RURAL COOPERATION 



imagination to the uttermost parts of the earth, thus stimulat- 

 ing the developing faculties of the child's intellect; the man 

 or woman that can, by an appeal such as is possible only in 

 natures of deep spirituality and perfect sincerity, get hold 

 of the inner life of childhood and pave the way for a beau- 

 tiful maturity of the higher powers it is such a man or 

 woman alone who can be the means of causing childhood 

 to flower into the perfection of the symmetrical life. 



Cooperation increases respect for personality. The most 

 sacred thing in all God's universe is human life, and yet how 

 common is the custom of looking upon human beings simply 

 as bundles of energy harnessed for profit, or as existences 

 that contribute to physical or social gratification. Each per- 

 son's life is sacred to himself, and just as he respects his own 

 life, so should he respect the lives of others. This demands 

 a literal application of the Golden Rule. Human intimacies 

 that rise to the higher planes are a source of the supremest 

 pleasure that life affords, but how bitter becomes the cup 

 of joy if the lower voices prevail in social intercourse! There 

 is an urgent need of greater respect for one another, and 

 especially is a renaissance of respect of man for woman 

 imperative. Civilization rises or falls with the regnancy or 

 decline of this holy respect. All the civilizations that have 

 perished, disintegrated because of the absence of respect on 

 the part of man for woman. No civilization can rise higher 

 than its respect for personalit}-. The following incident, 

 related by Prof. J. A. Cramb, in his book, " England and 

 Germany," is one of the most beautiful incidents of antiquity. 



" On the night before Alexander of Macedon started for 

 the East on that career of conquest in which, like Achilles his 

 great exemplar, he was to find his glory and an early death, 

 he had a farewell interview with the man who had been his 

 tutor, now the master of a rising school of thought in the 

 shades of the Lyceum. And towards the end of the interview 

 Aristotle said to the Macedonian: 



" ' You are about to start upon an enterprise which will 

 bring you into many lands and amongst many nations, some 



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