264. 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



simple consideration should moderate 

 the ardor of those who think that, be- 

 cause the domain of scientific knowledge 

 has been wonderfully enlarged, all things 

 must have been made new in the moral 

 order as well. That is not the case : the 

 main outlines of morality will remain 

 as they were traced centuries ago, the 

 reason being that they were traced not 

 on theoretical hues, but on lines directly 

 suggested by experience. There are not 

 wanting voices in the present day that 

 whisper, nor even some that shout, that 

 the age of restraint has passed away, 

 and that nothing is now forbidden to the 

 emancipated spirit of man. Such teach- 

 ing is dangerous, and, just in so far as it 

 is listened to, will the wisdom of the 

 past rise up to reprove the folly of a 

 lawless present, and experience set its 

 seal on the reprobation. 



The wise parent will follow a just 

 mean between inculcating unquestion- 

 ing deference to established beliefs and 

 practices and stimulating a spirit of re- 

 bellion against whatever can not pro- 

 duce its logical credentials in a shape 

 suited to the critical temper of the 

 times. Koom must be left for intellect- 

 ual growth, and the mind must be al- 

 lowed to go on voyages of discovery of 

 its own ; but as a preparation for such 

 voyages a disposition, not to accept with 

 absolute submission, but at least to re- 

 spect — in some measure to reverence — 

 the principles of morality which the ex- 

 perience of mankind has slowly elabo- 

 rated, will be found to be of no mean 

 value. 



" Me this unchartered freedom tires, 

 I feel the weight of chance desires," 



says the poet Wordsworth in his Ode 

 to Duty. The poet felt their weight; 

 others, less happily constituted, have 

 experienced their danger, for not every 

 one can join in the affirmation: 



" Through no disturbance of my soul 



Or strong compunction in me wrought 

 I supplicate for thy control, 

 But in the quietness of thought." 



Some parents who have no wish to 

 launch their children on too adventur- 

 ous a career nevertheless help to do so 

 by unduly stimulating, or not wisely re- 

 pressing, their egotism, and by empha- 

 sizing too strongly or without due dis- 

 crimination the importance of indi- 

 viduality. Not every seedling is worth 

 cultivation, and a given individuality 

 may be little better than a "freak." 

 The true advice to give to every one is, 

 not to abound in his own peculiar sense 

 for the sake of being different from 

 others, but to choose wisely an object in 

 life and to develop his nature to the 

 utmost in the effort to advance that ob- 

 ject. The proof of a pudding is in the 

 eating, and the measure of the value of 

 an individuality is not the angle of its 

 divergence from the normal, but the 

 amount of effective help it can give to 

 the work of the world. 



The character of every human being 

 will be largely shaped by heredity : the 

 function of education is to repress as 

 far as possible all hurtful tendencies by 

 bringing their nature and consequences 

 into prominence, and to call into activity 

 such useful faculties or traits as threaten 

 to lie dormant. The wise educator will 

 not, however, proceed on any Procrus- 

 tean plan. His aim will not be con- 

 formity to an arbitrary or conventional 

 model, but simply the production of the 

 best possible results from the particular 

 type submitted to him ; and he will re- 

 spect individuality in this sense, that he 

 will know that Nature sometimes does 

 more in one stroke than education can 

 accomplish in a hundred years. It is 

 hardly necessary to say, in conclusion, 

 that the formation of character is by 

 far the most important problem in edu- 

 cation. Give us learning, give ns ac- 

 complishments, give us talents if you can ; 

 but above all strive to give us men and 

 women fitted for life and its activities, 

 for its joys, its sorrows, and its strug- 

 gles, fitted to be happy themselves and 

 to make others happy. 



