The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-17

letics rs calling has great dangers
Unless enaJlirg the child to coordinate
the muscles of eye and hand it may be
al obstacle In the way of true education.
TO merely establish the athletic habit
is full of risk. Over heated rooms and
i'll arranged lights still menace US. The
nervous system in children, suffers from
fatigue and from too much excite
ment and restIesEuess. Our method of
preparing for, and eele brating holidays il
very unw1se We are fed. we move, We
have sense, experience, in order that we
may know, love and act benefcently.
: The Iowess OF lie spirit are trained
for their own sake. Man, with his intel
ligenoe, affections and viii, stands over
against world OF means and world OF
ends, world OF nature and world of Gull
ture and by means OF these, he is to realize
himself as a free being. He must ACQUIRE
four instruments of knowledge, viz !:
Language, letters, number ard d certain,
degree Of manual faculty. During tie
first steps of the process vi education.
good tine," as the immoral phrase is :;
but he will have a better time Ii the
rest Of his life for the sacrifice at the be
ginning. He must through eye and ear.
through history, biography aud fiction.
thorough painting ana sculpture, be made
familiar with heroic deeds and shown
why they are heroic. 1t must be impress
Is an ignoble life. And what he thus
discovers to be noble, he must put in
practice in his own life, in his own dai "
actious towards other children and to.
wards older persons. We want q heroisin
of the present as well as of the past.
Parents and teachers lack ideals in their
own lives. Knowledge of nature aud
knowledge OF man, proceeding from the
simple to the complex. We can see me-
chanical process; We can imagine chem
ical and physiological processes; we can
only symbolic biological processes.
The culture sciences are philology,
ethics, economics, politics, aesthetics and
theology. Man Lives ana moves and has
his being" in God Man is being of
two-fold nature and is at once individual
and universal, human and deyine-in a
word God is incarnate in man. To his
human sense belong sense, lust and
blind impulse; to the divine side, knowl-
edge, love and will. To these he must
subordinate the individual powers. The
ology is the science of the supreme aud
characteristic part of mans nature.
Nature stands to man In the relations OF
usefulness to his body and beauty to his
soul. The love OF man should take
precedence of the love of nature and the
love of nature as inspiring, precedence
of the love of nature as useful wealthy,
Gross materialisni, the fierca struggle
for wealth and enjoyment and feverish
nervousness characterize our time. Our
affections must be schooled and disci-
Observation-Disclosures among things, in
proportion to their value, for their ends
of manhood.
A child will learn reverence only as it
is taught him, and as he sees it in the
character, word, look and action of those
who undertake to develope good in the
young heart. So long as the ordinary
talk among grown people relates to
money making, to dress, to the remiuis-
oences or prospects Of "a good Time, T" to
the peculiarities of neighbors or to the
last sensation trumpeted through the
newspapers, it is vain to hope for any
true education of the affections of chill
dren. GAS the old fowl sings, the young
fowl learns" With older children, wise
instruction and good reading do good
deal.
We may have much true knowledge
much deep and well-regulated affection
a "a an obedient body and yet the will be
feeble and respond languidly. Will is
something with which only religion can
deal Its direction is towards the SUI
preme God. 1t may sleep. Dante tells
US that when he abandoned the true way
be was full of Sleep" The absence of
awareness Of unity with the Supreme Be-
ing is what the Bible calls darkness-its
presence, light. We edo not the truth"
Will must not be confused with action
guided by strong passion or desire
There is nothing so different from will as
wilfulness. Actions done in obedience to
will are often done with calm resigna-
ton, in the very face of and in defiance
of the strong passions. Religion has
become refined and spiritualized feasting
and sacrifice have given way to modits-
tion and prayer; the belief in ghosts and
nature powers to a growing consciousness
of universal spirit. To educate the
will we must give greater and greater
prominence to meditation, prayer and
purity Of heart. The sooner child Gail
be made thoughtful, meditatiye and
prayerful, the better. Education which
is at present chaotic and aiInless, must
be made unity and systematic by being
directed to single supreme rational
end. This end Is the realization of free,
heroic, sanity manhood and woman
hood, which implies deep spiritual in
sight and knowledge. strong, well-dis-
tributed affections and a will carrying in
it, consciousness of the divine presence
in the soul. With view to this, the BODY
must be educated SO that it shall be the
ready and prompt instrument of the
soul, the intellect must be trained to
true knowledge, the affections must be
ohestened and made to distribute them
selves according to the value of things
for the ends of manhood and the will
must be reused to an active conscious
ness of the indwelling of God. Only
when this is done shall we have an edu-
cation calculated to prepare man for his