LC 268 .L6 Copy 1 PARENT and CHILD SIR OLIVER LODGE Class LG 16 i Book. i . Copyright^ . COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: PARENT AND CHILD PARENT AND CHILD A TREATISE ON THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN By SIR OLIVER LODGE, D.Sc, F.R.S. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON 1910 .V Copyright, 1910, by FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY [Printed in the United States of America] Published September, 1910 'CLA271797 CONTENTS Chapter I. Child Nature II. Parental Influence . . III. Imparting of Knowledge IV. Preparation for Life . . V. Preparation for Science VI. Preparation for Literature VII. Preparation for Religion . Page 7 13 23 31 39 49 65 [5] PARENT AND CHILD CHILD NATURE rriHE first thing to realize about * children is that they are sepa- rate individuals, not merely chips of the old block. Chips of the old block they are too, no doubt, but what par- ents sometimes forget is that they are separate persons, each with a life and destiny of its own. It is therefore quite possible, not only that the child may not understand us, but that we may not understand the child. [7] PARENT AND CHILD The individuality thus isolated in a child is not always good ! Certain- ly not. There can be, I presume, as many grades among children as among adults. The range seems to extend over the whole gamut, from something very like angels to some- thing barely distinguishable from devils. The nearly angelic is fortu- nately the more common variety, and I shall assume, — what may be true, — that all children who are given a de- cent chance in life, both by ancestry and by nurture, will respond to judi- cious treatment and be a credit to their home and upbringing. I think it more helpful to empha- size the essential goodness of human nature than its essential badness. [8] CHILD NATURE There must be phenomena which have led theologians to formulate the doctrine of original sin, but there must be at least equal and I think far greater truth in the more authorita- tive statement, applied to typical chil- dren, that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. I have been astounded, occasion- ally even appalled, at the innate goodness of some children, — children who have come under my own ob- servation. And, holding views which I have elsewhere expressed as to the nature of incarnation, it has some- times struck me as an extraordinary privilege to be entrusted with the care of beings of so much interest and charm. They seem like guests [9] PARENT AND CHILD who have done us the honor of se- lecting our home and friendship for a momentous epoch in their lives. Such children are exceptional, how- ever, and one does come across some whose behaviour arouses feelings of repulsion. How comes it, I wonder, that chil- dren can occasionally be so objection- able? I think it is because they have never been taught any consideration for others. In hotels, for instance, we some- times encounter a family of children, or it may be a single child, that shouts and romps as if other people did not exist. The cosmopolitan child perhaps it is, who, — so to speak, for generations, — has never been to [10] CHILD NATURE school nor subjected to any sort of training. I have been told that on the South American boats there are family cabins, and that from these cabins the amount of shrill noise which arises, in the course appar- ently of normal family life, is more than perturbing to fellow travellers. With such bringing up, no wonder that people can be obnoxious. How comes it, on the other hand, that children of the English aris- tocracy, while still barely out of the nursery, are often so admirably be- haved? The few that I have known have been helpful and considerate and anxious to do little services for strangers and visitors. People say that such children are left largely to [ii] PARENT AND CHILD nurses; if so, some of the nurses must be excellent women. I expect they are; and I think that the pro- verbial nagging of the ordinary nurse-maid, as heard in the parks for instance, is becoming much less pro- nounced than it used to be. All this is making in a right direction. [12] II PARENTAL INFLUENCE 13ARENTS who are strenuously ** busy or occupied in public work may comfort themselves by remem- bering that parental influence may be indirect, and that a life of vivid ac- tivity has before now affected chil- dren beneficially without specific ef- fort, — sometimes with results even better than have been attained by constant attention specially directed to that end. Indeed, specially directed attention requires wisdom and self- mistrustful thought, lest occasionally it may do more harm than good. Over-attention may be destructive of [13] PARENT AND CHILD originality, and may tend to check healthy unconscious growth. The brooding and meditative moods of children should be respected; the stress of practical life terminates them quickly enough, for all save a few favoured persons. And the fact that they may be luxuriously culti- vated, or indulged in to excess, should not be allowed to break them up al- together ; nor should energetic super- visors feel justified in applying con- stant stimulus during any incubating and preparatory period; for those moods and periods have been proved ultimately to have productive value. Nevertheless, however busy par- ents are, some direct parental in- fluence should be exerted, for it may [14] PARENTAL INFLUENCE be of incalculable value. Children have an instinctive sense for reality of conviction, they have a knack of penetrating to what people really are, so that mere convention and what are called pious opinions carry but little weight. Much can be accom- plished by good nursery traditions; notably training in consideration for others, modesty, helpfulness, rever- ence for elders, and self-subordina- tion; great things which no one now addressed is likely to overlook. A minor thing is tidiness, — not to the extent of not making a litter, but of not leaving it; especially the habit of putting things back where found, the automatic replacement of any object of common property, — clothes-brush, [15] PARENT AND CHILD ball of string, time-table, books of reference, or what not, — in its proper place, so that others can find it. Hunting about for such things is an entire waste of time. I attach con- siderable importance to this leaving things where you find them, and clearing up litter. Adults, if busy, and school-chil- dren, sometimes may have to clear up by deputy; but if small children are too much waited on, and every- thing put away by others, it has, I believe, a demoralizing effect. It is one cause of the selfishness of the bet- ter-off classes that they are constant- ly making a mess and leaving it to others to put straight. Press of work often necessitates this; but it should [16] PARENTAL INFLUENCE be recognized as a responsibility, and not merely a matter of course, that we daily leave a meal-room or a bed- room in a state in which we should be annoyed to find it on our return. Work is a sufficient excuse, — we have other things to do, and it con- stitutes a permissible division of la- bour ; but if we have not other things to do, if we are idle habitually, as are some children and many adults, then I conceive that it would be a wholesomer and sounder discipline if we spent some time in clearing up after ourselves. The lounging and luxurious behaviour of some spec- imens of the overfed youthful male, as caricatured in the pages of Punch, for instance, is truly objectionable; [17] PARENT AND CHILD and it is melancholy to reflect that parental influence may enable such spoiled young reprobates to control affairs in some corner of the em- pire. Though, indeed, it is true that stress of circumstances does then make men of some of them; but it is stress and not laxity that does it. The laxity, so far as it went, was wholly bad. Another valuable piece of nursery or home tradition is the delivery of messages in exact words. This is a matter to which I attach importance, — it is a sort of beginning of scien- tific training. A child sent on a mes- sage should not be allowed to para- phrase it and deliver something there or thereabouts. A message so [18] PARENTAL INFLUENCE changed is nearly always misleading and frequently gives trouble. A child entrusted with a message, whether it be to the cook or the gardener or what not, should first have it delivered to him precisely and should repeat it before starting, and should then go and give it without attending to anything by the way. I have known servant troubles arise through the inaccurate delivery of messages, especially if a return mes- sage has to be brought; for the slightest alteration may easily con- vert a polite request or acknowledg- ment into something offensive, — and this without any hostile intention on the part of the messenger. In larger life the same sort of thing has before [19] PARENT AND CHILD now brought about wars. But, quite apart from consequences, the recol- lection and reproduction of exact words is an art in itself, and as every person of literary sensitiveness knows, is an eminently desirable aptitude, for it leads to accuracy in the quotation of poetry or prose later on. Children like being made use of, and an errand is an opportunity to make them feel their responsibility and take trouble to execute a com- mission in an exact manner ; first re- peating, naturally and as a matter of course, what it is they have to do or say, so as to be sure that there is no mistake. I venture to maintain, moreover, that it is a training not un- [20] PARENTAL INFLUENCE needed by many adults, to have to state accurately what is wanted, to describe the locality of a thing pre- cisely, and to instruct a messenger clearly. In the cases when a child really understands what is wanted to be said, it is excellent practice to let him try to put it clearly in his own words. To concoct a telegram, for instance, that will be clear and definite, not long-winded, and yet not capable of misconstruction; or to formulate his own message before delivering it. [21] Ill IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE ANOTHER thing that is due to children is that they should be told as far as possible the exact truth, when they ask a serious question. It is not easy to do this, because the truth as they receive it will depend on their faculty of apprehension ; but if they know enough to ask a ques- tion, an answer, so far as it can be received by them, should be true. The answerer should always try to put himself in the questioner's place, and look at things from his point of view: this is the essence of clear ex- planation. There may still be misun- [23] PARENT AND CHILD derstandings, but these can be de- tected and removed by a little con- versation, and the original statement can be amended accordingly. I find that if children know that parents take pains to inform them with care- ful accuracy as to any little thing on which they ask a question, and if they are themselves never suspected of saying anything but what they be- lieve to be true, so far as they can, then they will acquire instinctively a faculty for truthful statement, and the repulsive habit of lying need never even begin to form. Telling the truth is largely a mat- ter of culture and education. Ig- norant people often tell something else, either because it is lazier and [24] IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE easier to do so, or because they think it pleasanter, or simply because they have not accustomed their minds to consider what the "truth" of any- thing is. A child, too, sometimes romances or exaggerates in an innocent man- ner through excess of imagination. This should not be taken too serious- ly, and sometimes the thing said may have a subjective truth of its own which an unsympathetic or hard- pressed senior can hardly appreciate. Instances of this sort are, I believe, not infrequent, and it is well to make large allowance; but in cases where there is no doubt, a child can grad- ually be brought to see that to say the thing that is not is to put itself [25] PARENT AND CHILD out of harmony with the universe. A statement which is contrary to fact should be non-existent. There is no sense in it. It is true that adults often know too little to answer children's ques- tions, or to give exact information. Parenthood needs training for, like everything else. But confessions of ignorance are wholesome : and at any rate deliberate falseness can be avoid- ed. The worst kind of lies which children can be told are those that lead to fright and superstition. Chil- dren are newcomers to the planet, they cannot know by experience that it is, on the whole, a pleasant and friendly place; and if told that all sorts of horrors abound and are [26] IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE lurking for them round the corner, what can they do but believe the statement? until experience shows that it was an abominable invention. Superstitions again, — children would hardly invent them, and they might die a natural death, were it not that they are handed down by each generation to the next. I do beg people to be satisfied with having had the incubus of meaningless rubbish transmitted to them; let them now cut off the entail. What frightens some children is loneliness. Their loneliness can be a severe ordeal. Real loneliness, lone- liness in the universe, such as none of us have ever experienced, would be perhaps the most alarming and 127] PARENT AND CHILD desperate sensation that man could have. The providential arrangement of parents and guardians keeps the loneliness of infancy far from that, but nevertheless it is real and alarm- ing at times ; it is the loneliness of in- carnation, it is the isolation of the body. Mind unites, body separates, or individualizes. Infants are be- ginning to be partitioned off from the surrounding mental and spiritual whole, and encased in a body; they are undergoing the process of indi- vidualization; they may well feel as if no one here understood them, and they are necessarily lonely. They seldom confess to it, nor are they capable of putting the idea into words. Persons cannot prevent this [28] IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE feeling from cropping up at times, nor is it desirable that they should prevent it, but they can understand and be sympathetic and not blatant and superficial and bullying about it. If a child for a time dislikes going to sleep in the dark, or wishes its door ajar, — yield to it. The dread will soon pass, if not artificially fos- tered or made much of. A child ought not to have to confess in words to his fear, — that only tends to make it more real and lasting. He will grow out of it. And, after all, this feeling of helplessness in an un- known and mysterious universe is very natural. The universe is big and mysterious and most alarming. Custom gradually makes its ordinary [29] PARENT AND CHILD friendly aspects familiar, while its more portentous manifestations are found to be exceptional ; but they are there, behind the scenes, and it is just the exceptional and the por- tentous of which we are instinctively afraid. Children's terrors are just as real as the horrible dread sometimes ex- perienced by grown-up people, — dread which they, too, learn to over- come, and of which they are ashamed, but to which the necessity of yielding, in some sudden emergency, is found even by heroes at times to be irre- sistible. [30] IV PREPARATION FOR LIFE AND now to enter upon larger - topics: Preparation of the child for in- dividual life, — this is the main object of education. And its chief aim must surely be the formation of a per- sonal character, a will, the separate individuality of a free being. The faculty of acquiring and worthily utilizing real freedom,— that is the object of education. And to this end self-discipline, self-control, is the [31] PARENT AND CHILD main factor. The child arrives, a fragment of undifferentiated mind- stufl, with potentialities and inherited powers, to begin an individual ex- istence. Not to begin existence, — that nothing that we know of ever does, — but to begin an individual ex- istence, to begin as a separate unit of life and mind, to grow a character and reap a destiny. Control of attention is the first step toward this end. Not to be distracted by every passing sight and sound. To concentrate the mind on one ob- ject, without regard to every butter- fly distraction that flits across the field of view. The task is difficult, and adults must be patient. Some of them [32] PREPARATION FOR LIFE have not learned concentration them- selves. But control of attention can be cultivated, — its entire absence is a well-known medical criterion of fee- ble-mindedness, — many things need not be attended to, side issues and de- flecting suggestions must be ignored. It is not necessary to do or to utter everything that crops up in the mind. It is not necessary to do everything that occurs to you to do. Quite a small effort of attention will show that the suggestion is very likely a mere device of distraction. Though there are cases, — as when a question arises whether a letter ought to be written or not, — when the unpleasant path is the wisest, — the course which PARENT AND CHILD best fits our total scheme. The mo- tive power ebbs and flows, as Mat- thew Arnold says* We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides ; The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides. But tasks in hours of insight will'd Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd. All this is part of the creation of a will. It is the essence of self-deter- mination to carry through a purpose, undeterred by the golden apples that a competitor or a spectator may throw beside your path. This power of self-determination is essential to freedom. Fulfilment of a definite and prescribed task, — at first, indeed, pre- [34] PREPARATION FOR LIFE scribed by others, but later by your- self; prescribed, that is, by the whole intelligence and purpose of your being, — this is what is meant by a dependable trustworthy character, one that can be counted on to do what it decides to do, one that is not at the mercy of whims and random impulses, one that has overcome caprice and is able to reject tempta- tion and is not a creature of impulses nor the slave of anything but its own will. That is freedom, when you act in accordance with your own will, and are not driven hither and thither by every passing impulse. The evil- doer, as Plato in the "Gorgias" lays down, the evil-doer is a slave, — a [35] PARENT AND CHILD slave it may be of his own vices, which he has allowed to get the up- per hand. For liberty is a very different thing from license, — and it is only when the nature has risen to a certain height of development that it can be trusted with the reins. Until that stage is reached it must be controlled from outside. But when that stage is really reached the whole being re- sponds joyously to the demands upon its powers, and act and will run har- moniously together. This is the flower of self-control, this is the service that is perfect free- dom. Few are the happy dispositions who attain the state without effort, but in some children it is found, — [36] PREPARATION FOR LIFE "glad hearts/' as Wordsworth says in the "Ode to Duty," Glad hearts! without reproach or blot; Who do thy work and know it not. But for the most part we have to learn through effort how to be No sport of every random gust. and only after error and remorse do we attain to the state When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. But in so far as the happy docile child-spirit can from the first be en- couraged and prolonged, — in so far as it can be assumed, and assumed with truth, that the child-will is right, and that only the flesh is oc- [37] PARENT AND CHILD casionally weak, — so far shall we be able to recognize in childhood, and ultimately in the now too scarred face of humanity, that which we are as- sured is really there, though hidden : The Godhead's most benignant grace. "Heaven lies about us in our in- fancy. " Yes, truly, but why only in our infancy? Verily, I believe, be- cause we have effectually prevented anything like "heaven" from sur- rounding the infancy of so many of the human race to-day. The earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations. So our vision is darkened, too, and the ministry of benevolence is hidden from our gaze. [38] V PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE T) UT I must check an incipient di- -*-* gression and now say a word or two on more technical teaching, — what has been called "the prepara- tion of the child for science. ,, The inquisitiveness of children should be utilized as an opportunity for providing them with information. When they are hungry, then they should be fed,— if possible by teach- ers who are informed themselves. It is easier to answer questions badly than to answer them well; the appe- tite for information is most valuable, [39] PARENT AND CHILD but it is sometimes supplied with wretched food. Every effort should be made to get the facts right, to un- derstand them properly; but how great a demand this is, only those who have had some training in science can be aware. The next best thing is to confess ignorance and offer to try and worry out an answer together. The dis- covery that adults, too, are ignorant, and that there are ways of hunting up information, — especially the way by experiment and first-hand obser- vation, — is stimulating, and abun- dantly wholesome. In teaching a new subject, I would that parents could distinguish be- tween essential features and sub- [40] PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE sidiary details. A bad kind of in- struction overloads the mind with de- tail before the main features have been grasped; i.e., before there is any framework into which to pack the details. This is most discouraging. It is the kind of thing that gradually generates a dislike of being taught, — a dislike unnatural to a healthy child. Grammar and arithmetic, in the hands of an incompetent teacher, are familiar instruments for generating this dislike. Every subject can be presented in such a way as to be received with en- thusiasm by an intelligent child whose mind has not already been clogged or warped. Instruction should not be arti- [41] PARENT AND CHILD ficially systematic. System is ex- cellent in its proper place; but the bare facts must be approached first; the learner must be immersed in them to begin with, in a real practical way, without rules and conventions. Noth- ing but practice will make a subject familiar; and during the practice a "rule" here and there, — that is a con- venient summing up of the results of experience, — may be thrown in; if possible at a moment when it will be welcomed and assimilated. The same method should govern preliminary instruction in nature. Eschew what is called systematic science-teaching till a later stage; utilize at first children's natural in- terest in phenomena. Immerse them [42] PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE in phenomena, and let them find their way through; assisted, but not car- ried. Let them observe and think, and themselves try to explain. The effort to explain even the simplest thing is wholly good, both for teach- ers and taught. And, for taught, a self-devised incomplete explanation is better than a more elaborate one which they do not perceive the need for. For a time the incomplete ex- planation can be left; then holes can be picked in it, — if possible by things themselves, — and so it can be grad- ually improved, until ultimately a more perfect model of an explanation may be told them; but not before its merits can be to some extent appre- ciated. [43] PARENT AND CHILD Occasionally there are legitimate exceptions, and carefully worded formula may be learned, of which the full meaning will only gradually dawn. No one method should ex- clude others. Teaching is an art well worthy of study. To some few it is an instinct, — to others an ac- quired art; but alas! to many who profess to be teachers, the skill is, or used to be, conspicuous by its ab- sence; the children suffer, and all who have subsequently to do with them have to suffer too, — right away up to the university, and beyond it, in life. A quantity of things can be taught rather by way of questions than by direct instruction. Questions can be [44] PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE propounded, with time allowed for brooding and thinking over them, — not minutes, I mean, but days. In geometry, for instance, con- structions can be invented by a pupil ; the subject can be begun as a game, a series of interesting puzzles, — a very few at a time, even if easy, so as not to be wearisome. Spencer's "Inven- tional Geometry" is a little book that is of assistance to elementary teach- ers. Things self-discovered are en- shrined, and hold a place in the mind far more secure than things merely hooked on outside. Interest may be killed by prema- ture systematic instruction. Infor- mation concerning things of no inter- est is valueless information. Curios- [45] PARENT AND CHILD ity should first be aroused. The preparation of the mind for acquiring or cultivating knowledge is far more valuable than packing it with facts. The process of education, — as I have elsewhere said,— is not like packing things into a portmanteau, but like stocking a pond with fish. The healthy mind is itself alive and active; and if time be given, the produce of the pond, as tested by fisherman or examiner, may far ex- ceed the original supply. Another thing the teacher should realize is the difference between the real and the conventional. Names are conventional, weights and meas- ures are conventional, many of the [46] PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE devices of language are conventional. To test convention, one has only to bethink oneself whether a statement is applicable only to England or to every country in the world. Some things are true throughout the uni- verse, some things true only for the planet. Things that are true every- where and for all time are clearly worthy of thorough apprehension. Some things are true both here and hereafter, — beyond these present bounds of time and place, — these are the most vital of all. It would surely interest a child to bethink himself whether a fact is true in one of these senses or in the other, — valid here and now, or valid sem- [47] PARENT AND CHILD per ubique et ab omnibus. It is an educative idea, too, in after life, and one not too common. It tends auto- matically to arrange things in some sort of order of importance. [48] VI PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE SO far I have emphasized one side of training, — what may be called the more scientific side. If I leave it without balance, I shall be convey- ing an exceedingly false impression of what I intend. Any unbalanced and one-sided system will have un- toward results, but because I em- phasize one side, I am not intending to advocate exclusive attention to that side ; there are plenty of others. And now I come to the more literary side. Let it never be thought that I ad- vocate the curbing and correcting of [49] PARENT AND CHILD childish grammar and infantile lan- guage. On the contrary, I regard untutored modes of expression as of interest and value. Here is scope for originality and self-manifestation. Grammar is a conventional mould into which we must fit in due time, but into which we are by no means born. Some initial freedom in this respect is essential to character. Pre- cision of intention is one thing, grammatical correctness another. The latter comes with years, the former may begin in infancy. A child with a stomach-ache will not say the pain is in its toe, however little language it may possess. To correct childish grammatical errors prematurely is worrying and [50] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE most unwise; it deprives a child of naturalness, and adults of some pleasure. If small twins, for in- stance, having a joint birthday, are asked whose birthday it is; and if after looking at each other for a mo- ment they simultaneously respond "we's," any one who would attempt to correct the statement into ac- cordance with the rules of English grammar would be guilty of a minor kind of blasphemy. This parable summarizes all I have to say on that head. So again, in emphasizing truth of statement in its due time and place, it may be thought that I am against fairy tales. It is possible, I think, to cultivate them to excess; but to ex- [51] PARENT AND CHILD elude them and forbid children to hear the old immortal stories, — part of the tradition of the race, — would be a literary crime. Appropriate dealing with different categories of things is largely an affair of moods. I want to emphasize this. What is suitable for one mood is not suitable in another. The mood and the sub- ject should agree. Children are not always in a work- ing mood, sometimes they are in a playing mood, sometimes in an im- aginative or make-believe mood, sometimes in a serious or inquiring mood. These moods should none of them be repressed, nor should they be treated all alike. The right mood should be induced, when necessary, [52] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE before instruction; otherwise no progress will be made. In the inqui- ring mood they should be supplied with fact, i.e., with something that may be called the beginnings of science. In the imaginative mood with fairy tales; i.e., with something that can be called the beginnings of literature. The habit of constantly asking whether a thing is true is an uncultured and inappropriate habit; it means that the wrong mood is up- permost. Some things are better than true. You do not call a sunset, or the Sistine Madonna, or St. Mark's, Venice, or the fifth Sym- phony, "true." A cloud, moreover, is not what it seems; and, going up into it, you find it merely a wet [53] PARENT AND CHILD drizzle. A rainbow is in many ways deceptive; it is only depicted in the eye. A mirage can be treated scien- tifically enough, but as observed it is a phantasm. Even the image in a looking-glass is not really there. Children must learn that things are not what they seem, and that works of imagination and beauty have a truth of their own which can be felt but not stated. They will know this instinctively, they will not require to be taught it, if they have not been first taught wrong. True to nature, a great poem, — yea, any reasonable poem, — must be. True to historical fact, certainly not. To take a simple case, Enoch Arden need not have lived. Macbeth is Macbeth without [54] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE any aid from Scottish history. Rob- inson Crusoe is independent of Alex- ander Selkirk. Hamlet and Othello are alive in their own magnificent way. It is the scholar's way; but it is also the unsophisticated child's way. So are Red Riding-Hood, and Jack the Giant-Killer, and Don Quixote, and all the other heroes, — they live in the memory of genera- tions. And in what way need it be differ- ent with other legendary characters of more historical import? King Ar- thur, for instance, and Hector, and William Tell. Historical they are in a sense, — they have not been gra- tuitously invented, but their im- portance does not rest upon his- [55] PARENT AND CHILD torical fact. So it may be in more serious cases. Every incident in the lives of Noah, Daniel, and Job, need not be historically true. The book of Job never pretended to be history ; it has a superior reality of its own. In some of these cases there is a genuine historical basis, which it is interesting and it may be important to ascertain. Historical reality is in some cases of the essence of the mat- ter. It is so in connection with the founding of Christianity. I fully ad- mit, and indeed urge, this. There are cases where it is vital, but I am not referring to those now. In or- dinary historical cases the evidence must be dealt with according to the canons of scientific criticism, but this [56] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE is no work for children. They must first take their history from author- ity, and on trust. Meanwhile, if for a time they take unquestioningly as history narratives which belong to a different category, no harm is done. The youth of the race doubtless did the same, or rather did not ask or worry about the difference. Evolutionally children should in such matters go through the phases of the past, and their course need not be hurried. To con- fuse them with rationalistic interpre- tation and criticism, to superpose modern explanatory conceptions on the plain tale of a mythology, at least to insist on such explanations pre- maturely, may be iconoclastic and [57] PARENT AND CHILD rather stupid. There is plenty of the only truth of value in ancient and long surviving legends, — else they would not have survived. The histories of the Creation and the Fall of Man, properly under- stood, are legends of profound truth, — truth to human nature, — and it is only a shallow sciolism that has tried to place them in the region of things that must be questioned. Works of art are not to be scrutinized in terms of a rigid literalness; in these mat- ters it is preeminently true that the letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. The whole truth in such matters is far beyond us, even yet. We are still developing, still only in the morning of the times. Read in the [58] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE light of Evolution, and with a de- veloped historical sense, the litera- ture of the growth of humanity toward a worthy conception of Deity, — a conception always growing but still infinitely and forever below reality, — the record of its early struggles and mistakes and well- meant gropings after truth, espe- cially the history of the religious de- velopment of that people whose in- stinct for religion blossomed and bore fruit even in the darkest ages of mankind, is full of interest and in- struction. Read as an infallible theological treatise concerning the varying ways of God to man, — it is confusing, puzzling, and immoral. Read as a history of the developing [59] PARENT AND CHILD response of man to God, — its mis- conceptions are pathetic, its inspira- tions are sublime. Here we have ut- terances of the wise and illuminated among mankind, embedded in a most human document, and preserved for us in splendid language by the de- voted labours of scholars of many periods; a rich inheritance which we owe to the loving care of our fathers, and which it is our duty to hand down to our children as a birthright of which no trivial bickerings, no sectarian differences and illiteracy, should be allowed to deprive them. How much can children under- stand of all this? How far can they grasp the evolutionary aspect of an- cient human documents? [60] PREPARATION FOR LITERAT URE I believe they can grasp it very well. Only let their teachers get the right point of view, and the children will experience no difficulty. The difficulties which now they genuinely experience are quite other than that, and are the necessary outcome of mistaken modes of regarding the documents as one literal and me- chanical scientific treatise, an in- fallible record of physical truth. Thus regarded, there are indeed things that puzzle, and things that repel. Orders are put into the mouth of Jehovah which emanate quite naturally from a priesthood, and find in that origin an ample ex- planation. Neither the book of Nature nor [61] PARENT AND CHILD the book of human History can be taken at its face value; they both re- quire for their full apprehension a trained mind and a favorable point of view. Seen from the right aspect, however, both are luminous, and full of the energising action of the Di- vine Spirit. If still the behaviour of the Tribes in the Desert, or after their entry into the Promised Land,— if still the behaviour of the patriarchs or of the best among the kings, — is puzzling and inferior to what we might have expected, we have only to try to realize the condition of the average world at that epoch. Mankind emerging from savagery must for long have been an unlovely spectacle, [62] PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE — fighting and tearing and sunk in bestial practices, — its nascent intelli- gence only serving to bring into greater prominence the surviving ele- ments of ape and tiger, to make the lusts and cruelties more awful. In- finite, indeed, must have been the pa- tience and long-suffering of the Deity. Out of such a world the patriarchs rise as majestic figures, earnestly striving after some begin- nings of an approach to the divine. An Abraham to-day offering up his son would be a fanatic. In his place and time it was an act of faith. Agamemnon similarly offered up his daughter Iphigenia. It was an act of worship, — the nascent idea of sac- rifice. "Other times, other man- [63] PARENT AND CHILD ners"; and if we read those his- tories of twenty centuries B.C., as if they took place in the twentieth cen- tury a.d v we shall hopelessly mis- read. [64] VII PREPARATION FOR RELIGION BUT it does not follow that our condition now is so very much better. Better it is; but, looked back upon from thirty or forty centuries hence, how will it appear? What will posterity think of our violent social inequalities, of our squalor and destitution, of our slums, work- houses, and prisons,— especially of our prisons? I believe that with all our motors and Dreadnoughts and flying-machines, we shall be regard- ed for the most part, even now, as still sunk in barbarism. To us, too, have been accorded [65] PARENT AND CHILD brilliant inspirations. Prophets and poets have been vouchsafed to us. We, too, are a chosen people, and we look forward to a world-wide fed- eration of the English-speaking race; but in spite of all that manifest guid- ance and enlightenment, — guidance as by pillar of cloud and of fire, — our national conduct is still dark, still are we too much influenced by a surviving savage creed, still are we essentially thoughtless and cruel, still far from the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount. Let not children sup- pose that in detecting the faults of a bygone generation we may with im- punity be blind to our own. But the leaven is working, and in the future dawns a great hope. The [66] PREPARATION FOR RELIGION evils and ugliness of the present time have in them all a note of prepara- tion, the nineteenth century was a period of strenuous activity of which we have not yet begun to reap the fruit. The old placid times have given place to a restless period of materialistic activity, — to the despair and lamentation of some of our prophets, — but the end is not yet. Even so a country-side, defaced and bemired by the litter of a builder's yard, looks hopelessly spoiled, and may fill the onlooker of that day with regret. And yet in due season, when the building shall have been erected, — the palace, the ca- thedral, the structure of use and beauty, — the note of preparation in [67] PARENT AND CHILD the previous ugliness will be clear, and wisdom will be justified of all her children. The key-note sound- ing through the history of the human race is preparation, — preparation for the race that shall be, for the advent of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. A child can realize this, in some sort, for he himself is likewise a preparation for the future. The very universe is not a Being, but a Be- coming; and in this pregnant saying of antiquity, — which may be regard- ed as the first inspired glimpse of the doctrine of evolution, — is to be found the clue to much Divine working, the justification of the ways of God to men. Creation is not a momentary but a [68] PREPARATION FOR RELIGION perennial act. Each stage in it is "good," has a goodness of its own; no stage is perfect. Perfection is al- ways ahead, improvement is always possible; and it has at length become the conscious privilege of creatures to assist in this work of improve- ment. Nothing can be so inspiring to a human being as the idea that he is of value, that his help is really wanted. Nothing can so enforce the doctrine of responsibility as the realization that it rests with us to choose whether we shall mend or mar, shall beautify or deface, some portion of the work. I venture to say that the creation of free and responsible, and at the same time noble and worthy, beings, [69] PARENT AND CHILD who go right not because they are compelled, but because they choose, — not because they must, but because they will, — is a task far from easy, even to omnipotence. The assistance of every agent who can realize his place in the scheme is desired. Else were it blasphemous to maintain that there was ever imperfection; else the struggle of existence were a fiction and a sham. This, therefore, at bottom accounts for all the pain and sorrow and suf- fering that is not man-made. Most of our troubles are avoidable, and are due to human selfishness and un- wisdom; but some are not, some are inevitable, — brought about, as the ancients used to say, by the gods. [70] PREPARATION FOR RELIGION Even so it is with all great works : the end when fully realized is seen to justify the intermediate stages. In human creations, too, the element of pain is not absent, its presence res- cues them from insipidity. In any noble tragedy the suffering is felt to be worth while. "King Lear," for instance, is a work of pain and sor- row and beauty. To achieve the beauty, the pain was necessary, and its creator thought it worth while; he would not have it otherwise, nor would we. Seen from the point of view of the Creator, all the pain and trouble in the world is either remediable by human agents, or is justified and necessary; it is worth going through, [71] PARENT AND CHILD in view of the glory that shall be re- vealed. This long drama of human history, the countless aeons of pre- vious preparation of the planet, must have been all worth while. And thus the bitter cry of humanity is really a message of hope. The beauty and the joy that now we realize only in moments must be there all the time, but it needs all the preparation for its perception. Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why. Revelation through development, — that is the message. A divine reve- lation must be gradual, it can only be given to man as he can receive it. It is the blindness of man that hin- [72] PREPARATION FOR RELIGION ders the revelation of God; there is no other hindrance. We live in the blinding splendour of it, even now. Human history is the slow and gradual preparation of man for the divine vision, the divine message. The message is sounding all the time, — it is the sense that is wanting: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." And the ear of man can not hear, and the eye of man can not see; But if we could see and hear, this Vision, — were it not He? THE END. [73] THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES THE SANDALS By Rev. Zelotes Grenell. A beautiful little idyl of sacred story dealing with the sandals of Christ. THE COURTSHIP OF SWEET ANNE PAGE By Ellin V*. Talbot. A brisk little love story incidental to "The Merry Wives of Windsor," full of fun and frolic, and telling of the Courtship of Sweet Anne Page by three rival lovers chosen by her father, her mother, and herself. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF MISS PHILURA By Florence Morse Kingsley. This clever story is based on the theory that every physical need and every desire of the human heart can be claimed and received from the " Encircling Good " by the true believer. THE HERR DOCTOR By Robert MacDonald. A novelette of artistic literary merit, narrating the varied experiences of an American girl in her effort toward capturing a titled husband. ESARHADDON By Count Leo Tolstoy. Three allegorical stories illustrating Tolstoy's theories of non-resistance, and the essential unity of all forms of life. Small /2oto, Dainty Cloth Binding, Illustrated. 40 cents each FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubi. NEW YORK and LONDON THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES THE CZAR'S GIFT By William Ordway Partridge. How freedom was obtained for an exiled brother. THE EMANCIPATION OF MISS SUSANA An entrancing love story that ends in a most romantic marriage. THE OLD DARNMAN BvCharlisL. Goodell, D.D. A character known to many a New England boy and girl, in which the " lost bride " is the occasion for a lifelong search from door to door. BALM IN GILEAD By Florence Morse Kingsley. A very touch ing story of a mother's grief over the loss of her child of tender years, and her search for comfort, which she finds at last in her husband's loyal Christian faith. MISERERE By Mabel Wagnalls. The romantic story of a sweet voice that thrilled great audiences in operatic Paris, Berlin, etc. PARSIFAL By H. R. Haweis. An intimate study of the great operatic masterpiece. THE TROUBLE WOMAN By Clara Morris. A pathetic little story full of heart interest. Small I2m», Dainty Clcth Binding, Illustrated. 40 ctntt tach FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. NEW YORK and LONDON Vital Help Toward Body Building Home Gymnastics ACCORDING TO THE LING SYSTEM By Prof. ANDERS WIDE, M.D. This system of gymnastics has been de- signed on strictly scientific principles, and has been recognized by educators throughout the world as a most valuable and practical one. Stockholm has long maintained a Royal Gymnastic Institute, where it has been taught with ever increasing efficiency since 1813. The system has met with great popularity and has proved adaptable as a home-culture course. The object of this work is to enable any one to put into practise the principles on which sound physical health may be gained and maintained. "A marvelous amount of information of a most practical character. '* — Nenv York Sun. "A practical handbook for home use." — Detroit Times. "This little book is thoroughly commendable." — Chicago Record- Her aid. " It is a little book of great value, and will un- doubtedly be useful in the schools and to business and professional persons." — Salt Lake Tribune. I2tno y Cloth, jo cents, net; by mail, jy cents FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. NEW YORK and LONDON Profit and Loss in Man By ALPHONSO A. HOPKINS, Ph.D. The New Gospel of Patriotic, Economic, and Political Common Sense on the Tem- perance Question. The most up-to-date and powerful plea for Prohibition upon purely economic grounds that has been written in years. It is calm and dispas- sionate, and discusses the problem from the cold matter-of-fact standard of dollars and cents. CONTENTS I. The Cost of a Boy. II. Boy and Bar. III. Manhood and Law. IV. Labor, Liquor, and Law. V. Christian Loyalty. VI. Barabbas. VII. Moral and Political Force. VIII. Moral Facts and Political Factors. IX. Dictionary Politics. X. -A Curse, a Crime, and the Cure. XI. Publicans and Re- publicans. XII. Democrats and Drink. XIII. Methods of Settle- ment. "The unique idea of placing temperance on a commer- cial basis, of considering the difference between the actual cash value of a man who drinks and the man who abstains, is intensely interesting and profitable. Prof. Hopkins claims that each young man twenty-one years of age represents a cost to society of two thousand dollars ($2,000). Will he pay — will he * make good' — on the investment if he becomes a drinker.' That's the ques- tion ! In the United States are one and a half millions of drunkards — a stupendous loss of an investment aggre- gating over five billions of dollars ($5,000,000,000)." — Cumberland Presbyterian, Nashville, Tenn. l2mo, Cloth, 376 pp. $1.20, net ; by mail, $1.32 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubi. NEW YORK and LONDON A JUNIOR CONGREGATION a children's sermon appropriate to evert sun- day OF THE YEAR, TOGBTHER WITH HINTS FOR FORMING A JUNIOR CONGREGATION By JAMES M. FARRAR, D.D. Pastor of the First Reformed Church, Brooklyn, and Minuter #/ the First Organised Junior Congregation The church-going men and women of to- day were the church-going children of their youth. But theirs, most likely was a com- pulsory attendance. This, however, is the Children's Age. More time, more thought, more energy are, in this generation, given to the study, development, and discipline of children than has ever been attempted in any past century. The Children's Church is being organized in congregations where the children's welfare and the church's future are close at heart. Children in such a church love to attend, for theirs is A Junior Congregation worshiping with the regular congregation, thus forming habits of church-going in their best habit-forming years, and acquiring a familiarity with the church's services and ordinances that will help them grow into sturdy church workers. I2mo, Cloth. $1.20, net; by mail, $1.28 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. NEW YORK and LONDON " Dr. Burrell always sounds a bugle-call to high emprise. This one will stir whatever of knighthood is active or latent in the heart of the young man who reads it." — John Bancroft Dzvins, Editor Neiv York " Observer.'''' THE LURE OF THE CITY By DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D.D.,LL D. Pasttr $f the Marble Ctllegiate Church New Terk City Addrest to "the youth whose lot is cast in the city or whose heart is turned that way ; who knows himself a man, and with eyes aloft means to make himself a better one; who plans a full equipment, that he may win splendidly." — From the Preface. " I have seldom had more pleasure than I have found in reading Dr. Burrell* s strong and suggestive book. It is a book for the present hour and the present age. In a style singularly lucid and wonder- fully attractive, Dr. Burrell sets forth the dangers of the city on the one hand and its advantages on the other. Each of the twenty-two chapters might stand by itself as a word of cheer, a bugle call or a warning. The epithet most suitable to the book, as a whole, is ' sane. ' Nothing is overstrained. Everything is practical, and the book is thoroughly manly, and is infused throughout with the author's vigorous and winning personality. It is emphatically a book for theyoungman." — Margaret E. Sangster, Editor of the St. Nicholas Magazine, New York. I2tno t Cloth. $1.00) net; by mail, $1.08 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. NEW YORK and LONDON SEP 21 1910 One copy del. to Cat. Div. ■. •-« 21 r \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 467 944 3