ances into which we are born, of the
spiritual companionship from which none can escape, and of the training
which is provided by parents and friends. So much of the environment as
is furnished by others we will call nurture, and those influences and
instruments of advancement which the soul chooses for itself we will
call culture. This discrimination is not entirely accurate, but it is
sufficiently so for our present purpose. It at least indicates the lines
along which our thought will move. According to this definition nurture
has to do with that period of our existence when we are not able wisely
to make choices for ourselves. It is for those persons who are in
infancy and early youth, and also for those whose normal development has
been thwarted or hindered. The influences of the home, and of the church
so far as they are related to its younger members, are in the line of
nurture rather than of culture.

Culture, on the other hand, is something which a responsible being seeks
for himself, to the end that his power may be increased and his
faculties have harmonious development.

The soul grows according to its innate tendencies; it is also subject
to attractions from without. All souls are bound together; and all,
whether they wish or not, vitally and permanently affect those by whom
they are surrounded. Hence nurture and culture alike are both conscious
and unconscious.

The growth of the soul is largely affected by the nurture which it
receives. This is usually provided for it by parents, or by those who
take the places of the parents; and, where possible, their unwearying
efforts should be to remove all obstacles from the pathway of their
children, to surround them with a pure and helpful environment, and to
provide them with such training as will make their progress inevitable
and easy. The importance of wholesome domestic influences cannot be
exaggerated. Their part in the formation of character is greater than
that of all others, because they touch the powers and faculties of the
child during those years in which it is most plastic. Neither the
school nor the university can ever entirely counteract the effect of the
home. The whole period of childhood is one in which the soul is under
tutelage, and in which more is done for it by others than by itself. It
can no more select its own environment than it could have chosen its
parents, or the time and place of its birth. For a few years it is
utterly dependent.