200 MOEAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



the animal nature, the physical basis, and spreads 

 its tiny tendrils in the pure air of spirituality. 

 We may not be able to fathom the divine reason 

 for the complexity of our nature ; but we may rec- 

 ognize it as a fact invincible, and believe that it 

 represents a plan of God and can not be success- 

 fully annulled or obstructed. We start with the 

 physical. The problem is, how to direct the total 

 personality up into the spiritual, as representing 

 the final expression of our being. The physical is 

 first, but it should not be last. The moral problem 

 of life is to achieve such a mastery of the phys- 

 ical, such a subordination of the physical, such a 

 crucifixion of the physical, when it presents an 

 unyielding obstacle, and withal such a ministration 

 of the physical as shall make life in its outcome 

 a total spiritual victor, and the physical shall drop 

 away at last, bearing our kindliest memories, hav- 

 ing accomplished its temporary purpose. Sur- 

 passingly happy is the man who, as he bids it fare- 

 well, can thank God for the gift and realize that 

 its impulses and passions have not engulfed his 

 real and final self, but have had a distinct and 

 essential part in his final completeness. 



A mother, a father, should know the nature of 

 their child through and through. They should 

 know boy-life. If they try to build a spiritual life 

 without regard to all the realities that are in the 

 problem; if they talk only of spiritual things, 

 frowning upon the intrusion of the natural and 

 passionate; if they seek only a certain high ex- 



