In this way it is possible to have
all the virtues and faults tabulated, labeled, and transferred in brief
space to the minds of the children (if the discipline is rigorous
enough). Swallow a catechism, reduced to a verbal memory product.
Pack away the essence of morals in a few general laws and rules and
have the children learn them. Some day they may understand. What
astounding faith in memory cram and dry forms! We _can_ pave such a
road through the fields of moral science, but when a child has traveled
it is he a whit the better? No such paved road is good for anything.
It isn't even comfortable. It has been tried a dozen times in much
less important fields of knowledge than morals. Moral ideas spring up
out of experience with persons either in real life or in the books we
read. Examples of moral action drawn from life are the only thing that
can give meaning to moral precepts. If we see a harsh man beating his
horse, we get an ineffaceable impression of harshness. By reading the
story of the Black Beauty we acquire a lively sympathy for animals.
Then the maxim "A merciful man is merciful to his beast" will be a good
summary of the impressions received.
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