556 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



has told us in words which may be 

 hackneyed by frequent quotation, but 

 which can never lose their truth, that 



" Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-con- 

 trol 

 These three alone lead life to sovereign 

 power." 



Modern state education can hardly 

 recognize such a sentiment as this; 

 but it must be recognized somewhere, 

 or else we shall go backward, not for- 

 ward. If every generation faithful- 

 ly gives of its best to the generation 

 that follows after, progress will be 

 continuous and the equilibrium of 

 society will be secure; but if at a 

 given moment we begin to trust to 

 governmental machinery and exter- 

 nal forms and the general frame- 

 work of laws to sustain the mora] 

 life of society the result will be dis- 

 astrous. There is no life in these 

 things. The poet moralist of ancient 

 Rome had found this out when he 

 exclaimed, "What are empty laws 

 worth, unsupported by the moral 

 sense of the people?" What is 

 wanted is a deepened popular con- 

 sciousness of certain commonplace 

 moral principles principles as old 

 as the beginning of civilization, and 

 yet which can not be held to, even in 

 our own day, without an effort. To 

 inculcate these is something very dif- 

 ferent from inculcating a system of 

 f etich- worship ; but it is the ap- 

 pointed task of the parents and 

 teachers of to-day, and one which 

 can not be neglected without grave 

 responsibility. 



SUBCONSCIOUS IMPBESSI0N8. 



An interesting little book pub- 

 lished by Dr. Louis Waldstein, un- 

 der the title of The Subconscious 

 Self, contains many hints that should 

 be of use not only in the education 

 of children, but in the general guid- 

 ance of life. What the author prin- 

 cipally shows is that the larger, and 



perhaps the more important, part of 

 each person's character is made up 

 of habits, tendencies, preferences, 

 aversions, moods, and principles of 

 which for the most part the indi- 

 vidual has little distinct conscious- 

 ness, and that these at critical mo- 

 ments have often a decisive effect 

 on his destinies. The recognized 

 business of education is to cultivate 

 the consciousness of the individual, 

 and to furnish him with such a 

 working capital of knowledge, ideas, 

 and mental and moral habits as may 

 enable him to do business, in the 

 widest sense, in the world as it exists 

 to-day. But what is thus by direct 

 educative effort brought into a man's 

 consciousness may not penetrate 

 very deeply into his nature. It may, 

 to a considerable extent, be a mere 

 external equipment, and the real 

 man may have been molded and 

 stamped by circumstances and influ- 

 ences of which neither he nor his 

 educators took much or any account. 



The more we reflect on this the 

 more we shall recognize both its 

 truth and its importance. Parents 

 sometimes wonder why the multi- 

 plied precepts which they bestow 

 upon their children do not more 

 powerfully influence their conduct. 

 The fact is that the precepts in ques- 

 tion go to form in the children's 

 minds a fund of conventional opin- 

 ionsthose which they will use be- 

 fore the world but the parents' own 

 example, the thousand and one ways 

 in which they practically manifest 

 themselves, are subconsciously re- 

 ceived by the children and go to 

 form the underlying character from 

 which most of their actions spring. 

 Hence the common maxim that ex- 

 ample is better than precept. Pre- 

 cept strikes the consciousness, but 

 example constantly present sinks 

 into the heart. 



In every department of life we 

 see only too frequently a very wide 



