Then there was Her fireside. At this shrine, tended by a darkhaired, brown-eyed maiden, I was a devout worshiper in winter evenings after my college days were over. Her house was a mile up the road from ours-too short a distance to drive-and I would crunch through the snow, my head bent low to the icy blasts that swept the meadows bare and piled the snow in the road as if intent on plaguing lovers instead of helping them. How bright the moon was those nights, and when she declined how brilliantly the stars would shine! A city dweller never knows the full glory of the country heavens. Smoke and electric lights hide all but a few stars. The myriad little points of light and the Milky Way are lost.

It was a long walk but. a quiet one save for the wind that whistled past me, driving the fine snow in my eyes and down my neck. On still nights there would be a distant impudent challenge of a fox, answered by the nearer indignant barking of some hound. But these sounds do not disturb-they fit in with the melody of nature. How the coming of ice and snow would send a thrill through one in those days! How one's blood would course through his veins in such weather! Now it sends shivers and the blood is sluggish.

And when her home was reached, we would sit by her fireside, an open hearth with its great sticks of oak and hickory, with now and then a balsam that would spit and sputter for all the world like some quarrelsome person. And then we would plan our future. In the long, understandable silences that often ensue between lovers I would gaze in the fire as in boyhood, and dream of a beautiful home and all that makes life attractive; dream of success, not for itself, but for her sake. If youth could only live up to such dreams, what an ecstasy of delight old age would be! And she, too, would dream dreams, I am sure. But what they were no one will ever know. What an ironic joke it was that fate played her! My comfort has been looked after carefully, but the things she loved are wanting. And yet one would never know it from her lips. Women are singular that way. They start out in life with high standards, and then, either deliberately or unconsciously, they lower them to fit the capacities of the ones they love. Whatever their secret thoughts may be, and God alone knows those, their loyal love forever stills repinings or complainings. Mother love is indeed wonderful, but it is understandable. But the love of a woman for her mate has no comparison in nature. It is doglike in its devotion and human in its care and wisdom. It is the greatest thing man possesses, and he knows it not.

Those were care-free times. Life was beginning to open up, but the real responsibilities had not yet come. We looked into the future through rose-colored lenses and saw but happiness. The toil and pain and suffering, the bitter which is added to the sweet, we did not see, and it is well we did not. We would shrink if we saw at once the problems of a lifetime, but somehow we are given strength to meet them when they come, even if we do not solve them correctly.

The evenings were not all spent in dreams of the future. More often we dwelt in the present. Sometimes in the early evening we would desert the fireplace for the piano, and I would listen to the reveries of Schumann or to the dash and spirit of Mendelssohn. Usually we would read to each other, or I would read and she would sew until the clock struck the hour for my departure. So while the fireplace still gave a cheery blaze, a pleasant benediction at the close of the evening, as well as a welcome at the beginning, I retraced my steps to where a light shone in the window, placed there by my mother before she retired.

But the best fireplace is ours before which we have now sat for the many years that have brought both happiness and sorrow. The others are but memories which grow fainter and fainter, until they are but the suggestion of delicate perfume. The first year of our married life, when we were more like children than

grown-ups, we had the fireplace to ourselves, and kindled the fire often when it was not necessary because it reminded us both of youth and of courtship. Now, although we love it even more, both for itself and for its memories, we light it but seldom, for we have responsibilities and obligations, and we have learned to be sparing in the countless little ways when we are alone. Since Tom and Mary Elizabeth came to gladden our hearts we have had to plan for their future as well as for ours. And now I realize to the full the sacrifices of my parents and their joy in the sacrifices. We do not expect payment; we do not look for many words of thanks; but we see the appreciation of our children, and we also know and understand. During the altogether too short years of their childhood this was the place before which they had their games, and then their books, and then their company. And now they are both in college and we sit alone on the downhill of life, hand in hand, just as we started years ago.

But on Sunday we do light the fire after our letters to them are written, and we sit together on the sofa watching the bright blaze creeping up through the dark lumps of coal, and wondering what Tom and Mary are doing. Tom has my old room and has discovered his father's initials cut deeply in the window-sill. I think that little incident brought us nearer together than almost anything else lately. It showed him that I am human, or was at one time. And, although he does not say so, I know that he too is trying to work out life's problems in the blaze of the old fireplace. May he succeed better than his father! But Mary has no such luxury in her college dormitory. The rooms are all steam-heated, there are no draughts, and the thermometer always registers seventy degrees. Poor child! How she will ever dream by looking at a steam radiator I do not know. But she is happy, and she has visions of a useful life, a life of service of some kind. I hope her desire will be realized, whether her path leads to some profession or to the better ideal, the home. Whatever their lot or fortune, I trust the children will think of life as the most beautiful thing in the world, and that they also will have a few friends who are stanch and loyal as ours are; not many friends, but those who are alike in temperament and who will grow in soul life, as I hope the children will growfriends whom to know, like ours, will be a delight, so different from the shabby imitations wealth or position brings. I cannot help wishing them material prosperity too. That is natural, although it is not the greatest thing. How like a fire some of our lives are! They flash up, sputter, and then settle down to a steady blaze, and then, just as we should be able to do what is expected of us, we fail or die. In youth we are egotistical of our powers. We

66

Dip into the future, far as human eye can see,

See the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be." Nothing is too great to accomplish. We hitch our wagons to stars, but find they do not move. Then comes middle life, when we do our prosaic work day by day, either adding figures or plowing fields or selling goods, exactly as Sisyphus pushed his rock up only to do it all over. And then old age comes, when

desire has turned to ashes and the merest bits of dull fire are the sole reminders of the past. I do not wish them to feel like that when they have reached my age. I wish them to see only the brightness of life and not its dead ashes.

To-night we lighted our fire just as the street lamps flashed out, flickered a few times, and then settled down to a steady glare, while the wind blustered outside and the swinging arclamps cast weird lights and shadows upon our curtains. We will sit before it, silent for the most part, dreaming, in the bright blaze, of the children's future and planning for them so far as we can plan, just as parents always have dreamed and planned, and always will; and we will stay until the ever-widening ash leaves only patches of dull red. That will be our signal for retiring. It is always a little sad somehow to see the fire die, and the older we grow the more we childishly dread it. Yet we always love it too. It is a sort of bitter-sweet, this awakening from the elusive unrealities of dream life to the happy realities of a harsher existence, and we sigh a little as we rise, when we think of what might have been, and then smile when we think of what has been in our lives.

M

OST of you know that we are fighting to make the world safe for democracy and against a German autocracy that would enslave us if it could. We shall win the fight, but in doing so we shall lose many young men, and it is probable that you boys will come to manhood just in time to fill their places. I hope that by the time you are old enough to be soldiers the war will be over; but if it isn't you may have to shoulder a gun and risk your lives in defense of your country. In any event, you are almost certain to be called upon to assume the responsibilities of life far earlier than would have been necessary if the war had not occurred. You will be men in a world where workmen will be needed more than anything else. You must therefore prepare yourselves for work, and efficient work, with all the speed possible. The wealth that the war has destroyed will have to be recreated. Civilization will have to be re-established. The wounded and the maimed and the impoverished will have to be taken care of, and those upon whom the duty of doing these things shall devolve must try and equip themselves for their prospective responsibilities as promptly as possible.

I feel, therefore, that it is my duty to urge upon all the boys who are condemned to listen to me the need of educating themselves as completely as possible and as speedily as possible. In the luxurious years of peace that preceded the present war there had grown up in the United States a theory that the idea of work should be disassociated from the getting of an education, that the school should be made a sort of playhouse, and that it was wrong and injurious to demand of children the application and intensive study that used to be insisted upon fifty or one hundred years ago. I am inclined to think that the experience of the war and the need that it has created for well-equipped and thoroughly educated men will dissipate this idea. I am a thorough believer in work, whether it be physical or mental, as the most healthful form of exercise that boys or girls or grown-ups can take, and I am anxious that the boys who listen to me should not be afraid of work. I know that some boys and some parents with whom I have talked have thought a boy's subsequent career is not much affected by his record and standing at school. My observation and inquiry lead me to the reverse conclusion. In most cases the brilliant men of the world were hard students and precocious children. We read of Julius Cæsar-perhaps the greatest of all warriors-riding to war behind his Uncle Marius at the tender age of three. Napoleon at the same age played with a toy cannon and marched imaginary troops to war. Alexander the Great when but three years old went out to meet ambassadors and talked with them in the absence of his father.

The three-year-old Confucius played on the lute and talked with his mother's friends on filial piety. When only four years old, Milton wrote creditable Latin verse and Pope composed Greek stanzas, while the latter wrote his famous "Ode to Solitude" when he was but twelve. At five little Hannibal held a sword heavier than himself and vowed eternal vengeance against the Romans. Saint-Saëns wrote

BY THEODORE H. PRICE

waltzes and galops, Mozart composed and played on the violin, Titian painted pictures with a juice squeezed from berries and wild flowers, and Landseer made remarkable sketches when they were hardly more than children. Millais won his first prize at nine. Huxley, who astounded the scholastic world with his learning at seven, was taught by his mother, who "did things while others were thinking about doing them." Goethe had made a considerable reputation as a writer before he was fifteen. At seven Immanuel Kant, the "little fellow with the big head," began to teach those who were willing to be taught. He was "such a small potato" that he had to stand on a box to be seen, but, being a teacher by temperament, he held the attention of all who heard him:

Paul Morphy, the greatest of chessplayers, was a champion at nine. Molière, whose genius was awakened early by going to the theater with his jolly grandfather, wrote plays at ten. John Stuart Mill knew his Greek alphabet when three, and at five could correct his elders in Latin and Greek. He was his father's constant companion, and carried a note-book with him whenever he went for a walk. During these walks he asked all manner of questions, and thus gained the early part of his education. Herbert Spencer received the early part of his education by being taught to observe things when he was a tiny boy. Before he was fifteen John Keats had translated the whole of the Æneid into prose, and in his spare hours had read most of the books in the school library. Coleridge, who was a charity scholar in an English public school, had translated the eight hymns of Synesius from the Greek into English before his fifteenth year. John Fiske was reading Cæsar at the age of seven, and in a letter written to his mother on his eighth birthday said: "I am now eight years old and have read about two hundred volumes of books on all subjects, particularly on natural history, philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, grammar, mathematics, and miscellaneous things. I have also read Spanish a little." At eleven he had written an original Greek

oration.

Lord Kelvin, the great electrician to whom the world of to-day is so largely indebted, was the son of a Scot, Professor Thomson, of whom it is said that "he believed that a child should be educated as soon as it showed an intelligent interest in the world, and that this education should be along lines indicated by the child's tendencies." With this idea, he began to teach his two boys in the cradle. His friends protested that he would strain the children's minds and break down their intellects, but he replied: "Stuff and nonsense! It is precisely because the education of children begins too late that they find it hard to learn and strain their minds in the attainment of knowledge. Let a child get accustomed to using its mind in early childhood and study will never tax it, but will be a perpetual joy; and, at any rate, this is the way I intend to bring up my boys." He did, and, possibly as a result of this, both boys became famous men and lived to a ripe old age. The elder son entered Glasgow University at the age of twelve, and led his class there. He lived until he was over eighty, leaving a reputation as a great

teacher and an authority on engineering. Lord Kelvin, the younger son, did even better. By the time he was eighteen he was recognized as a scientific authority, and by many he is now ranked with Newton and Faraday. He lived until he was eighty-three, showing that his early education had not harmed him physically.

I have been at some pains to compile this list of those men who are now regarded as prodigies because I have felt that in the years that are to come when you boys are men the world will need those who have in their youth learned to be unsparing of themselves, and I hope that, whether you are leaving Fay's to go to a preparatory school or expect to spend a year or two more here, you will make up your minds that for the future you will try to equip yourselves as thoroughly as possible, and as soon as possible, for the battle of life that is ahead of you. Especially do I urge that you shall cultivate your

memory.

When I was a small boy, my mother made me memorize great long passages of Scripture, the Shorter Catechism, a lot of hymns, and a great deal of poetry. Much of it I have forgotten, but some of it I still remember, and what I recollect, plus the facility with which I learned to remember, gives me unending pleasure and satisfaction in my old age. I know that my boy hates to hear me say this, for it means that during this summer, if I am not separated from him, he will have to learn at least one short poem every week; but I know that in the years to come he will thank me for subjecting his memory to this discipline.

And, finally, boys, I want to urge upon you the cultivation of a will to win, which is absolutely necessary if we are ever to accomplish anything worth while in life or rise above mediocrity.

I happened to run across a little poem the other day that seemed to me to enforce this truth very happily. It is as follows:

is

If

you think you're outclassed, you are ;
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can."

General Foch, the great strategist, who is now in command of all the Allied armies, very fond of saying that no battle is ever lost until it is morally lost, and that we are never licked until we admit it. This is the spirit by which the soldiers that will ultimately defeat Germany are animated. I hope that it is, and will continue to be, the spirit in which you boys will attack the problems that confront you during your school days, the other problems that will be yours when you are at college, and the difficulties that you will meet and the battles that you will have to fight when you become men.

[Those who are using the weekly outline should not attempt to cover the whole of an outline in any one lesson or study. Assign for one lesson selected questions, one or two propositions for discussion, and only such words as are found in the material assigned. Or distribute selected questions among different members of the class or group and have them report their findings to all when assembled. Then have all discuss the questions together.]

I-INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

A. Topic: A Tribute to France; The
Bastille.

Reference: Page 403.
Questions:

to

1. Give a brief summary of the social, economic, and political conditions in France on the eve of the French Revolution. 2. Tell why and how July 14 came to be the great national holiday of France. 3. The national holiday of France is to be observed in America. What does The Outlook say about arrangements for this celebration? 4. How many reasons can you give why Americans should pay this tribute France? 5. The Outlook believes that our observance of the French national holiday will help "to promote international understanding and friendship." Name and discuss several other ways of promoting international good will. 6. France and England both celebrated America's Independence Day, July 4, as though it were their own. Discuss the significance of this. 7. Do you expect that the spirit of individual liberty and democracy will some day establish a World's Fourth of July, which will be observed even in Berlin? What are your reasons? 8. Read in connection with this topic "The Eve of the French Revolution," by Edward J. Lowell (Houghton Mifflin); Adams's "The Growth of the French Nation" (Macmillan); "The International Mind," by N. M. Butler (Scribners); "The English-Speaking Peoples," by G. L. Beer (Macmillan).

II-NATIONAL AFFAIRS

A. Topic: How Shall Russia Be Saved? Reference: Editorial, pages 410, 411. Questions:

1. What are many of the rumors and reports that have recently come out of Russia? What are the three impressions these reports have made upon The Outlook? How do these rumors impress you? 2. What are President Wilson's attitude and policy as regards Russia? Tell why you are or are not in full accord with them. 3. Do you think the Allies should wait for an "invitation " before entering Russia? From whom would you expect the invitation? What legal authority is there in Russia to issue such an invitation? 4. Why, in your opinion, do the Bolsheviki grant to Germany practically everything she demands? 5. Give several reasons for the tragic weakness of

the Russian people. 6. What is the answer to The Outlook's question, "How shall Russia be saved?" 7. Two of the best books ever written on Russia are "The Eclipse of Russia," by E. J. Dillon (Doran), and "The Birth of the Russian Democracy," by A. J. Sack (the Russian Information Bureau, Woolworth Building, New York). A very interesting and suggestive book on Russia is Stephen Graham's Russia and the World" (Macmillan).

B. Topic: Submarines and Airplanes;
The Effect of Kühlmann's Speech.
Reference: Pages 405, 406.
Questions:

1. Germany has sunk another hospital ship. What does The Outlook about say this affair? 2. What are the rules as to hospital ships adopted and approved by all the Great Powers of the world (Germany included) at the Second Hague Convention, concluded October 18, 1907? 3. How do you account for the fact that the German naval authorities, with the sanction of the German people, can torpedo a hospital ship at night without warning and upon an utterly false pretense? Discuss. 4. Do you believe in retribution for Germany? If so, what sort of punishment would advoyou cate for her? 5. Do you think it possible for Germany to qualify for readmission to civilization? Reasons. 6. What effect did Kühlmann's speech, have in Germany? 7. What is meant by saying that his speech was "staged"? If it were, what was the object? 8. Give the main reason and at least four other reasons why it is futile to talk about peace negotiations with Germany. C. Topic: Why Not Declare War Turkey?

Reference: Editorial, page 410.
Questions:

on

1. What reasons does The Outlook give why America has not declared war upon Turkey? 2. In your opinion, does The Outlook go too far in declaring "these arguments have no weight against the necessity of putting Turkey alongside Ger"? Discuss. many

III-PROPOSITIONS FOR DISCUSSION (These propositions are suggested directly or indirectly by the subject-matter of The Outlook, but not discussed in it.)

1. Human lives should not be considered as against human rights. 2. Bolshevism is Czarism upside down.

IV-VOCABULARY BUILDING

Both

THE NEW

BOOKS

This department will include descriptive notes, with or without brief comments, about books received by The Outlook. Many of the important books will have more extended and critical treatment later BIOGRAPHY

My Empress. By Madame Marfa Mouchanow. Illustrated. The John Lane Company, New York. $2.50.

This is no mere book of back-stairs gossip. True, it offers gossip and sharp-edged comment, not only on the members of the Russian Imperial family, but also on the members of the Russian Court. But it is also an account written by a woman who for a quarter of a century had been in close intimacy with the Empress Alexandra -an attempt to depict the Empress's character truly, with all its depressing limitations and yet with all its evident virtues. The book throws a vivid side-light on Russian life as it has latterly been lived by the Court circle and the nobles.

HISTORY, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND POLITICS Little That is Good (The). Stories of London and Glimpses of English Civilization. By Harold Begbie. Illustrated. Cassell & Co., Ltd., New York.

Harold Begbie has by his previous writings shown himself both familiar with the slums of London and sympathetic with the work which philanthropy is doing to eradicate this horrible blot from the greatest capital of the world. This, his latest volume, affords graphic pictures of life and character and demonstrates the capacity of the author to see the little that is good in men and women who are ignorant of conventional standards, but not indifferent to moral and spiritual values. No one can read this book without a new wrath against the social barbarism which makes the slum possible and without a new admiration for those who, inspired by a spirit of brotherhood, are endeavoring to make it impossible both by social reform from without and by personal reform from within. Sea Power and Freedom. A Historical Study. By Gerard Fiennes. Introduction by Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske, U. S. N. Illus trated. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $3.50. This is historically an extension of the field dealt with so notably well by Admiral Mahan in his famous "Influence of Sea Power upon History," for it goes back to 1660 and carries the story on also from 1783 forward. The author is no less emphatic than Admiral Mahan as to the vital importance of sea power. His book is devoted more largely to narrative than to argument. In an Introduction Admiral Fiske, of our Navy, pays a well-earned tribute to the efficiency and valor of the British navy in this war. Naturally, Mr. Fiennes's book is written from the British standpoint and with special attention to British achievement.

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION

Cape Cod New and Old. By Agnes Edwards. Illustrated. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $2.

Here are sketches, made with both pen and pencil, of a locality that once seen is always loved. A book that confirmed "Cape Codders," prospective summer visitors, and readers who like to travel by the guide-book route will find attractive.

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY Ethical Philosophy of Life (An). Presented in Its Main Outlines. By Felix Adler. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $3.

volume "is nothing else than a book of In the words of its venerable author, this spiritual self-discipline." He "records a philosophy of life growing out of the expe

The New Books (Continued) rience of a lifetime." Life's supreme end is the ethical end. "Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself" is the supreme ethical rule. Nobly has Dr. Adler lived up to it in word and in deed. Moreover, he affirms ". an eternal divine life" containing and continuing "all that is best "in him and those dear to him. Not affirming immortality, he affirms the "real and irreducible existence of the essential self." Affirming the reality of "an infinite spiritual universe." he recognizes in it no center and head; "The One is an empty concept." He has "replaced the God-idea by that of a universe of spiritual beings interacting in infinite harmony;" "the solemn and serene assembly of the gods." Sheer polytheism this, however sublimated. Its fallacies are conspicuous.

Paul's Joy in Christ. Studies in Philippians.

By A. T. Robertson, M.A., D.D., LL.D. The Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25.

The eleven expository addresses in this volume have been given from Paul's Greek text before the Northfield Conference and many other assemblies and churches. The epistle is a love-letter. Dr. Robertson exhibits it as such and shows its joyousness and the charming traits of the heroic Apostle, and the stimulants of a winsome Christian life to-day. The expository character of the volume makes it a good popular commentary. That it is at all points up to the latest Biblical researches not every evangelical scholar will admit.

Prayer in War Time. By Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D. The George H. Doran Company, New York. $1.

The sixteen papers in this volume were originally its author's editorials in the "British Weekly." They were written for the encouragement of British Christians in peculiarly trying sacrifices and sorrows during the earlier period of the war. They are equally appropriate and timely for Americans now similarly circumstanced, animated by the same heroic spirit, and needing the same encouragement and replenishing of moral strength as our British brethren in these days that try men's souls and test their faith in God.

Psychical Phenomena and the War. By Hereward Carrington, Ph.D. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $2.

There is always an interest of curiosity in the discussion of such questions as that of survival after death or of special protection as the result of prayer. This book takes up these topics as well as the psychology of the soldier, the nature of German frightfulness, the stories of apparitions, and similar topics.

WAR BOOKS

Fighting Fleets (The). By Ralph D. Paine. Illustrated. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $2.

Well written, well illustrated, well printed, this book presents a most readable account of thrilling experiences of American and British seamen in the present war. No better book of its kind has so far appeared. Americans read a great deal about the Army's doings, but the Navy's work is not " played up so fully in the newspapers, and this book is therefore of the greater interest.

MISCELLANEOUS

Story of a Small College (The). By Isaac Sharpless. The John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia.

A readable and well-written account of the growth of Haverford College.

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