The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-07-13
Colonel ParkGF'S Powerful Address
in Progress Hall.
LARGE AUDIENCE INTERESTED
Believes In Myths as Principles of
to Ambitious Pedagogues.

Progress hall was filled last even
ing with teachers and people specially
interested in educational topics to hear
the lecture of Colonel Parker on the
| subject of The Child and Nature. -
Inspector General Townsend and Pro
fessor Edgar Wood met visitors at the
hall. The speaker was introduced by
Mr.. Townsend
Colonel Parker said that the great
est mystery, the most profound prob
lem beneath the throne of the Eternal,
a problem which wise men of all ages
had tried to answer, and yet had not
solved, was the question What is the
child?' What is that little lump of
flesh, singing songs, evincing the i'm
mortal and yet so full of mysteries ?''
Emerson called the child the "son of
the world" No man can answer the
question. | have lived with the little
folk many years and tried to under
stand them. Yet my work has been
but tentative in its conclusions.
The child is a born savage. That is,
it at first has the instincts and tend
encies of the savage. There was never
boy who did not dig a cave, or want
20 dig one, crawl into 1t and defy the
world. There was Kever boy but who
loved boys and arrows, the woods
and nature. And in the higher sense
the boy is like the savage. First he
creates his little world But if he
lived in his little CELL without power
to- burst out into life beyond he would
die. The child creates-creates his
world and the beings in it. Remem
Der the playhouse under the old oak
tree ?-the broken crOckery, the busi-
ness of housekeeping, the neighbors
dropping in to swap the community
prattle-all day, alone, talking to your
self and living with your own crea-
tiOns? That is the savage life. That
is the myth life. if you please.
When the savage begins to open his
eyes everything speaks to him. Imam
innate things live and speak The
stone cries out to him "WhO am I?'-
and the amazed soul answers back
Thou art Cod The tree then asks
''Who am y" In the tree the savage
sees a broader, more noble personifi-
cation and cries out in admiration,
Thou art God" From the earth his
mind then goes out into the great uni
verse, to the bright stars, the white
moon and the great luminary God, the
sun. To each of these he cries, in
turn, Thou art God" Cortez, when
Christianizing Mexico, was asked if
there was not something beyond the
sun. The Incas of Peru asked the
same question. You cannot tell saw
age there is God and make him feel
it; but through the Divine instinct you
may lead him up to where God is and
then show him all.
SO with the child. The child loves
the fairy tale, because it is a part of
its life. Many people object to these
stories on the ground that they are
untrue and that nothing untrue should
be taught Are fairy tales untrue?
What is truth? The myth is truth to
the child because it is a part OF him.
The Puritan's idea of truth was the
force of his own conceptions. Peter
Farley wrote a geography. 1t started
out by saying that "the world is round
and like a ball'-which was the only
truth in the book and part of that was
false. Ethiopia, in this book, was
placed in the center of Africa. IN
spectOr General Townsend studied
geography which described his great,
fertile state as "a desert" Those are
the myths that do harm.
What child does not love the story
Of Santa Claus? There are mothers
and teachers nowadays who draw their
eyes up and perform the solemn duty
TO truth of telling the children that
there is no Santa Claus. There is a
Santa Claus; and all children should
be assured Of the fact. That this
boundless universe thrObs with the
love and blessings of an Almighty Be
ing cannot be explained r. a chiId's
mind; but the myth can be given it,
and it carries with it the great truth
The correct principle Of primary teach
ing is through myths. Myth is the be-
ginning of spiritual life. When balled
up and used for selfish purposes, how
ever, the myth is wrong. Give the
child the fairy tale, the myths. Sc
lect them, taking such as will convey
the truth.
A child is a born naturalist. All
children love flowers They leave the
city in droves to visit among the flow