WHICH KOAD? 199 



highest expression of life, is unfounded. The rec- 

 ognition of the demands and laws of the physical 

 life is one thing; the abdication of moral control 

 is quite another. To observe natural obligations 

 and conform to them by no means requires that 

 the direction of the personality should be turned 

 over to passions which are too blind even to seek 

 their own good, to say nothing of the good of a 

 spiritual nature to which is given the insight and 

 the responsibility for the present and eternal 

 guidance of the whole being. The expansive 

 power of steam turns the propeller and drives the 

 ship through the sea. Disregard of its power 

 would lead to an explosion ; failure to conserve it 

 would allow it to dissipate in the air, and the ship 

 without pushing power would be pounded to pieces 

 by the merciless action of the waves. But it would 

 be just as fatal to start the engine and leave it 

 run with its mighty propulsion without a pilot to 

 guide it. It would surely find the rocks and de- 

 stroy all. So the passions of our nature make us 

 go; but the reason, as a pilot, must steer the 

 course, avoiding the rocks and finding the harbor. 

 In making this plea for the over-guidance of 

 the spiritual, however, we express no sympathy 

 whatever for that inattention to the whole nature 

 of the child which is so often displayed. Let us 

 remember that ' ' that is not first which is spiritual, 

 but that which is natural; and afterwards that 

 which is spiritual. ' ' Every life must root itself in 

 the physical. No life can be normal which ignores 



