688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sagacity which inferior creatures display in the care of their young 

 are often commented upon ; and every one may see that parenthood 

 produces a mental exaltation not otherwise producible. That it is so 

 among mankind is daily proved. Continually we remark that men 

 who were random grow steady when they have children to provide 

 for ; and vain, thoughtless girls, becoming mothers, begin to show 

 higher feelings, and capacities that were not before drawn out. In 

 both there is a daily discipline in unselfishness, in industry, in fore- 

 sight. The parental relation strengthens from hour to hour the habit 

 of postponing immediate ease and egoistic pleasure to the altruistic 

 pleasure obtained by furthering the welfare of offspring. There is a 

 frequent subordination of the claims of self to the claims of fellow- 

 beings ; and by no other agency can the practice of this subordination 

 be so effectually secured. Not, then, by a decreased, but by an in- 

 creased, sense of parental responsibility is self-control to be made 

 greater and recklessness to be checked. And yet the policy now so 

 earnestly and undoubtingly pursued is one which will inevitably di- 

 minish the sense of parental responsibility. This all-important dis- 

 cipline of parents' emotions is to be weakened that children may get 

 reading, and grammar, and geography, more generally than they would 

 otherwise do. A superficial intelleciualization is to be secured at the 

 cost of a deep-seated demoralization. 



Few, I suppose, will deliberately assert that information is impor- 

 tant and character relatively unimportant. Every one observes from 

 time to time how much more valuable to himself and others is the 

 workman who, though unable to read, is diligent, sober, and honest, 

 than is the well-taught workman who breaks his engagements, spends 

 days in drinking, and neglects his family. And, comparing members 

 of the upper classes, no one doubts that the spendthrift or the gam- 

 bler, however good his intellectual training, is inferior as a social unit 

 to the man who, not having passed through the approved curriculum, 

 nevertheless prospers by performing well the work he undertakes, and 

 provides for his children instead of leaving them in poverty to the 

 care of relatives. That is to say, looking at the matter in the con- 

 crete, all see that, for social welfare, good character is more important 

 than much knowledge. And yet the manifest corollary is not drawn. 

 What effect will be produced on character by artificial appliances for 

 spreading knowledge is not asked. Of the ends to be kept in view by 

 the legislator, all are unimportant compared with the end of char- 

 acter-making ; and yet character-making is an end wholly unrecog- 

 nized. 



Let it be seen that the future of a nation depends on the natures 

 of its units ; that their natures are inevitably modified in adaptation 

 to the conditions in which they are placed ; that the feelings called 

 into play by these conditions will strengthen, while those which have 

 diminished demands on them will dwindle ; and it will be seen that 



