The teacher by _selecting
the proper materials_ of study is able to cultivate and strengthen such
feelings as sympathy and kindliness toward others; appreciation of
brave, unselfish acts in others; the feeling of generosity, charity,
and a forgiving spirit; a love for honesty and uprightness; a desire
and ambition for knowledge in many directions. On the other hand, the
teacher may gently instill a _dislike_ for cowardice, meanness,
selfishness, laziness, and envy, and bring the child to master and
control these evil dispositions. Not only is it possible to cultivate
those feelings which we may summarize as the love of the virtues and
develop a dislike and turning away from vices, but this work of
cultivating the feelings may be carried on so systematically that great
_habits_ of feeling are formed, and these habits become the very
strongholds of character. They are the forces acting upon the will and
guiding its choice.
It is _freedom of the will_ to chose the best that we are after. We
desire to limit the choice of the will if possible to good things. We
desire to make the character so strong and so noble and consistent in
its desires that it will not be strongly tempted by evil.
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