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trouble beforehand, this effort to overcome the inertia of start- 

 ing properly at first, that is more than half the battle in educa- 

 tion. But it repays itself at more than compound interest 

 afterwards in smoothing the future way of training, and in 

 pleasantness of intercourse with a properly started child, as 

 compared with one whose training must be a serious business 

 in trying to fit it on an imperfectly-formed nucleus. 



Of course the art of training is not equally easy to all. We 

 are all born children, but only some are "born parents." To 

 some of us it is an art acquired only with difficulty and carried 

 out as an arduous duty, while to others there are few things 

 more interesting than to watch and help the growth of a child's 

 mind, to feed it as it needs new thoughts, and to feel that every 

 new act is a new bond of sympathy between oneself and him ; 

 to mark the quaint way in which our old, dried, familiar ideas 

 are dressed up in his new, fresh view of them. We grow young 

 once more by sympathy, and we feel the added charm of hope 

 for a bright and happy future for him who has given us this 

 power. 



The love, respect, and trust of the child is the threefold cord 

 by which he may be led. We cannot buy love for favours any 

 more than we can compel respect or trust by force. True 

 love is given for true love, and we shall be respected as we are 

 respectable, and trusted as we are true. 



Omitting for want of time many points in early training, we 

 pass on now to the period of School Life, which should be a 

 continuous process with that just indicated, and on the same 

 main lines, viz : Wealth of Impressions, Wealth of Activities 

 (especially this because the powers are now stronger and more 

 capable of active service), and Natural Responsibility. It will, 

 however, be perhaps convenient to point out first some of 

 the defects of the modern systems, which mostly seem to begin 

 by making the assumption that mere knowledge is education. 

 It is not difficult to trace the cause of this assumption. It was 



