of walking or of breathing must hold the thoughtful person enthralled and
enchanted. But, strange as it may seem, there are those who seem not to
realize in what a marvelous abode their spirits have their home. Such
scant respect do they have for their bodies that they defile them and
treat them with shameless ignominy. They saturate them with poisons and
vulgarize them with unseemly practices. They seem to regard them as mere
property to be used or abused at pleasure and not temples to be honored.
The man who does not respect his own body can feel no respect or reverence
for its Creator nor for the soul that dwells within it. Such a man lacks
self-respect and self-respect is the fertile soil in which many virtues
flourish. The teaching of physiology that fails to generate a feeling of
deep respect for the human body is not the sort of teaching that should
obtain in our schools.

Again, a person who is possessed of fine sensibilities sees in the apple
tree in full bloom a creation of transcendant beauty and charm. The poet
cannot describe it, nor can the artist reproduce it. It is both a mystery
and a miracle. Into this miracle nature has poured her lavish treasures of
fertility, of rain, of sunshine, and of zephyrs, and from it at the zenith
of its beauty the full-throated robin pours forth his heart in melodious
greeting. It may be well to dismiss the school to see the circus parade,
but even more fitting is it to dismiss the school to see this burst of
splendor. In its glorious presence silence is the only language that is
befitting. In such a presence sound is discord, for such enchantment as it
begets cannot be made articulate. Its influence steals into the senses and
lifts the spirit up. To defile or despoil such beauty would be to
desecrate a shrine. But the sordid man sees in this symphony of color
nothing else than a promise of fruit. His response is wholly physical, not
spiritual at all. His spiritual sense seems atrophied and he can do
nothing but estimate the bushels of fruit. He feels no respect for the
beauty before him and it is evident that somewhere along the line his
spiritual education was neglected. He excites our sympathy and our hope
that his children may not share his fate.

In the way of illustrating this quality of respect, we reach the climax in
the thirty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job and following. The dramatic
element of literature here reaches its zenith. God is the speaker, the
strick