The
application of moral ideas to conduct is very important even in
childhood, out patience and care are necessary in most cases. There
must be timely sowing of the seed and judicious cultivation, if good
fruits are to be gathered later on. There is indeed much anxiety and
painful uncertainty on the part of those who charge themselves with the
moral training of children. Labor and birth pains are antecedent to
the delivery of a moral being. Then again a child must develop
according to what is in him, his nature and peculiar disposition. The
processes of growth are within him and the best you can do is to give
them scope. He is _free_ and you are _bound_ to minister to his best
freedom. The common school age is the _formative period_. At six a
child is morally immature; at fifteen the die has been stamped. This
youthful wilderness must be crossed. We can't turn back. There is no
other way of reaching the promised land. But there are rebellions and
baitings and disorderly scenes.
This is a tortuous road! Isn't there a quicker and easier way? The
most speedily constructed road across this region is _a short treatise_
on morals for teacher and pupil.
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