ETHICAL TRAINING. 755 



fairies, bold warriors and lovelj ladies, cattle and forests, and a 

 goose which lays egg's of gold. All these mix and mingle with the 

 facts of everyday life, and out of this queer medley the little fellow 

 draws his happiness and shapes his conduct. Imagine the ethical 

 result of such a mental experience? Our children are the descendants 

 of a long line of barbaric ancestors. In them lie latent instincts of 

 cruelty, hatred, revenge, treachery, and cunning; qualities which 

 were useful when our progenitors were fighting their way towards 

 consolidation, freedom, and peace, but which are harmful to modem 

 society. Ethical training requires the repression of these anti-social 

 instincts, and the stimulation of more moral emotions. We know 

 that by exercise an organ becomes strong and supple, and that by 

 neglect and disuse it dwindles into powerlessness. This organic law 

 determines the method of ethical training. The undesirable anti- 

 social instincts must be persistently ignored, and the cultivation of 

 the opposite ethical emotions increasingly carried on. 



After reading Ali Baba, a boy's mind is full of shifting scenes 

 which call into play the most barbaric instincts of his nature; 

 emotions of greed, cunning, and revenge alternate with thoughts 

 of bloodshed and cruelty. He draws a mental picture of that 

 delightful cave filled with the plunder of the forty thieves, from which 

 Ali Baba helps himself so lavishly. He enters into the spirit of that 

 little scene at home, where the robbery is called ' good luck," and 

 Ali Baba's wife gloats over the plunder and counts the money piece 

 by piece. Cassim's misfortune would lead an imaginative boy to try 

 to picture a man killed and quartered. The child's fancy beiilg 

 stimulated by such details as " when Ali Baba reached the cave, he 

 was surprised to find bloodshed outside the door." Ali Baba's horror 

 at discovering the mangled body of his dead brother did not prevent 

 him from seizing more plunder. It may be sad to lose a brother, but 

 it is splendid to find gold. The little reader learns all this by 

 implication, and, with the unquestioning faith of childhood, thinks 

 it is all as it should be. Later on comes a double intrigue, in which 

 cunning is matched against cunning, and revenge is the emotion 

 stimulated in the mind of the boy. He delights in the clever 

 Morgiana, as she outwits the robber chief, who by cunning has 

 obtained a hot supper and good bed from Ali Baba. The cruelty of 

 her deed, and the lies she tells, escape all notice, because the instinct 

 of revenge is satisfied. The last scene is facinating; bright lights, 

 festive music, a gaily dressed dancing girl, who suddenly stabs her 

 enemy. Then comes her reward, culminating in marriage. The 

 whole story is a powerful chapter from the gospel of hate. It belongs 

 to the barbaric period of our history, and its tendency is to call into 

 activity those anti-social emotions which should be left to perish 

 through disuse. 



Jack and the Beanstalk may be taken as a further example of 

 a distinctly unethical story. The hero pleases himself, disobeys his 

 mother on every occasion, and eventually leaves her broken-hearted. 

 Yet nothing but good results from his behaviour. After a life of 

 exciting free adventure — ^killing giants, and being petted by fairies — 

 he settles down in adult life, a worthy and estimable man. Emotions 

 of disobedience, disrespect, callousness, selfishness, and deceit, are 



