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in the child's face, ardor and enthusiasm in all his games, so long as happiness accompanies most of his impressions, there is nothing to fear. Short moments of self-subjugation quickly followed by new interests and new joys do not dishearten. To see peace and happiness resulting from habits. of order and obedience is the true preparation for social life.

Be in no hurry to get on, but make the first step sound before moving; in this way you will avoid confusion and waste. Order, exactness, completion - alas, not thus was my character formed. And in the case of my own child in particular, I am in great danger of being blinded by his quickness, and rapid progress, and, dazzled by the unusual extent of his knowledge, of forgetting how much ignorance lurks behind this apparent development, and how much has yet to be done before we can go farther. Completeness, orderliness, absence of confusion — what important points!

Lead your child out into Nature, teach him on the hilltops and in the valleys. There he will listen better, and the sense of freedom will give him more strength to overcome difficulties. But in these hours of freedom let him be taught by Nature rather than by you. Let him fully realize that she is the real teacher and that you, with your art, do nothing more than walk quietly at her side. Should a bird sing or an insect hum on a leaf, at once stop your talk; bird and insect are teaching him; you may be silent.

I would say to the teacher, Be thoroughly convinced of the immense value of liberty; do not let vanity make you anxious to see your efforts producing premature fruit; let your child be as free as possible, and seek diligently for every means of ensuring his liberty, peace of mind, and good humor. Teach him absolutely nothing by words that you can teach him by the things themselves; let him see for himself, hear, find out, fall, pick himself up, make mistakes; no

word, in short, when action is possible. What he can do for himself, let him do it; let him be always occupied, always active, and let the time you leave him to himself represent by far the greatest part of his childhood. You will then see that Nature teaches him better than men.

I.

2. THE EVENING HOUR OF A HERMIT, 1780.

Man! in thyself, in the inward consciousness of thine own strength, is the instrument intended by Nature for thy development.

2. The path of Nature, which develops the forces of humanity, must be easy and open to all; education, which brings true wisdom and peace of mind, must be simple and within everybody's reach.

3. Nature develops all the forces of humanity by exercising them; they increase with use.

4. The exercise of a man's faculties and talents, to be profitable, must follow the course laid down by Nature for the education of humanity.

5. This is why the man who, in simplicity and innocence, exercises his forces and faculties with order, calmness, and steady application, is naturally led to true human wisdom; whereas he who subverts the order of Nature, and thus breaks the due connection between the different branches of his knowledge, destroys in himself not only the true basis of knowledge, but the very need of such a basis, and becomes incapable of appreciating the advantages of truth.

6. Thou who wouldst be a father to thy child, do not expect too much of him till his mind has been strengthened by practice in the things he can understand; and beware of harshness and constraint.

7. When men are anxious to go too fast, and are not satisfied with Nature's method of development, they im

peril their inward strength, and destroy the peace and harmony of their souls.

8. When men rush into the labyrinth of words, formulas, and opinions, without having gained a progressive knowledge of the realities of life, their minds must develop on this one basis, and can have no other source of strength.

9. The schools hastily substitute an artificial method of words for the truer method of Nature, which knows no hurry, and is content to wait.

In this way a specious form of development is produced, hiding the want of real inward strength, but satisfying times like our own.

IO. Man! if thou seekest the truth in this natural order, thou wilt find it as thou hast need of it for thy position and for the career which is opening before thee.

II. The pure sentiment of truth and wisdom is formed in the narrow circle of our personal relations, the circumstances which suggest our actions, and the powers we need to develop.

12. The performance of acts which are contrary to our inward sense of right, takes from us the power of recognizing truth, and our principles and impressions lose in nobleness, simplicity, and purity.

13. And thus all human wisdom rests on the strength of a heart that follows truth, and all human happiness on this feeling of simplicity and innocence.

14. A man's domestic relations are the first and most important of his nature.

15. A man works at his calling, and bears his share of the public burdens, that he may have undisturbed enjoyment of his home.

16. Thus the education which fits a man for his profession and position in the state must be made subordinate to that which is necessary for his domestic happiness.

17. The home is the true basis of the education of humanity.

18. It is the home that gives the best moral training, whether for private or public life.

19. A man's greatest need is the knowledge of God. 20. The purest pleasures of his home do not always satisfy him.

21.

His weak, impressionable nature is powerless without God to endure constraint, suffering, and death.

22. God is the Father of humanity, and his children are immortal.

23. Sin is both the cause and effect of want of faith, and is an act opposed to what a man's inmost sense of good and evil tells him to be right.

24. It is because humanity believes in God that I am contented in my humble dwelling.

25. I base all liberty on justice, but I see no certainty of justice in the world so long as men are wanting in uprightness, piety, and love.

26. The source of justice and of every other blessing in the world, the source of all brotherly love amongst men, lies in the great conception of religion that we are the children of God.

27. That man of God who, by his sufferings and death, restored to men the sense that God is their Father, is indeed the Saviour of the world. His teaching is justice itself, a simple philosophy of practical value for all, the revelation of God the Father to his erring children.

3. SWISS NEWS, 1782.

I. The child at its mother's breast is the weakest and most dependent of human creatures, and yet it is already receiving the first moral impressions of love and gratitude.

2.

Morality is nothing but a result of the development in the child of these first sentiments of love and gratitude.

3. The first development of the child's powers should come from his participation in the work of his home, for this work is necessarily what the parents understood best, what most absorbs their attention, and what they are most competent to teach.

4. But even if this were not so, work undertaken to supply real needs would be just as truly the surest foundation of a good education.

5. To engage the attention of the child, to exercise his judgments, to open his heart to noble sentiments, is, I think, the chief end of education; and how can this end be reached so surely as by training the child as early as possible in the various daily duties of domestic life.

6. Nothing makes a greater call on the attention than work in general, because without close attention no work can be well done; but this is especially true of work which children can do in a house, for it varies continually, and in a thousand ways, and compels them to fix their attention on a great number of different objects.

7. Further, it is by doing all sorts of work at an early age that a man acquires a sound judgment; for if his work is to succeed, the difficult circumstances under which it has to be done, must be thoroughly understood; nor can the child help being struck by the fact that failure results from errors in judgment.

8. Finally, work is also the best means of ennobling the heart of man, and of preparing him for all the domestic and social virtues. For, to teach a child obedience, unselfishness, and patience I do not think that anything can be better than work in which he engages regularly with the rest of the family.

9. As a general rule, art and books would not replace

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