The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

from the conventional distance that separates them.
 If the spirit of caste causes the loss Of respect, partisanship, of whatever sort, Is quite as productive of 1t. In certain quarters children are brought up in such fashion that they respect but one country-thelr own; one sys- tenn of goYernment-that of their par ents and masters; one religion that which they have been taught. Does any one suppose that in this way men can be shaped who shall respect eoun- try. religion and law? Is this a proper respect-this respect which does not extend beyond what touches and be- longs to ourselves? Strange blindness gate to themselves with so much in- genuous complacenee the title of schools of respect, and which, out side themselves, respect nothing. In reality they teach, Country, religion, law-we are all theser' Such teaching fosters fanaticism, and if fanaticism is not the sole antisocial ferment 1t is sure ly one of the worst and most energetic.
 If simplicity of heart is an essential condition of respect simplicity of life is it's best school Whatever be the state of your fortune, avoid everything which could make your children think themselves more or better than others. Though your wealth would permit you to dress them richly, remember the evil you might do in exciting their vanity. Preserve them from the evil of be- lieying that to be elegantly dressed suftices for distinction, and, above all, do not carelessly increase by their clothes and their habits of life the distance which already separates them from other children. Dress them sim ply. And if, on the contrary, it should be necessary for you to economize to give your children the pleasure of fine clothes, I would that I might dispose you to reserve your spirit of sacrifice for a better cause. You risk seeing it lily recompensed. You dissipate your money when it would much better avail to save 1t for serious needs, and you prepare for yourself, later on, harvest of ingratitude. How danger. ous it is to aecustom your sons and daughters to a style of living beyond your means and theirsl In the first place, it is very bad for your purse. In the second place, it develops a con- temptuous spirit in the very bosom of the family. If you dress your children like little lords and give them to under stand that they are superior to you, is it astonishing if they end by dis daining you? You will have nourished at your table the declassed-a product which costs dear and is worthless.
 Any fashion of instructing children whose most evident result is to lead them to despise their parents and the customs and activities among which they have grown up is a calamity. It is effective for nothing but to produce a legion of malcontents, with hearts totally estranged from their origin, their race, their natural interests-ev- erything, in short, that makes the fun damental fabric of a man. Once de tached from the vigorous stock which produced them, the wind of their restless ambition drives them over the earth like dead leaves that will in the end be heaped up to ferment and rot together.
 Nature does not proceed by leaps and bounds, but by an evolution slow and certain. In preparing a career for our children let us initiate her. Let us not confound progress and advancement with those violent exercises called somersaults; let us not so bring up our children that they will come to despise work and the aspirations and simple spirit of their fathers; let us not expose them to the temptation of being ashamed of our poverty if they them selves come to fortune. A society is indeed diseased when the sons of peas ants begin to feel disgust for the fields, when the sons of sailors desert the sea, when the daughters of workingmen, in the hope of being taken for heiresses, prefer to walk the streets alone rather than beside their honest parents. A so- ciety is healthy, on the contrary, when each of its members applies himself to doing very nearly what his parents have done before him, but doing 1t better, and, looking to future elevation, is content first to fulfill conscientious 1y more modest duties.
 Education should make independent men. If you wish to train your chil- dren for liberty, bring them up simply and do not for moment fear that in so doing you are putting obstacles in the way of their happiness. It will be quite the contrary. The more costly toys a child has, the more feasts and curious entertainments, the less is he amused.
 Tn this there is a sure sign. Let us be temperate in our methods of enter taining youth, and especially let us not thoughtlessly create for them artificial needs. Food, dress, nursery, anuse- ments-let all these be as natural and simple as possible. With the idea of making life pleasant for their children some parents bring them up in habits of gormandizing and idleness accus- tom them to sensations not meant for their age, multiply their parties and entertainments. Sorry gifts thesel In place of a free man you are making slave. Gorged with luxury, he tires of it in time, and yet when for one req son or another his pleasures fail him he will be miserable, and you with him, and, what is worse, perhaps in some capital encounter of life you will be ready-you and he together-to sac rifice manly dignity, truth and duty from sheer sloth.
 Let us bring up our children simply