rs, and train its
judgment; let it see sound judgment producing happiness; let it see how
beautiful and desirable is the possession of wisdom, and the child will
soon learn to seek it for its own sake.

To chastise a child for speaking that which is untrue may fill it with
fear, but does not make it love truth. The love of truth and of wisdom
must be cultivated as we cultivate the love of music. "Seek me early, and
ye shall find me." "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." That which
the mind seeks it will find. The natural relationships are established,
and it is only for us to work in harmony with, and not obstruct or
interfere with them. It is the "true relationship of things" we need to
learn. There is nothing in us that is not in nature. All the forces
developed in man are but developments of nature; and all the forces
required for his nourishment and strength exist in the bosom of Nature.
Matter, light, heat, electricity are not produced by him. In nature they
exist; remove any one of them and he perishes. To Nature then must we ever
turn as the reservoir of nourishment and as the teacher, by the study of
whose volume we learn all of wisdom that can be known of mortal man, or
that can tend to his well-being; and her true relationships must be the
constant object of our search. Before the knowledge of her true
relationships disappear superstition and fear and mystery. The lightning's
flash, the thunder's roar, the falling meteor and the sun's eclipse cease
to terrify and alarm. Witches, hobgoblins and demons come no longer to
trouble us; the most unusual phenomena awaken only philosophical research
and curiosity. And what is true of the full-grown man is not less true of
the child.

That school wherein children above the age of infancy fail to assist the
teacher in his instruction, is an ill-ordered school. It is not the
subject, but the teacher who is uninteresting; he scolds, worries and
punishes his pupils, when he himself is the fitter subject for the lash.
He awakens the sense of fear which should lie dormant, while the other
faculties of his pupils slumber in spiritless inactivity.

As the object of education is to prepare children to enter successfully
and happily into life, and wisely to discharge all the duties devolving
upon them as they unfold into men and women, and occupy the sphere
assigned to them, the simple rule for the course of instruction seems to
be, that they should learn those things in t