John Winthrop gives frequent
examples of generous and unselfish good-will to the settlers about
Boston. Little Lord Fauntleroy is a better treatise on morals for
children than any of our sermonizers have written. We must get at
morals without moralizing and drink in moral convictions without
resorting to moral platitudes. Educators are losing faith in words,
definitions, and classifications. It is a truism that we can't learn
chemistry or zoology from books alone, nor can moral judgments be
rendered except from individual actions.
A little reflection will show that we are only demanding _object
lessons_ in the field of moral education, extensive, systematic object
lessons; choice experiences and episodes from human life, simple and
clear, painted in natural colors, as shown by our best history and
literature. To appreciate the virtues and vices, to sympathize with
better impulses, we must travel beyond words and definitions till we
come in contact with the personal deeds that first give rise to them.
The life of Martin Luther, with its faults and merits honestly
represented, is a powerful moral tonic to the reader; the autobiography
of Franklin brings out a great variety of homely truths in the form of
interesting episodes in his career.
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