Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-30
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BOOklOyer.

If common sense, infinite patience
and equally infinite devotion are power
full to attain a desired end, Will Durant's
10-year-old daughter, Ethel, should al
maturity be not only all that her par
ents intend. but should also furnish
some valuable ideas to our not always
practical experimenters in education
In his recent book, THE Mansions OF
Philosophy" Will Durant devotes a
Confession" He wards off at the start
all cynical observations concerning pa
rental egotism and the wisdom Of watt
ing to boast of ones children until one
sees how they turn out" He says: II
admit at the outset that I'm intensely
interested in these three persons (him-
self, his wife and EtheD, far beyond
anything which a total perspective
would allow. Nature inoculates us with
egotiSm that We may consent to live
I am absurdly enthusiastic
about certain youngster, and find II
difficult to conceive of any child sur
passing her in health or intelligence
in rosy cheeks or Astounding hair VI
Recognizing from the start Ethel's dual
nature body and soul cher soul was
born when she smiled, he says, her
parents wisely decided that for her first
10 years her body should have prece-
dence. They believed that physical all
ment or insuff1ciency is behind most
mental unsatisfactoriness and miscon-
duct. So Ethel was given large doses
of fresh air by day and by night
Windy. cold, damp nights did not induce
the Durants to close Ethel's windows.
They had no morbid fear of might air. u
They found that a modified vegetarian
diet, Chicken vegetarian" suited Ethel
best, so she has been fed upon all the
fresh vegetables in market, plenty OF
milk, whole wheat bread and chicken
and the results have been strength
alertness and all-around health. Album
dant exercise during the day and an
early bed hour, inexorably observed
have also been part of Ethel's rCdtine
The importance of the right kinds OF
play has been recognized. Surely the
first principle is that the toys should
be such as to require accurate percep-
ton, agile manipulation, and, above all
movement in the open air." So Ethel
has had roller skates, "scooters" and
jumping ropes, and has learned to swim
and skate. In connection with Ethel's
public schools, in spite of all the dis
advantages of mass education" were
more satisfactory than the private
school he tried for year. He was
rather surprised to find the public
schools so good. Il had heard so much
against the schools. I had even written
against them as hard disciplinary pris-
ons to which children came as gods in
embryo and from which they were grad
uated as gods in ruins. Could 1t be
that I had only mouthed clever
phrases?" During her one year in the
private school Ethel frequently asked
when are they going to teach me
something" She has now attended
four public schools, all models Of eff
cheney and humanity" The methods
love music. to help her to overcome a
distaste for arithmetic, to make geog.
Yaphy alive, to teach her politeness
generosity, proper pride, neatnesS. are
so interesting and SO thoroughly sensi-
BILE that one Is tempted to quote then
all. Briefly. the theory Of the Durant;
is that example is so powerful that Il
it is good nothing else is necessary
1t is remarkable how we'll be-
haved a child can be without punish
ments and without commands. Wher
the libertarian method fails, 1t is most
often because We parents ourselves VIC.
late the rules We would have our chill
dren obey" Many parents would, how
ever, repudiate his conclusion: Show
me your children and l will tell yol
what YOU are" \ X
The sytle Of 1.-THE Mansions of Phi
losophy" establishes Will Durant as q
clever maker of epigrams. Does HI
sometimes adapt the thought to the
epigram, instead of the epigram to tht
| thought? His section on Problems Of
Morality is especially scintillating witt
bonmots. 1T is delicate question II
psychology today" he says. whether
our young people find more pleasure If
their strutting sins than their elder!
| find in denouncing them" Discrimi
mating between conventions and morals
he makes a telling antithesis: Con
| ventionS are customs which are mor'
practiced than preached; morals arr
customs which are more preached thar
practiced. They are duties which vi
require of our neighbors.
Morality has always demanded mor'
| than it expected in order to get wha
| 1t needed" In discussing men ant
women, their differences and their re.
| lations, DR.. Durant is often satirical
He man in generaD loves food with s
surprising love, and can be easily sub
| jugated with it; he is fonder thar
woman of eating and drinking, and evel
since Eve offered Adam an apple woman
| has ruled man through his stomach
running at once his digestion and hi
morals" Woman is found to be les
| hard headed, more easily led away alons
intellectual tangents, than man. "Sh'
| offers slightly reader material than mar
| for the fads and crazes which in Amer
lea tend to replace the orderly advance
of thought; the psychoanalyst delve!
pruriently into her harassed soul, thu
! spiritualistic medium comforts her with
| apparitions, and NJ. Coue finds breat
and butter in her trustful fantasy.
| Impartially DR.. Durant finds that "ther,
| is not much to choose between woman
vanity and mans conceit." He con
siders woman more naturally religious
"She is the first to welcome new form
| of belief and the last to relinquish tn
old. Man in despair may kill himself
| but woman when every other hope j
lost throws herself upon the mercy o
Heaven and finds strength and solace il
a loving God The prolongation o
youth in women is result of the mod
ern industrial age. once woman o
40 was old, decrepit and trustworthy
today there is nothing SO dangerous.
The temporary affair which modern
marriage seems to be is attributed ais
to industrialism which has lessened do
nestle responsibilities. IF they Ian
married couple) are poor, the man re
grets the burdens he has assumed ant
the woman dotes on the Prince o
Wales" In his chapter I'm Praise o
Freedom" DR.. Durant gives a gentl
thrust at certain iconoclastic editor
"Puritanism did not die from bromid
of mercury; it was poisoned with silve
and gold" He does not find uniform
freedom in our American life today, bu
thinks we are ourselves to blame for 1t
absence. cit is not law that takes on
freedom from us; it is the innocuou
desuetude of our minds. Al
the liberalism of the megalopolital
American today confines itself to max
ing alcohol the first necessity of a gen
tleman and -mindedness the frs
requisite of lady,"
X \