the life of the soul, not with any mere knowledge of the mind. Now, of the vast mass of the doctrines and the precepts of religion, we shall find that there are only a few vital truths that we have so taken into our being that we live upon them—this person, these; that person, those; some of us, not more than a single one. One or more, these are the truths we must teach the children, because these will come straight out of our hearts with the enthusiasm of conviction which rarely fails to carry its own idea into the spiritual life of another. There is no more fruitful source of what it is hardly too much to call infant infidelity than the unreal dead words which are poured upon children about the best things, with an artificial solemnity of tone and manner intended to make up for the want of living meaning in the words. Let the parent who only knows one thing from above teach his child that one; more will come to him by the time the child is ready for more.

Fitting and Vital Ideas.—​Again, there are some ideas of the spiritual life more proper than others to the life and needs of the child. Thus, Christ the Joy-giver is more to him than Christ the Consoler.

And there are some few ideas which are as the daily bread of the soul, without which life and growth are impossible. All other teaching may be deferred until the child’s needs bring him to it; but whoever sends his child out into life without these vital ideas of the spiritual life, sends him forth with a dormant soul, however well-instructed he may be in theology.

The Knowledge of God distinct from Morality.—​Again, the knowledge of God is distinct from morality, or what the children call ‘being good,’ though ‘being good’ follows from that knowledge. But let these come in their right order. Do not bepreach the child to weariness about ‘being good’ as what he owes to God, without letting in upon him first a little of that knowledge which shall make him good.

We are no longer suffering from an embarrassment of riches; these limitations shut out so much of the ordinary teaching about divine things that the question becomes rather, What shall we teach? than, How shall we choose?

The Times and the Manner of Religious Instruction.—​The next considerations that will press upon the mother are of the times, and the manner, of this teaching in the things of God. It is better that these teachings be rare and precious, than too frequent and slightly valued; better not at all, than that the child should be surfeited with the mere sight of spiritual food, rudely served. At the same time, he must be built up in the faith, and his lessons must be regular and progressive; and here everything depends upon the tact of the mother. Spiritual teaching, like the wafted odour of flowers, should depend on which way the wind blows. Every now and then there occurs a holy moment, felt to be holy by mother and child, when the two are together—that is the moment for some deeply felt and softly spoken word about God, such as the occasion gives rise to. Few words need be said, no exhortation at all; just the flash of conviction from the soul of the mother to the soul of the child. Is ‘Our Father’ the thought thus laid upon the child’s soul? There will be, perhaps, no more than a sympathetic meeting of eyes hereafter, between mother and child, over a thousand showings forth of ‘Our Father’s’ love; but the idea is growing, becoming part of the child’s spiritual life. This is all: no routine of spiritual teaching; a dread of many words, which are apt to smother the fire of the sacred life; much self-restraint shown in the allowing of seeming opportunities to pass; and all the time, earnest purpose of heart, and a definite scheme for the building up of the child in the faith. It need not be added that, to make another use of our Lord’s words, “this kind cometh forth only by prayer.” It is as the mother gets wisdom liberally from above, that she will be enabled for this divine task.

The Reading of the Bible.—​A word about the reading of the Bible. I think we make a mistake in burying the text under our endless comments and applications. Also, I doubt if the picking out of individual verses, and grinding these into the child until they cease to have any meaning for him, is anything but a hindrance to the spiritual life. The Word is full of vital force, capable of applying itself. A seed, light as thistledown, wafted into the child’s soul, will take root downwards and bear fruit upwards. What is required of us is, that we should implant a love of the Word; that the most delightful moments of the child’s day should be those in which his mother reads for him, with sweet sympathy and holy gladness in voice and eyes, the beautiful stories of the Bible; and now and then in the reading will occur one of those convictions, passing from the soul of the mother to the soul of the child, in which is the life of the Spirit. Let the child grow, so that,

“New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven,”

are a joy to him, too; things to be counted first amongst the blessings of a day. Above all, do not read the Bible at the child: do not let any words of the Scriptures be occasions for gibbeting his faults. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to convince of sin; and He is able to use the Word for this purpose, without risk of that hardening of the heart in which our clumsy dealings too often result.

The matter for this teaching of divine things will come out of every mother’s own convictions. I will attempt to speak of only one or two of those vital truths on which the spiritual life must sustain itself.

Father and Giver.—“Our Father, who is in heaven,” is perhaps the first idea of God which the mother will present to her child—Father and Giver, straight from whom comes all the gladness of every day. ‘What a happy birthday our Father has given to my little boy!’ ‘The flowers are coming again; our Father has taken care of the life of the plants all through the winter cold!’ ‘Listen to that skylark! It is a wonder how our Father can put so much joy into the heart of one little bird.’ ‘Thank God for making my little girl so happy and merry!’ Out of this thought comes prayer, the free utterance of the child’s heart, more often in thanks for the little joys of the day counted up than in desire, just yet. The words do not matter; any simple form the child can understand will do; the rising Godward of the child-heart is the true prayer. Out of this thought, too, comes duty—the glad acknowledgment of the debt of service and obedience to a Parent so gracious and benign—not One who exacts service at the sword’s point, as it were, but One whom His children run to obey.

The Essence of Christianity is Loyalty to a Person.—Christ, our King. Here is a thought to unseal the fountains of love and loyalty, the treasures of faith and imagination, bound up in the child. The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty, passionate loyalty to our adorable Chief. We have laid other foundations—regeneration, sacraments, justification, works, faith, the Bible—any one of which, however necessary to salvation in its due place and proportion, may become a religion about Christ and without Christ. And now a time of sifting has come upon us, and thoughtful people decline to know anything about our religious systems; they write down all our orthodox beliefs as things not knowable. Perhaps this may be because, in thinking much of our salvation, we have put out of sight our King, the divine fact which no soul of man to whom it is presented can ignore. In the idea of Christ is life; let the thought of Him once get touch of the soul, and it rises up, a living power, independent of all formularies of the brain. Let us save Christianity for our children by bringing them into allegiance to Christ, the King. How? How did the old Cavaliers bring up sons and daughters, in passionate loyalty and reverence for not too worthy princes? Their own hearts were full of it; their lips spake it; their acts proclaimed it; the style of their clothes, the ring of their voices, the carriage of their heads—all was one proclamation of boundless devotion to their king and his cause. That civil war, whatever else it did, or missed doing, left a parable for Christian people. If a Stuart prince could command such measure of loyalty, what shall we say of “the Chief amongst ten thousand, the altogether lovely”?

Jesus, our Saviour. Here is a thought to be brought tenderly before the child in the moments of misery that follow wrong-doing. ‘My poor little boy, you have been very naughty to-day! Could you not help it?’ ‘No, mother,’ with sobs. ‘No, I suppose not; but there is a way of help.’ And then the mother tells her child how the Lord Jesus is our Saviour, because He saves us from our sins. It is a matter of question when the child should first learn the ‘Story of the Cross.’ One thinks it would be very delightful to begin with Moses and the prophets: to go through the Old Testament history, tracing the gradual unfolding of the work and character of the Messiah; and then, when their minds are full of the expectation of the Jews, to bring before them the mystery of the Birth in Bethlehem, the humiliation of the Cross. But perhaps no gain in freshness of presentation would make up to the children for not having grown up with the associations of Calvary and Bethlehem always present to their minds. One thing in this connection: it is not well to allow the children in a careless familiarity with the Name of Jesus, or in the use of hymns whose tone is not reverent. “Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well, for so I am.”

The Indwelling of Christ is a thought particularly fit for the children, because their large faith does not stumble at the mystery, their imagination leaps readily to the marvel, that the King Himself should inhabit a little child’s heart. ‘How am I to know He is come, mother?’ ‘When you are quite gentle, sweet, and happy, it is because Christ is within,—

I will not attempt to indicate any more of the vital truths which the Christian mother will present to her child; having patience until they blossom and bear, and his soul is as a very fruitful garden which the Lord hath blessed. But, once more, “This kind cometh forth only by prayer.”

FOOTNOTES:

Appendices

APPENDIX A

Appended is a list of books, etc., spoken of in various connections in this volume, with particulars as to publisher or agent, and price; but it must be borne in mind that books of the kind are constantly going out of print, and that the mention of these in the text is designed rather to indicate the sort of books it is desirable to use than to point out particular works. Indeed, to regard this as a stereotyped list of school-books for young children would be unfair both to authors and publishers, and also to the purchaser; for there are, no doubt, many equally good books in the market at the present time, and new works on similar lines are constantly issuing from the press.

Page. Title. Author. Publisher or Agent. Price.

51 Wild Flowers. Ann Pratt. S.P.C.K. 8s.

55 Nature Note-books. .... To be had at 26 Victoria St., S.W. 1s. and 1s. 6d. each.

58 The Natural History of Selborne. Gilbert White. Cassell. 6s.

64 The Water Babies. Chas. Kingsley. Macmillan. 2s.

” Madam How and Lady Why. ” ” 2s. 6d.

” Inmates of My House and Garden. Mrs Brightwen. Fisher Unwin. 2s.

64 Wild Nature Won by Kindness. Mrs Brightwen. Fisher Unwin. 2s.

” Eyes and No Eyes Series (parts i.-vi.). A. Buckley (Mrs Fisher). Cassell. 4d. and 6d. each.

” Life and Her Children. ” Stanford. 6s.

” The Fairy-land of Science. ” ” ”

” The School of the Woods. W. Long. Ginn & Co. 7s. 6d.

” The Little Brother of the Bear. ” ” ” ”

” Wild Nature’s Ways. R. Kearton. Cassell. 10s. 6d.

” Living Animals of the World, 2 vols. ... Hutchinson. 10s. 6d. net. each.

” The Lives of the Hunted. Seton Thompson. Nutt. 6s. net.

” The Biography of a Grizzly. ” Hodder & Stoughton. ”

88 Scouting Baden-Powell. Glaisher. 1s. net.

91 British Birds in their Haunts. Rev. C. A. Johns. S.P.C.K. 5s.

151 Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Macmillan. From 2s.

152 The Swiss Family Robinson. ... Routledge. 2s.

152 Robinson Crusoe. D. Defoe. ” From 2s.

182 Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. Count Tolstoi. Dent. 3s. 6d.

184 The Story of a Child. Margt. Deland. Longmans. 5s.

194 Helen Keller. An Autobiography. Hodder & Stoughton. 7s. 6d.

⎧ 196 ⎨ 263 ⎩ Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. ii., vol. viii. ... Eyre & Spotiswoode. 2s. 6d. 3s. 2d.

205 Parables from Nature. Mrs Gatty. Bell. 3s.

” Prose Poems. Mrs Barbauld. Glaisher. 6d. and 2s.

222 A Delightful Reading-Box. Sar. M. Mason. School Depôt South Norwood. 1s. 6d.

” Recitation: A Handbook for Teachers. A. Burrell. Griffith & Farran. 3s. 6d.

232 The World at Home. Nelson. ”

232 The Heroes of Asgard. A. & E. Keary. Macmillan. 2s. 6d.

“ Tanglewood Tales. N. Hawthorne. Blackwood. 1s. 2d.

232 The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan. Glaisher. From 1s.

233 } 286 Plutarch’s Lives. Nat. Library. Cassell. 3d. each.

236 A New Handwriting for Teachers. Mrs Bridges. Glaisher. 2s. 8d.

239 Dr Roth’s Desk. ... Educational Supply, 42a Holborn Viaduct, London. From £2.

252 The Bible for the Young. Dr Paterson Smyth. Sampson Low. 1s. net. a vol.

” The Holy Gospels with Illustrations from the Old Masters. ... S.P.C.K. £2, 2s.

” The Illustrated New Testament. ... R.T.S. 1s. net.

” Penny Illustrated Gospels. ... Walters, 15 Strand, London. 1d. each.

253 Bypaths of Bible Knowledge, vols. ii., iii., viii., xvii. Professor Sayce and others. R.T.S. 2s. each.

261 The ABC Arithmetic, Teachers’, parts i. and ii. Sonnenschein and Nesbitt. ... 1s. each.

266 } 271 The Sciences. E. S. Holden. Ginn & Co. 2s. 6d.

266 Scientific Dialogues. Joyce. Bell, Bohn’s Library. 5s.

268 The Parents’ Review. ... 26 Victoria St., London S.W. 6d. monthly.

273 The Voyages of Captain Cook. ... Routledge. Newnes. 2s. 3s. 6d. |

275 The Tropical World. Dr Hartwig. Longmans. 7s. net.

” The Polar World. ” ” ”

” Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. Mrs Bishop. Murray. 2s. 6d. net.

277 The London Geographical Readers, 5 vols. C. M. Mason. Stanford.[45] 1s. to 2s. 6d. ea.

282 Ecclesiastical History of England. Venerable Bede. Dent. 1s. 6d.

285 Six Old English Chronicles. Bohn’s Library. ... 5s.

” Chronicles of the Crusades. ” ... ”

” The Chronicles of Froissart. Edited by G. C. Macaulay. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.

288 Old Stories from British History. York Powell. Longmans. 1s.

” Sketches from British History. ” ” ”

289 Tales from St Paul’s. Mrs Frewen Lord. Sampson Low. ”

” Tales from Westminster Abbey. ” ” ”

” Prisoners of the Tower of London. V. Brooke Hunt. Dent. 5s. net.

290 A History of England. H. K. O. Arnold Forster. Cassell. 5s.

” The Citizen Reader. ” ” 1s. 6d.

” The Laws of Everyday Life. ” ” ”

291 A Short History of the English People. J. R. Green. Macmillan. 8s. 6d.

295 First Latin Course. Scott & Jones. Blackie. 1s. 6d.

302 The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages. M. Gouin. Philip & Sons. 7s. 6d.

306 Pictures for the Modern Language Series. ... Dent. 2s. 6d. each.

309 The Perry Pictures (see Art for Schools Association Catalogue). ... Glaisher. 3d.

” Unser Vater, Sontag, etc. Ludwig Richter. Grumbach, Leipzig. 6s. to 1cs. the set.

” The Fitzroy Pictures (send for Illustrated Catalogue). ... Bell & Sons. From 2s. 6d. each net.

314 onic Solfa Method. ... Curwen & Sons. 1s. 6d.

315 Child Pianist Method, Steps I.-VI. ... ” ” 1s. 6d. & 2s. 6d. each.

” Child Pianist Method, Teacher’s Guide, 2 vols. ... ” ” 2s. 6d. each.

FOOTNOTES:

APPENDIX B

Questions for the Use of Students[46]

PART I

Some Preliminary Considerations

1. Show that children are a public trust. What follows?

2. What questions does Pestalozzi put to mothers?

3. What is Mr Herbert Spencer’s argument for the study of education?

4. How do parents usually proceed?

5. What is the strenuous part of a parent’s work?

I. A Method of Education

1. Contrast four or five older theories with later, and perhaps sounder notions.

2. Point out the opposite characters of a system and a method.

3. Why is a system tempting to parents?

II. The Child’s Estate

1. What do the Gospel sayings about children indicate?

2. What are the three commandments of the Gospel code of education?

III. Offending the Children

1. Distinguish between ‘offending’ and ‘despising’ children.

2. What is to be said of parents whose children have ‘no sense of ought’?

3. Trace the steps by which a mother’s ‘no’ comes to be disregarded.

4. Why must parents themselves be law-compelled?

5. Show that parents may offend their children by disregarding the laws of health.

6. By disregarding the laws of the intellectual life.

7. Of the moral life.

IV. Despising the Children

1. Show that children may be despised in the choice of a nurse.

2. By taking their faults too lightly.

V. Hindering the Children

1. In what ways may parents hinder their children’s access to God?

VI. Conditions of Healthy Brain Activity

1. What is the first condition of successful education?

2. Show that daily efforts, intellectual, moral, and physical, are necessary for children.

3. On what principle is the blood-supply regulated?

4. Show the importance of rest after meals.

5. What is the best time for lessons? Why?

6. On what principle should a time-table be arranged?

7. Show that brain activity is affected by nourishment.

8. Under what conditions does food increase the vital quality of the blood?

9. Why must food be varied?

10. Show that children are spendthrifts of vitality.

11. Give a few useful hints concerning meals.

12. Why should there be talk at meals?

13. Give some rules to secure variety.

14. Show fully that air is as important as food.

15. What have you to say of the children’s daily walk?

16. What is meant by the oxygenation of the blood?

17. Show that oxygen has its limitations.

18. What are the dangers of unchanged air in spacious rooms?

19. ‘I feed Alice on beef-tea.’ Why?

20. What of Alice’s mind?

21. What are the joys of Wordsworth’s ‘Lucy’?

22. Show the danger of stuffy rooms.

23. What principle must regulate ventilation?

24. Why is night air wholesome?

25. Upon what physical facts does the need of sunshine depend?

26. Show that the skin does much scavenger’s work.

27. Why do persons die of external scalds or burns?

28. Why is a daily bath necessary?

29. Give some instructions for clothing children.

VII. ‘The Reign of Law’ in Education

1. What should be the method of all education?

2. Why are common sense and good intentions not sufficient?

3. How may we meet the danger to religion arising from the blameless lives of some non-religious persons?

4. Account for the superior morality of such non-believers.

5. Show that all observance of law brings its reward.

6. Show that parents should not lay up crucial difficulties for their children.

7. Why should parents study mental and moral science?

PART II Out-of-Door Life for the Children I. A Growing Time

1. Why is out-of-door life for young children especially important in these days?

2. What are the gains of meals out of doors?

3. What might be accomplished by dwellers in towns and suburbs?

4. What five or six points should be remembered in a day in the open?

5. What of story-books or tale-telling on such occasions?

6. What of ‘the baby’?

II. ‘Sight-seeing’

1. Give an example of ‘sight-seeing.’

2. What five or six educational uses may be made of ‘sight-seeing’?

3. Show the value of discriminating observation.

III. ‘Picture Painting’

1. What is meant by ‘picture painting’?

2. Give an example.

3. Show the value of this exercise.

4. What caution must be borne in mind?

5. What invaluable habit should this play tend to form?

6. What is the mother’s part in the play?

7. What is the after-reward for taking pains in the act of seeing?

IV. Flowers and Trees

1. With what field crops may children become acquainted in your neighbourhood?

2. What should a child know about any wild flower of his neighbourhood?

3. How should children take up the study of trees?

4. Show how the seasons should be followed in this study.

5. What does Leigh Hunt say about flowers?

6. What use should be made of calendars and note-books?

7. What of the child who says, ‘I can’t stop thinking’?

V. ‘Living Creatures’

1. What part of the pleasure in living creatures may be secured for town dwellers?

2. Of what ‘creatures’ may children observe the habits?

3. What points about an insect should children observe?

4. How did White of Selborne and Audubon get their bent towards nature?

5. What can town children do in getting a knowledge of ‘living creatures’?

6. Show that nature-knowledge is the most important knowledge for young children.

7. What intellectual powers are trained in the child naturalist?

8. Show that nature-work is especially valuable for girls.

VI. Field Lore and Naturalists’ Books

1. Should young children be taught the elements of natural science?

2. Show the value of rough classifications.

3. Contrast with classifications learnt from books.

4. What are the uses of Naturalists’ books?

5. Name a few.

6. Why should mothers and teachers have some knowledge of nature?

VII. The Child gets Knowledge by Means of his Senses

1. Show, from the behaviour of a baby, that a child gets knowledge by means of his senses.

2. Characterise Nature’s teaching.

3. Wherein lies the danger of over-pressure?

4. Why are object-lessons inefficient?

5. Why does a child learn most from things?

6. Give some examples showing that a sense of beauty comes from early contact with nature.

7. What does Dickens say on the subject of a child’s observing powers?

VIII. The Child should be made Familiar with Natural Objects

1. Compare town and country as to things worth observing.

2. How does the fact that every natural object is a member of a series affect education?

3. ‘Power will pass more and more into the hands of scientific men’—how should this influence parents and teachers?

4. In what ways does intimacy with nature make for personal well-being?

IX. Out-of-Door Geography

1. Show that small things may suggest great in pictorial geography.

2. What should children be taught to observe about the position of the sun?

3. What, of clouds, rain, snow, and hail?

4. Show how, by pacing, a child should get the idea of distance.

5. What is the first step towards a knowledge of direction?

6. What practice should a child have in finding direction?

7. What compass-drill would you give him?

8. How should a child get the notion of boundaries?

9. When should he begin to make ‘plans’?

10. What geographical ideas should he get from his own neighbourhood?

X. The Child and Mother Nature

1. Why must the mother refrain from much talk?

2. How is a new acquaintance begun?

3. What are the two things permissible to the mother?

XI. Out-of-Door Games, etc.

1. Why should not the French lesson be omitted?

2. Why should children indulge in cries and shouts out of doors?

3. Why should rondes be preserved?

4. What are the best ways of using skipping-rope and shuttlecock?

5. What is to be said for climbing?

6. What, for woollen garments?

XII. Walks in Bad Weather

1. Why are winter walks as necessary as summer walks?

2. What pleasures are connected with frost and snow?

3. How may children be kept alert on dull days?

4. How does winter lend itself to observation?

5. Why are wet weather tramps wholesome and necessary?

6. What sort of garments are necessary? Why?

7. What precautions should be borne in mind?

XIII. ‘Red Indian’ Life

1. What do you understand by ‘scouting’? Show the value of scouting.

2. Describe a ‘bird-stalking’ expedition.

3. In what ways should these things afford training?

XIV. The Children require Country Air

1. How may the essential proportion of oxygen be diminished?

2. How is excess of carbonic acid gas produced?

3. Why do children, especially, need unvitiated, unimpoverished air?

4. Show that children require solar light.

5. Describe a physical ideal for a child, and show the use of having such an ideal.

PART III ‘Habit is Ten Natures’ I. Education Based upon Natural Law

1. Show that a healthy brain and outdoor life are conditions of education.

2. Show that habit is the instrument by which parents work.

II. The Children have no Self-compelling Power

1. Show that education is commonly a cul-de-sac.

2. Name three great educational forces.

3. Why are not these forces sufficient?

4. Why are children incapable of steady effort?

5. Why should young children be, to some extent, saved the effort of decision?

III. What is ‘Nature’?

1. What may we state of the child as a human being?

2. Show that all persons are born with the same primary desires.

3. And affections.

4. Name affections common to us all.

5. What does the most elemental notion of human nature include?

6. What have you to say of the strength of nature plus heredity?

7. What manner of differences may physical conditions bring about?

8. Of what is human nature the sum?

9. Why must not the child be left to his human nature?

10. What is the problem before the educator?

11. Show that divine grace works on the lines of human effort.

12. Why must not the trust of parents be supine?

IV. Habit may Supplant ‘Nature’

1. Show that habit runs on the lines of nature.

2. How must habit work to be a lever?

3. Show that a mother forms her children’s habits involuntarily.

4. Illustrate the fact that habit may force nature into new channels.

5. To what end must parents and teachers lay down the lines of habit?

V. The Laying Down of Lines of Habit

1. Show that parents initiate their children’s habits of thought and feeling by their own behaviour.

2. Does education in habit interfere with free-will?

3. Show how good it is that habit should rule our thoughts.

4. Show that habit is powerful even when the will decides.

VI. The Physiology of Habit

1. Illustrate the fact that growing tissues form themselves to the modes of action required of them.

2. Show fully and exactly why children should learn dancing, swimming, etc., at an early age.

3. To what fact is the strength of moral habits probably due?

4. Show the danger of persistent trains of thought.

5. What does the incessant regeneration of brain tissue imply to the educator?

6. Show that to acquire artificial reflex action in certain directions is a great part of education.

7. What are the aims of intellectual and moral education?

8. Show that character is affected by the acquired modification of brain tissue.

9. Show the need for care with regard to outside influences.

VII. The Forming of a Habit—‘Shut the Door after You’

1. What remains to be tried when neither time, reward, nor punishment is effective in curing a bad habit?

2. Show that habit is a delight in itself.

3. Show that misguided sympathy is a hindrance in the formation of habits.

4. What are the qualities necessary in the mother who would form habits in her children?

5. What are the stages in the formation of a habit?

6. Which is the dangerous stage?

VIII. Infant Habits

1. Show the necessity for cleanliness in the nursery.

2. How do cleanliness, order, etc., educate a child?

3. Why is the training of a sensitive nose an important part of education?

4. Why should nurses know that the baby is ubiquitous?

5. Show that personal cleanliness should be made an early habit.

6. How may parents approach the subjects of modesty and purity?

7. Show how the habit of obedience and the sense of honour are safeguards.

8. What manner of life is the best safeguard?

9. Give some suggestions with regard to ‘order’ in the nursery.

10. Show how and why the child of two should put away his playthings.

11. Distinguish between neatness and order.

12. What occasions are there for regularity with an infant?

13. Show that irregularity leads to self-indulgence.

IX. Physical Exercises

1. Show the importance of daily physical exercises.

2. What moral qualities appear in alert movements?

3. Suggest a drill of good manners.

4. How would you train the ear and voice?

5. How may the habit of music be cultivated?

6. Show that the mother who trains habits can let her children alone.

PART IV Some Habits of Mind—Some Moral Habits

1. What can a knowledge of the science of education effect?

2. Show that education in habit favours an easy life.

3. Show how the mother’s labours are eased by the fact that training in habits becomes a habit.

4. Instance some habits inspired with the home atmosphere.

I. The Habit of Attention

1. Why is the habit of attention of supreme importance?

2. Instance minds at the mercy of associations.

3. Give instances from literature of the habit of wandering attention.

4. Where is the harm of wandering attention?

5. How may the habit of attention be cultivated in the infant?

6. How would you cultivate attention to lessons?

7. What principles should help the teacher to make lessons attractive?

8. Show the value of definite work in a given time.

9. On what principle must a time-table be drawn up?

10. What is the natural reward of attention at lessons?

11. What is to be said for and against emulation?

12. What is the risk in employing affection as a motive?

13. Show that the attractiveness of knowledge is a sufficient motive to the learner.

14. What is attention?

15. How would you induce self-compelled attention?

16. What is the secret of over-pressure?

17. How may parents be of use in the home-work of the day-school boy?

18. Describe a wholesome home-treatment for ‘mooning.’

19. What have you to say of the discipline of consequences?

20. Show that rewards and punishments should be relative, rather than natural, consequences of conduct.

21. Distinguish between natural and educative consequences.

II. The Habits of Application, etc.

1. How may rapid mental effort be secured?

2. How may zeal be stimulated?

III. The Habit of Thinking

1. Give the example of thinking cited.

2. What operations are included in ‘thinking’?

IV. The Habit of Imagining

1. What is the double danger of many books ministering to the sense of the incongruous?

2. Show that commonplace tales leave nothing to the imagination.

3. In what way do tales of the imagination afford children a second life?

4. Show that we can have great conceptions only as we have imagination.

5. Upon what does imagination grow?

6. What lessons should feed imagination?

7. Why?

8. Show the educative value of the right story-books.

9. How would you promote the habit of thinking?

V. The Habit of Remembering

1. Distinguish between remembering and recollecting.

2. Describe what is here called a ‘spurious’ memory.

3. What results from the fact that memory is a record on the brain substance?

4. Made under what conditions?

5. Show that recollection depends upon the law of association of ideas.

6. What is the condition for recollecting a course of lessons?

7. Given, what conditions, may we say there is no limit to the recording power of the brain?

8. Show that links of association are a condition of recollection. Where are these to be discovered?

VI. The Habit of Perfect Execution

1. What national error hinders us from the effort to throw perfection into all we do?

2. Show the danger of the habit of turning out imperfect work.

3. How may a child be taught to execute perfectly?

VII. Some Moral Habits—Obedience

1. What is the whole duty of a child?

2. What is the state opposed to obedience?

3. Show that a parent has no right to forego obedience.

4. What is the true motive for obedience?

5. Account for the fact that strictly brought up children are often failures.

6. Why may parents and teachers expect obedience?

7. How may children be brought up to ‘do as they choose’?

8. What manner of obedience is of lasting value to the child?

9. How may children be trained towards liberty?

VIII. Truthfulness, etc.

1. What are the causes of lying?

2. Show that all kinds of lying are vicious.

3. How is it that only one kind is visited on children?

4. How would you train a child in accuracy of statement?

5. How would you deal with exaggeration?

6. With ludicrous embellishments?

7. Show that reverence, consideration, etc., claim special attention in these days.

8. Is temper born in a child?

9. Show that, not temper, but tendency is ‘born.’

10. How must parents correct such tendency?

11. Show fully the efficacy of changing the child’s thoughts.

12. Distinguish between changing a child’s thoughts and conveying to him the thought you intend him to think.

PART V Lessons as Instruments of Education I. The Matter and Method of Lessons

1. Discuss the statement, This is ‘an age of pedagogy.’

2. Why must parents reflect on the subject-matter of instruction?

3. Show that home is the best growing ground for young children.

4. Why must a mother have definite views?

5. What are the three questions for the mother?

6. Show that children learn, to grow.

7. Show that any doctoring of the material of knowledge is unnecessary for a healthy child.

8. What is an idea?

9. Show that an idea feeds, grows, and produces.

10. What did Sir Walter Scott and George Stephenson each do with an idea?

11. Show the value of dominant ideas.

12. Why must lessons furnish ideas?

13. What quality of knowledge should children get?

14. What is the evil of ‘diluted knowledge’?

15. Illustrate a child’s power of getting knowledge (Dr Arnold).

16. What is the harm of lesson-books with pretty pictures and easy talk?

17. What are the four tests which should be applied to children’s lessons?

18. Give a résumé of six points already considered.

II. The Kindergarten as a Place of Education

1. Show that the mother is the best Kindergärtnerin.

2. How may the child get education out of his daily nursery life?

3. Show that the children’s pursuit of real knowledge may be hindered by the kindergarten.

4. Show that a just eye and a faithful hand may be trained at home.

5. In what respects does the kindergarten give a hint of the discipline proper for the nursery.

6. What temper should be cultivated in the nursery?

7. What general conclusion may we come to as to the principles and practices of the kindergarten?

III. Further Consideration of the Kindergarten

1. What anecdote of a child is quoted from Tolstoi’s Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth?

2. Why are such tales as Miss Deland’s The Story of a Child valuable?

3. What do we owe to Froebel?

4. What may we learn from the true Kindergärtnerin?

5. Comment upon, ‘Persons do not grow in a garden.’

6. Show that we must leave opportunity for the work of nature in education.

7. Give instances showing the intelligence of children.

8. Account for the pleasure children take in kindergarten games.

9. In what ways do teachers mediate too much?

10. Show the danger of personal magnetism in the teacher.

11. Show fully that the name ‘kindergarten’ implies a false analogy.

12. What might be said concerning the Froebel ‘mother-games’?

13. Is the society of a large number of his equals in age the best for a young child?

14. Show the dangers of supplanting nature.

15. What would you say regarding the importance of personal initiative?

16. In what ways must parents and teachers sow opportunities?

17. Do ‘only’ children profit by the kindergarten?

18. In what ways should children be allowed some ordering of their lives?

19. Give a few of the lessons we may learn from the autobiography of Helen Keller.

20. What conclusions does Miss Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, arrive at with regard to systems of education?

21. Account for the success of the kindergarten in the United States.

22. What changes does Mr Thistleton Mark observe?

23. Give some of the comments of Dr Stanley Hall.

IV. Reading

1. Discuss the question of the age at which children should learn to read.

2. How did Mrs Wesley teach her children to read?

3. Give a few hints for teaching the alphabet.

4. How would you introduce a child to word-making?

5. Describe a lesson in word-making with long vowels, etc.

6. How should the child’s first reading lessons help him to spell?

7. Give the steps of a reading lesson on ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.’

8. Why is prose better in some ways than verse for early lessons?

9. Describe a second reading lesson on ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.’

10. Show that slow and steady progress tends to careful enunciation.

11. Show how much a child might gain in a year’s work on these lines.

12. Contrast this steady progress with the casual way in which children generally learn to read.

V. First Reading Lesson (Two Mothers Confer)

VI. Reading by Sight and by Sound

1. Why is learning to read hard work?

2. What are the symbols children must learn?

3. What do we definitely propose in teaching a child to read?

4. Can the symbols he learns be interesting?

5. Describe the stages of a lesson on ‘I like little Pussy.’

6. How does Tommy learn to read sentences?

7. Describe Tommy’s first spelling lesson.

8. How would you deal with the fact that like combinations have different sounds?

9. Show that his reading lesson should afford moral training to a child.

VII. Recitation

‘The Children’s Art’

1. What should we aim at in teaching children to recite?

2. How should we proceed?

3. What should we avoid?

4. Why may we expect success?

5. Distinguish between reciting and memorising.

6. Show that children have a natural capacity for memorising.

7. How would you teach them to memorise a poem?

VIII. Reading for Older Children

1. To what two points must the teacher attend?

2. What is the most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day?

3. How may we correct this defect?

4. What points require attention when the child is reading aloud?

5. What must the teacher be careful to avoid?

6. What is to be said for and against reading to children?

7. Should children be questioned about the meaning of what they read?

8. Why not?

9. Suggest a better test of their intelligence.

10. Why is the selection of a child’s early lesson-books a matter of great importance?

11. What general rule should help in the choice of these?

12. How may the attention of children be secured during a reading lesson?

13. Give two or three hints with regard to careful enunciation.

IX. The Art of Narration

1. Prove from your own observation that children narrate by nature.

2. How should this power be used in their education?

3. What points must be borne in mind with regard to a child’s narrations?

4. Describe the method of a lesson.

X. Writing

1. How would you avoid the habit of careless work?

2. What printing should a child do before he comes to write?

3. What stages should be followed in teaching writing?

4. What is to be said about copperplate headlines?

5. Why should children practise in text-hand?

6. What arguments are advanced in favour of a beautiful handwriting?

7. What is to be said for a beautiful basis for characteristic handwriting?

8. Suggest a way of using A New Handwriting.

XI. Transcription

1. Show the use of transcription before children write dictation.

2. What should children transcribe?

3. How should transcription help children to spell?

4. Why should text-hand and double-ruled lines be used?

5. Describe the proper position in writing.

6. How should children hold their pens?

7. What are the points of a good desk?

8. Describe a school-table for little children.

XII. Spelling and Dictation

1. Show how dictation may be made a cause of bad spelling.

2. What is the rationale of spelling?

3. What are the steps of a dictation lesson as it should be?

4. Show clearly what principle is involved.

5. What are the two causes of illiterate spelling?

XIII. Composition

1. Show that the exaction of original composition from school-boys and school-girls is a futility.

2. And a moral injury to the children.

3. Illustrate the sort of teaching that should be regarded as a public danger.

4. Upon what condition does composition ‘come by nature’?

XIV. Bible Lessons

1. Illustrate the religious receptivity of children.

2. What Bible knowledge should children of nine have?

3. What would you say with regard to Bible narratives done into modern English?