Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-01-06

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and enfranchises us in making us mo-
dest. That is the law of education in
simplicity. 1t may he Stunned up in
these words: Form men free and res
pectful, men who are themselves ana
fra, ernal.
Let us deduce a few practical APP
plications from this principle.
Just because the child S of the fu-
ture, we must attach him to the past
| by piety. We owe it to him to re-
clothe tradition in the most practical
forms, and those most susceptible of
creating a strong impression. In
! there is the exceptional place which
the ancients, in the cult of remem-
! brance, and by extension the history
of the domestic hearth-stone, should
hold in an education, and a home. 1t
is, above all, toward our children that
we fill a duty, when we assign the
! place of honor to our grandparents.
| Nothing speaks so forcibly to child,
! or develops in him more the senti
monts of modesty, than to see his
| father and mother show towards tho
! old, sometimes iniirm, grandfather, an
attitude of respect There is there a
perpetual lesson of things which he
cannot resist. That it may have it's
| full force, it is necessary that, in
home, a tacit accord reigns among all
the adults. In the eyes of the child
they are all of one solidarity, held to
respect each other, to understand each
other under pain of compromising the
educational authority. And, to the
number of those persons, we must in
| clude the dOmeStics. A servant is 4
grown person, and it is the same SEN
timent of respect which is wounded
when a child shows lack of respect
to a servant as when he lacks that
sentiment towards his father or grand
father AS soon as he addresses one
impolite or arrogant word to any one
older than himself, he leaves the path
that child should not quit and if the
parents allow this to happen without
letting him know what he has done
they will perceive by his conduct to-
wards them that the enemy has en-
eterd into his heart
They who think that the child is
naturally disrespectful are mistaken
when they dwell upon the examples
so numerous of irreverence which our
is a need for the child. The child as
pires confusedly to respect and adj
mire something But when we do not
draw benefit from that aspiration, it
loses or corrupts itself BY our lack
of cohesion and mutual Difference we,
the grown people, discredit our own
cause and that of all respectable
things in the eyes of the child. We
inoculate him with bad spirit whose
effects turn against us later
This sad truth appears nowhere
with greater force than in the rela-
lions between masters and servitors,
such as we have created them. Our
social faults, our lack of simplicity
and kindness fall on the heads of our
children. There are certainly but few
of the middle or bourgeois class who
understand that it is better to lose a
few thousands of francs than to let
the children lose the respect for the
domestcs, who represent the cate
CORY of the humble ones in our homes.
Nothing is truer, however. Maintain
as much as you like the conventionali-
ties, and the distances of this sort of
delnnitatiOn of social frontiers which
permits each one to keep his place
and observe the hierarchy 1t is d
good thing | am persuaded of that,
but on condition that we do not for
get that those who serve us are men
as well as we are. You impose forms
of language upon your domestics, at
titudes, external signs of the respect
they owe you. Teach also your chill
dren and occupy yourself with the
process which will show your domes
tics that you wish them to respect
YOU You have there an excellent
field for study to draw you towards
the practice of mutual respect, which
is one of the essential conditions OF
social health. l fear that we profit
too little from it. So the most often
: you obtain but hypocrisy, and you
have for supplementary result very
unexpected one: you have cultivated
: pride in your children. These two
factors combined gather great diff
, culties for that future that you ought
to safeguard. | am therefore right tc
say that you have had a sensible loss
the day when you have by your habits
and practices brought a diminution
of respect.
: Why should | not say it? 1t seems
10 me thdt tne greater part aiming
us work towards that diminution. Ev
, erywhere and in almost all socia
t classes, l notice that they nourish c
: very bad spirit in children, the spirit
: of reciprocal scorn. Here they de
: pise someone whose hands are callous
: ed, who wears working clothes; there
= they despise some one who does mo-
5 wear the workmans blouse. Chill
t dren raised in that spirit will som,
, day make poor citizens. All that Il
} absolutely lacking in that simplicit,
T. which causes men of good will in diff
= ferent degrees of a society to collab
b. crate together, without being restrain
2 ed by the secondary distances which
l separate them.
1 If the spirit of caste causes a los'
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