val of other children, he
is chagrined, repents, and makes atonement. He is uneasy under the
adverse verdict of a large company, but the condemnation of one person
did not weigh with him. It is usually not wise, however, to appeal to
public opinion in this way, save on an abstract question, as the child
loses his self-respect, and becomes degraded in his own eyes, if his
fault is trumpeted abroad.

Stories of brave deeds, poems of heroism, self-sacrifice, and loyalty,
have their places in creating a sentiment of ideality in the child's
breast,--a sentiment which remains fixed sometimes, even though it be
not in harmony with the feeling of the majority.

Now and then some noble soul is born, some hero so thrilled with the
ideal that he rises far above the public sentiment of his day; but
usually we count him great who overtops his fellows by an inch or two,
and he who falls much below the level of ordinary feeling is esteemed
as almost beyond hope.

To seek for the approval of others, even though they embody our
highest ideals, is truly not the loftiest form of aspiration; but it
is one round in the ladder which leads to that higher feeling, the
desire for the benediction of the spirit-principle within us.

Although discipline by means of fear, as the word is commonly used,
cannot be too strongly condemned, yet there is a "godly fear" of which
the Bible speaks, which certainly has its place among incentives in
will-training. The child has not attained as yet, and it is doubtful
whether we ourselves have done so, to that supreme excellence of love
which absolutely casteth out fear.

A writer of great moral insight says: "Has not the law of seed and
flower, cause and effect, the law of continuity which binds the
universe together, a tone of severity? It has surely, like all
righteous law, and carries with it a legitimate and wholesome fear. If
we are to reap what we have sown, some, perhaps most of us, may dread
the harvest."

The child shrinks from the disapproval of the loved parent or teacher.
By so much the more as he reverences and respects those "in authority
over him" does he dread to do that which he knows they would condemn.
If he has been led to expect natural retributions, he will have a
wholesome fear of putting his hand in the fire, since he knows the
inevitable consequences. He understands that it is folly to expect
that wrong can be done with impunity, and shrinks in terror from
committing a sin whos