ing us out of ourselves and causing us to yearn toward higher
levels; who has been the beacon light toward which our feet have been
stumbling; who has been the pattern by which we have sought to shape our
lives; and for whom we feel a sense of gratitude that cannot be
quenched. The influence of that person has been a liberal education in
the vital things that the books do not teach, and we shudder to think
what we might have been had that influence not come into our lives. This
ideal is not some mythical, far-away person, but a real man or woman who
has challenged our admiration by looks, by conduct, by position, and by
general bearing in society.

=The one teacher.=--This preliminary part of the subject has been dwelt
upon thus at length in an effort to win assent to the general
proposition that unconscious education is not only possible, but an
actuality. This assent being once given, the mind feels out at once for
applications of the principle and, inevitably, brings the parent and the
teacher into the field of view. But the parent is too near to us in
time, in space, and in relation to afford the illustration that we seek,
and we pass on to the teacher. In the experience of each one of us there
stands out at least one teacher as clear in definition as a cameo. This
teacher may not have been the most scholarly, or the most successful in
popular esteem, or even the most handsome, but she had some quality that
differentiates her in our thinking from all others. Others may seem but
a sort of blur in our memory, but not so this one. She alone is
distinct, distinctive, and regnant.

=Her supremacy.=--The vicissitudes of life have not availed to dethrone
her, nor have the losses, perplexities, and sorrows of life caused the
light of her influence to grow dim. She is still an abiding presence
with us, nor can we conceive of any influence that could possibly
obliterate her. She may have been idealized by degrees, but when she
came fully into our lives she came to stay. She came not as a transient
guest, but as a lifelong friend and comrade. She crept into our lives as
gently as the dawn comes over the hills, and since her arrival there has
been no sunset. Nor was there ever by pupil or teacher any profession or
protestation, but we simply accepted each other with a frankness that
would have been weakened by words.

=The role of ideal.=--But the role of ideal is not an easy one. It is a
comparatively simple matter to give i