was dead--his eyes wide open, staring at me.

My uncle paused and looked earnestly into my face.

"It was a bit of your professional experience," said I. "Something had
reminded you of it."

"The night before I dreamed about it" he answered. "My mind, released
from the command of my will, betrayed me."

"A strange power!" I exclaimed.

"Incredible to you! Impossible to acquire unless the work begins at
birth, and then the possibilities are infinite," said he, drawing his
chair closer to mine. "You know what I have done. Start the new-born
mind on any highway and see how it hurries along. You can do more,
working a little while over the cradle, than all the preachers under
heaven, after its occupant has grown beyond your ministry. I tell
you, sir, the world is indifferent to its children. Neglected by their
parents, subject to hired tenderness or none at all; left to the care of
ignorant or depraved nurses, and often taught little but selfishness
and greed of gain, the children of men are surrounded by destructive
agencies. Can we wonder that the human mind loses in infancy so much
of its native power? But so the generations of earth are growing up,
bearing embittered fruit and sowing its seed to the four winds.
Who cares for the mind and body of a child has the highest possible
mission--the most sacred of all trusts. He must give it all his time and
strength. He must lead its mind into green pastures; he must share its
joys; he must know its hopes and fears; he must give it hold on lines
of thought that reach into eternity, which will sooner or later flood it
with inspiration; he must see that the brain has a sufficient foundation
of flesh and blood and bone; he must give it all his life until the
germs of power are developed."

"Unfortunately," said I, "most parents have other things to do and think
of."

"Parentage is a crime under such circumstances. It has peopled the world
with fools and knaves. It delays the coming of Christ's kingdom. There
are a few wise men, but they are held down as gravitation holds the
rock. There are laws of attraction in the world of mind as in that of
matter. Good and evil are its poles. Every atom between them is held in
place by the operation of opposing forces. The general mass of mind
lies within narrow zones on both sides of the equatorial line of this
imaginary world. Its attraction prevents any men from rising far above
or descending far below it. I tell you, sir, the intel