happily one great man has missed the music of the
spheres, and failed to catch the "meaning" of God's work.

For mother and child, for teacher and pupil, the first essential point
is to accept this fact. Only so, can the sweet order of a divine life be
brought out of the chaotic elements stirring in every soul.

The mother, who holds the month-old infant at her breast, and gently
imprisons the tiny fingers that would tear her laces, or disorder her
hair, takes the first step towards the development of moral
consciousness. Let her repeat again and again that gentle restraint, and
by-and-by wide open eyes will ask her why, and when it is once
understood that food can be had only while the little fingers are quiet,
the first foundations of obedience are laid. So far most mothers go, for
their own comfort's sake. If they had but the resolution to go still
farther, for the sake of the child's life-long content! No child
respects the teacher who does not _control_. All the modern
methods--including lavish gifts and the gilding of all bitter
pills--fail absolutely before the clearsightedness of youth. If we older
people know how to rise to the occasion and thank those who demand the
best of us, still more certainly is this to be expected of the young and
the fresh-hearted; but if it were not, our duty remains the same.

So much discipline as shall preserve order, develop respect, and make
possible such opportunities as the young soul needs, is the first point.
It is idle to ask how this is to be secured. No two children can be
managed alike, and it is the variety of her tasks which consoles the
mother for her daily fatigue, and inspires her for the encounter.

Until the child is taught deference, it is idle to teach it Latin; until
it sees the necessity of self-control, and the beauty of self-denial,
grammar and mathematics are to be dispensed with. In one word, the
foundation of all true development lies in preserving the natural
relation of parent and child. Whatever turns the child into a tyrant and
the mother into a slave, degrades the ideal of both, and makes any true
progress impossible. To do what is difficult and disagreeable with a
faithful and cheerful spirit, is the first great achievement,
remembering, nevertheless, that God is a loving Father, not a hard
Master.

Yet, loving as he is, his laws are inexorable. The baby stumbles, and
bruised limbs or swollen lips warn it against the second careless step.
Young