FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 157 



tion? We have answered when we have decided whether habit is of 

 practical value or not. 



It simplifies life by saving power; is that of practical value? It 

 makes life more forceful, because it diminishes effort over minor things 

 and allows that energy to be given to more important affairs. In gen- 

 eral, the study of habit is worth while to women, because women carry 

 on the work of creation and of instruction, because women are respon- 

 sible for the habits of the world. 



A German writer says that a child, even from its birth, should be 

 accustomed to cleanliness and neatness; physical cleanliness is fol- 

 lowed by mental and spiritual cleanliness. Spencer says: "Dirt is 

 usually accompanied by an inclination toward crime; cleanliness cre- 

 ates a fancy for order and regularity in general." 



What we are to be must begin in childhood, else we spend half our 

 energy in overcoming habits formed in childhood if we wish to be other 

 than what we began to be in our homes. It is worth our thought to see 

 to it that children shall have a good inheritance, but it is beyond our 

 power to change facts three generations back. Our work is today and 

 for the future; inherited tendencies that may be vicious we have to fight 

 in ourselves, in children. We have to see to it that these tendencies do 

 not become habits. 



There is a picture that illustrates one of the aims of the Women's 

 Section as well as this talk on habit. An old man is stepping upon a 

 serpent and keeping it down by main force; a young man, his son, is 

 there, bravery, courage and fearlessness are in his face; a mother holds 

 the grandson, a boy of fine face, strong body, an ideal child. The old 

 man is fighting the evil in his nature; he fegls it writhe under foot; he 

 can never stop fighting it; as a result, his son inherits as brain instincts 

 his father's determination to conquer the base that was in him. 

 The third generation enters life with freedom from inherited evil. The 

 old man's habit of fighting his own weakness gave positive bravery to 

 the second generation. 



The Duke of Wellington said: "Habit is ten times nature." Sup- 

 pose the child's or our own nature is not what we would have it, mould 

 it through habit. "Make the child's nervous system its helper instead 

 of its enemy." Help children to overcome habits of indecision; help 

 them to form habits of practical usefulness. The more a child can give 

 over to be done by habit the more time and energy it may spend on 

 higher things. Things we do by habit need no waste of energy. We 

 copy our past selves. We are told that at thirty our habits are crystal- 

 lized. 



Never be content to teach children maxims. Teach them to carry 

 out into action their good ideas. Each time an action is the result of a 

 noble idea a furrow is plowed through the brain, over which a similar 

 good action may be repeated. If you have a head full of lofty senti- 

 ments and have not put these into practice, your character will not grow 

 better. 



" A good man was there of religion, 

 And he was a poor parson of a town. 

 Christ's love and His apostles twelve 

 He taught, but first he followed it himself," 

 says Chaucer. First we must follow it ourselves. The actions are 



