234 EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 



respect; when cultivated, it is transformed from a duty into a 

 wholesome and grateful luxury; and it brings a more abundant 

 return in the store it adds to the blessings of health, than anything 

 else within our power to compass. And moreover, it is the one 

 luxury that is within the reach of all, and for neglect of which no 

 one can excuse himself to himself. 



Companionships In the modern system of education, it has 

 been found that in forming the mind and directing the intelligence 

 of the young and impressionable, there is no mode of teaching so 

 effective as that of object lessons. As a matter of fact, until the 

 character has fully matured and during the whole period of the 

 greatest susceptibility and impressibility, the whole life of youth is 

 a series of practical object lessons. Those which he encounters in 

 the Home, we must assume to be of the healthiest and most elevat- 

 ing tendency ; but the prudent parent will look well and watchfully 

 to the external influences to which their children are subjected. The 

 most potent of these is that of companionship, and in this regard 

 too great care cannot be taken that the associations are clean and 

 wholesome. The solicitude of the parent, however, in this regard 

 must be governed by discretion and judicious supervision. Too 

 frequently it is the case, either through carelessness or unintentional 

 neglect, arising from absorption in the cares of business, that the 

 young are allowed to drift into unprofitable companionship, and 

 when this is perceived it is sought to remedy it by restraint. Al- 

 most inevitably this results in re-action and serves to intensify the 

 danger. The best and most effective way is to so thoroughly imbue 

 the young mind with the pride of probity, and the sense of honor, 

 that contact with anything vicious or immoral arouses a sense of 

 repugnance and antagonism which is a certain safeguard against 

 contamination; and youth should at the same time be led to the 

 understanding that that which is simply idle and frivolous, though 

 apparently harmless, is the bridge by which the positively vicious 

 and immoral is reached. This is essentially true of the influ- 

 ence of books. Indeed, it may be believed that the companionship 

 of books has a more direct, absorbing and positive influence than 

 that of the social surroundings; and this is eminently and emphati- 

 cally true of youths of studious or sensitive disposition. Too care- 

 ful supervision cannot therefore be exercised over what the child is 

 allowed to read. The fecundity of the printing press in these days 

 has let loose upon society an overwhelming flood of idle, frivolous, 

 vicious, utterly unprofitable and to a large degree prurient and 

 immoral literature, if it can be dignified by the name, which is a 

 constant menarice to the mental and moral health of the young. It 

 is a mistake, however, not to allow the mind of the youth a suffi- 

 cient pabulum of wholesome literary recreation. Wholesale and 

 unreasonable condemnation of reading for pleasure is almost certain 

 to drive the ^ young to dangerous indulgence in secret. Kather 

 choose for him a fair allowance of clean and wholesome books of 



