Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-11-05
CHARACTER-GRAFTlNG.
A Suggestion for Those Who Have An!
Charge Over Young People. ..


Charge Over Young People. r.
"You can't do anything with my
boy" said a discouraged father to the
principal of a well-known boys school.
Il have tried everything under heaven,
to no purpose. The trouble is, he has
had disposition, and no amount of dis
cipliue will drive it out of him.
Il don't want to drive anything out
of him" was the quiet reply. "What
want to do is to take the boys original
disposition for my parent stock, and
graft on it the virtues which it is most
likely to nourish. Let Inc have your
boy for couple of years, and see if l
can't bring some good fruit out of him"
1t is hardly necessary to add that, I'M
der the influence of such q man, the
good fruit was Forthcoming in less than
two years. time.
The principle was one which is often
overlooked in Misunderstanding. The
general impression seems to be that
nature settles some things morally, as
well as physically: that if she gives a
child what is called bad disposition, it
y
is to attempt to correct consumptive
tendency or weakness of the spine.
AS a matter of fact, the two things are
very different. A so-called bad dis
position is generally an evidence of
moral strength perverted and misdi-
rected. 1t is SAVIOR Of life, and not
SAVIOR of death. There are certain vir-
the vigorous stalk of original DISPOSE
ton. Suppose boy seems hopelessly
self-willed and obstinate. Here is the
proper stem or which to graft virtues of
the heroic order-moral bravery and fl
deity, courage Of conviction. strength
of purpose. Let him be passionate, hot
headed, uncomfortable. Such a DISPOSE
ton as this is source Of nourishment
for all the aggressive virtues-indig-
nation at moral meannesses, the power
of leadership, the bravery AMI devotion
that do not fail in emergencies.
Even a disposition that is accounted
mean, small and sneaking may be util-
lied in this process of character-graft-
ing. The psychologists have traced
cess Of certain virtues. Cowardice,
they tell us, is All excess of caution;
anger Is moral judgment overwhelming
moral reason. So meanness and small
ness of character may spring from ex-
cessive self-depreciation---n be SIM
ply too much of the very quality that
makes 1nodesty and Difference, obedi-
ence and trust.
Looking at the matter in this light,
it is quite possible to take a person of
small and luean disposition, and devel-
OPP in him a character of rare sweetness
and tractability. His moral tendencies
are all in the line of what may be called
the negative virtues, those of q more
feminine or cEildlike character; and it
vate in him such virtues. He is mean
and small simply because his moral ten
denotes have developed on the wrong
side, the vicious side. Start them the
other way, and they will flower into
the corresponding virtues.
Would it not be well for Sunday
school teachers, especially, to try the
PA">OA~A "NAhibS oA OAAio CASoiy III
certain cases under their charge? Let
them appeal to each individual pupil
on the side where he is most open to ap-
peal. Do not give him the idea that
you want to reform him, but that you
want to develop Kim. Engraft upon his
natural disposition the virtues most
congenial to him by reason of that dis
position. At the outset, let symmetry
Of character go. That will come in due
time, as moral growth necessitates the
rounding out Of the inner life. Keep
the grating principle firmly in mind.
Remember that no natural disposition
is so bad that it cannot be evolved out
of it's badaess. Sooner or later, the
good that Is in every heart must respond
to the intelligent effort to draw it out
James Buckbam, in N. Y. Outlook.