264 PLAIN FACTS FOE OLD AND YOUNQ 



ing the most helpful literature on this and kindred 

 topics, should address the publishers of "Plain Facts." 

 Teach Self-Control.— One important part of early 

 training is the cultivation of self-control, and a habit 

 of self-denial, whenever right demands it. Another 

 most essential part of a child's moral training is the 

 cultivation of right motives. To present a child no 

 higher motives for doing right than the hope of secur- 

 ing some pleasant reward, or the fear of suffering some 

 terrible punishment, is the surest way to make of him 

 a supremely selfish man, with no higher aim than to 

 secure good to himself, no matter what may become of 

 other people. And if he can convince himself that the 

 pleasure he will secure by the commission of a certain 

 act will more than counterbalance the probable risk 

 of suffering, he will not hesitate to commit it, leaving 

 wholly out of consideration the question. Is it right, or 

 noble, or pure? A love of right for its own sake is 

 the only solid basis upon which to build a moral char- 

 acter. Children should not be taught to do right in 

 order to avoid a whipping, or imprisonment in a dark 

 closet,— a horrid kind of punishment sometimes re- 

 sorted to,— or even to escape ''the lake of fire and 

 brimstone. ' ' Neither should they be constantly coaxed 

 to right doing by promised rewards,— a new toy, a 

 book, an excursion, or even the pleasures of a future 

 life. All these incentives are selfish, and invariably 

 narrow the character and belittle life when made the 

 chief motives of action. But rather begin at the earli- 

 est possible moment to instill into the mind a love for 

 right, and truth, and purity, and virtue, and an abhor- 

 rence for their contraries; then will he have a worthy 

 principle by which to square his life; then will he be 

 safe from the assaults of passion, of vice, of lust. A 



