THE FRUITS OF EDUCATION 321 



rather than bad, capable also of growing into centers 

 that radiate those influences that advance the pro- 

 fessional and business ideals which are so much more 

 necessary to a country than mere ease and elegance 

 in living. Moreover, the educated mother has it in 

 her power to better the relations between parents and 

 children. Parents have yet to awaken to the full 

 extent of their responsibility to their children. When 

 they do so, they will learn to purify their actions, so 

 as to live in the interests of the new lives rather than 

 in their own interest ; and this will include a growing 

 readiness to make sacrifices, personal and monetary, 

 for the sake of their future representatives. It is 

 essential that parents should learn to abdicate in 

 many directions in favor of their children and to 

 eliminate all sense of rivalry with them. This is 

 the right course because it is the biological course, 

 and the world will be greatly improved when this 

 fact comes to be recognized and parents cease to 

 exert the tyrannies of affection that spoil so many 

 young lives by robbing them of opportunity. The 

 unconscious selfishness of parents to their children is 

 one of the great evils of society which can only be 

 cured by education, and especially by the education 

 of women. There is no danger but that the sacrifices 

 of parents for their children are usually more than 

 recompensed by the affection of the children. Where 

 children show ingratitude, this is a serious reflection 

 on both heredity and bringing up, and this responsi- 

 bility again falls on the elders. 



