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regular, systematic work develops patience, perseverance, careful- 

 ness and understanding of the vital truth that "as a man sows so 

 shall he reap." Think for a moment the difference there would 

 be in many lives if that were really believed, believed as we believe 

 that fire burns, that water drowns; if we knew that evil brought 

 its own punishment, good its own reward. All the great teachers 

 have told us; but there is no way of learning natural laws, which 

 means the laws of God, like going to Nature for them. Show the 

 child that the seed that is planted will produce its own kind, show 

 him that only faithful work will keep the weeds away, and you have 

 given him lessons that help him all his life. We talk of living more 

 simply, of giving our time and thoughts to the realy great things of 

 life. How are we to learn to see the great things, which are al- 

 ways simple? Until we have come out from the tangle of trivial 

 ties, the little, worrying, petty cares that we let annoy us when they 

 need not; until we learn to come out, body and soul, into the open, 

 in the sunshine and the air, how can we teach the children to see the 

 beauty, the order, the peace of nature, teach them to love light and 

 truth and justice and honor, teach them that "God's in His Heaven, 

 all's right with the world." And in our hands, the hands of this 

 generation, lies the responsibility of teaching them this. As surely 

 as the child plants his garden are the seeds planted in his mind, and 

 just as certain is the result. That the training of the child takes 

 infinite patience is true, but the result is lasting. We know how 

 much more easily habits are formed in childhood than at any later 

 time. Sir Edward Arnold has given the translation of a Hindoo 

 proverb, "Look, the clay dries into iron, but the potter moulds the 

 clay. Destiny today is master ; man was master yesterday." What 

 account can we render when today has become one of the yester- 

 days. One writer has said, "On the infinite ladder of progress each 

 rung is trodden in turn, and we call the rungs below us evil, and 

 the rungs above us good." Your Society and ours, and many more 

 like them, all that stand for education, are reaching out their hands 

 to those on the rungs below. Our work is plain before us, "Leading 

 human souls to what is best." 



