artist and just his own sort of
training, at the time he can best appropriate it.

=Varieties of the Gifted.=--Happily all the flowers of the family are
not geniuses or specially talented. Some are just beautiful to look at
and yet unspoiled by flattery. It is a great gift of nature to be able
to give happiness just by allowing people to look at one! The contour
of the face, the turn of the head, the light in the eye, the freshness
of the complexion, the grace of the movement, and the sweetness of the
voice all go together, if the manner and the feeling only match the
coloring and the form, to make it well worth while just to be alive.

And some flowers of the family are not beautiful but charming, those
of tact and graciousness and understanding of others and consideration
and unselfish behavior. These are they of whom one has said, "The
charm of her presence was felt when she went, and men at her side grew
nobler, girls purer, as all through the town the children were gladder
who pulled at her gown."

Some flowers of the family bloom late and come to their beauty only
when some disaster threatens destruction of the home or some sorrow
wrecks its happiness. Simple, plain, unassuming, neither very wise nor
very strong in other matters, they have a heart that can love with
such intensity that it warms the coldest spot and is the refuge most
sought when misfortune appears.

And sometimes the flower of the family is but a memory of one who
early passes on. Emerson sang in his beautiful "Threnody":

"The gracious boy, who did adorn
The world whereinto he was born,
And by his countenance repay
The favor of the loving Day,--
Has disappeared from the Day's eye;
Far and wide she cannot find him;
My hopes pursue, they cannot bind him.
......................................
Nature, who lost, cannot remake him;
Fate let him fall, Fate can't retake him;
........................................
the feet
Of the most beautiful and sweet
Of human youth had left the hill
And garden,--they were bound and still."

It is of such that affection speaks most tenderly.

QUESTIONS ON THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY

1. How far should the general family life be burdened for special
development of the genius, the near-genius, and the specially
talented member?

2. What added social provisions should we seek to secure to aid in