SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



269 



Is this not an assumption by the 

 State of most, if not all, the duties 

 that belong to parents ? Who bet- 

 ter than they can teach " courtesy of 

 manner, politeness of speech, refine- 

 ment of thought, and genuine cul- 

 ture of life " ? Who better than they 

 can inspire them "with the spirit of 

 honesty, with the love of truth and 

 purity, with integrity of thought and 

 action " ? Who better than they can 

 see to it that "children are taught 

 the highest and purest morality " ? 

 The association of parents with a 

 child is constant and extends over 

 many years ; that of any public-school 

 teacher, intermittent and very brief. 

 There are the ties of an affection 

 that bind them to it and impel it to 

 obey them that do not exist, except 

 feebly, between it and the teacher. 

 These ties are of the utmost impor- 

 tance. Nothing should ever be said 

 or done to weaken them. On the 

 contrary, everything should be said 

 and done to strengthen them for use 

 in the guidance of the footsteps dur- 

 ing impressionable years. It was by 

 the pursuit of this course that Al- 

 phonse Daudet was enabled to enjoy 

 the complete and loving confidence 

 of his children as long as they re- 

 mained under the parental roof, and 

 to shape their lives in a way that, 

 when they passed from his wise and 

 gentle direction, there was no tend- 



ency to revert to barbarism, such as 

 we see to-day everywhere in the 

 United States. 



If an end is to be put to this evil, 

 the preaching and practice of the 

 vicious doctrines that pervade the 

 address of Superintendent Skinner 

 must cease. When any work for the 

 betterment of the moral and physical 

 welfare of children is to be under- 

 taken, it must not be thrown upon 

 the State, which has come to consist 

 of nothing more than the politicians, 

 whose violation of all the virtues he 

 enumerates with such eloquence is 

 the theme of countless philippics in 

 pulpit, press, and conversation ; it 

 must be assumed by parents, who 

 alone have the power to inculcate 

 those virtues with any degree of suc- 

 cess. While we do not believe with 

 Professor Norton that there should 

 be a restoration of Puritan discipline 

 with the theology left out, we do be- 

 lieve that there must be a restora- 

 tion of Puritan responsibility toward 

 children, tempered with love and un- 

 failing patience. It will lead parents 

 to assume a vastly larger share in 

 the work of education than they 

 now do, thus strengthening the ties 

 of affection so potent for moral con- 

 trol, and making it impossible for 

 children to desire or parents to allow 

 them to go on the streets to take 

 u their first lessons in hoodlumism." 



^jctjeuttftt %itzxKtuxz. 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN KIPLING'S WORK. 



The collected edition of Mr. Kipling's prose and verse* published by the 

 Messrs. Scribner presents the successful execution of a singularly felicitous 

 idea. The Soldiers Three stories, which first made known the appearance 

 of a new genius, were scattered in various legitimate and pirated editions 

 like the tales of social and of native life in India. Even the Jungle Books 



* Tae Works cf Rudyard Kipling. Outward Bound Edition. Large 12rno. Uncut, gilt top. Illus- 

 trated by Lockwood Kipling. Volumes I to X. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



