OF TH3 HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 2g 



unfolds itself, and increasing years offer no explanation of the 

 mystery ; they only indeed make it appear deeper as new and 

 successive phases of existence present themselves to his obser- 

 vation. Life may be said to be a series of experiences, and we 

 know little or nothing of the different periods of it till such ex- 

 periences have been realized. A boy knows nothing of the 

 sensations, hopes and disappointments of early manhood ; a 

 young man is in similar ignorance of the responsibilities which 

 come with more mature years ; a man of middle age will find, as 

 he moves on towards the end, that even in the years of ad- 

 vanced life there were many things which the experience of that 

 period alone could teach him. 



Lifeitselfthenmay be said to be a process of Education. It 

 begins in the cradle. Asthe tiny occupant of that structure lies 

 in it kicking his feet and sucking his thumb he is actually 

 learning the A B C's of life. How soon he learns to discrimin- 

 ate between persons, a lesson we may say wdiich he will never 

 learn perfectly however long his life may be. It is a great part of 

 the practical education of life to feel our way carefully among our 

 fellow creatures, to find out those we can trust and confide in them, 

 and to discover those who are false and avoid them. It is a 

 lesson often bought by many a dear experience, and however 

 well guarded on this point we shall often find ourselves bitterly dis- 

 appointed in it. To trust everyone is not only foolish, but it is 

 wrong. It is wrong to the transgressors, it is wrong to society in 

 general. We must learn to discriminate between persons and 

 persons, and this is one of the first among the lessons which 

 dawn upon the infant mind; he soon learns to trust familiar 

 faces and to avoid those of strangers; to his little mind it is a matter of 

 proof, the voice and form of his mother or nurse are familiar to 

 him as having a soothing power upon him, and it is the absence 

 of that form and voice which produces a directly opposite effect 

 upon him. And so, in point of fact, the child begins very early 

 to learn one of the most important lessons of life. 



Any one at all interested in children must have no:iced with 

 profound wonder the gradual process of education that is con- 

 tinually going on within them, and also the pride with which each 

 new lesson as it is learned is accepted by them. When, for instance 



