The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-08-03

life. On the foundation Of religion rests
all our work, all our activity, and 1t Is
therefore evident that education-that Is,
the preparation OF man for life and actiy.-
ity-must be founded on religion.
But in our so-called civilized world re-
ligion IS not only, not recognized as the
| center from which all education must start;
it is not considered necessary or even i'm
portant. but simply locke upon as super
iuous and antiQuated, a tradition LETT 10
US by our uneducated ancestor, a thing in
which no up-to-date man believes, and for
this reason it Is not thought advisable to
/ teach religion in our schools. 1t is easy to
see that under these conditions. education
is OF no value, and to get any results We
must make an entirely new departure and
| conduct our education along very different
lines.
At the bottom Of all education must be a
foundation of religion, a religious doctrine
| formulated so that it will be suited to
every human being, regardless of class and
nationality. .
1t is evident that this religious doctrine
can be neither Catholicism, nor Protestant
ism, nor Mohammedanism, nor Judaism.
nor Buddhism-religions that all. without
exception. are founded upon confidence in
certain phophtes. The religion tina. I think
of must be justified by reason. BY our best
feelings as to what is right and by our
| personal experience. And this doctrine Is
the Christian doctrine in its most beautiful,
most simple and most sensible form.
Love, Charity and Reciprocity. .
The religious base Of life consists in this:
that our life has no other purpose than to
accomplish the will of the eternal princi-
pie of which we are all a part, and the VIII
of this principle, that We are used TO call
God, is to bring all human beings together.
to make them feel that they are all united
| in one great family, and all our actions in
life should be guided by love. by patience
and by charity. .s-f -o-
Love. charity and a feeling Of reciprocity
are working forces OF, life, because they
| express the will of the principle, or the
! Providence that rules and guides the world
and that is the keystone Of our whole ex-
istence.
All education that IS OF any value should
| not only be built on this principle. but 1t
! should be continually guided by It Every
thing in education that tends to create and
| strengthen love and brotherly feelings to-
ward all humanity should be encouraged
| and everything that works against these
feelings should be thrown out, eliminated
| and abolished. --
What is, then. education. and OF what
does it consist?
To answer this question It Is necessary
to look deeper into the qualities OF human
activity.
The quality of all human activity is such,
| as all psychologists know, that If a person
Is in n hypnotic state, or If he is an idiot
| that is. if he has no inner motive of ac-
tivity-he will act upon the first inspiration
that comes to him. In most cases he Will
initiate what he sees around him or repeat
what he has done before, or he Will OBEY
the words of another without any reason
Ing. Tell him to walk and he will walk
until he runs up against a wall. and even
then he will continue moving his feet az II
he were still walking. II you give him a
spoon he will put It in his mouth and take
1t out again until you take 1t away from
him. We all know that hypnotized persons
and idiots will act in this way. but even
all intelligent persons possess the inclina-
ton to act upon the suggestion OF others
or upon what we call unconscious inner sus-
g~estion.
II YOU think Of n certain word for some
time and your attention Is attracted TO
something else You will very often catch
yourself repeating the word you were orig
inally thinking of over and over again, and
It IL exactly the same way with our acts.
This quality that seems to US so pitiful In
the idiot is really a most important and
necessary quality for all of us.
If we had to think over our smallest acts
we should never be able to conceive new
ideas or to solve the scientific questions OF
life. Even the capacity to submit to outside
or half-conscious inner inspiration or sug-
gestion gives to man the opportunity and
possibility of thought. 1t is only a COM
paratively small part of our acts that we
perform consciously; we mostly act upon
personal or foreign suggestion.
The more morally strong a person Is the
less he obeys outside suggestion and the
more his own personal inspirations. The
older he Is the less he acts upon the sug-
gestions of others, and the younger he 10
the more he is apt to follow their advice.
All education IS based upon this fact. Inc
capacity of children to act entirely upon
suggestion makes them absolutely depend
ent on grown persons, and 1t Is thereioFe
readily seen how very important 1t Is that
thew should be kept away from lying and
false influences and only allowed TO receive
good and true Inspirations.
Everything that is part Of a HID edu-
cation, from prayers, fairy tales and math-
ematics to the forming of judgment of 9TH
ers, ~pronouncing some persons good and
others bad, is effected and transmitted py
suggestion.
Everything that we teach children intea-
tionally, scientific facts. or the different
trades, is conscious Inspiration. and every
thing that children initiate in our lie and
acts. in fixing the boundary line between
good and bad, is unconscious inspiration.
Conscious suggestion is what We call
instruction. while unconscious suggestion is
what VIC. in n narrower sense, call ed
~ucation, but which I shall call enlighten-
ment to distinguish 1t from the general
term. education, which includes both forms
of suggestion.
Enlightenment Neglected.
In our modern society all our efforts go
In the direction of instruction, while en-
Iightenment, because our whole life is bad
and false, Is sorely neglected.
We all try. more or less to keep away
from our children the knowledge Of our Life