PREFACE

THE best promise for to-morrow lies always in the best fulfilment of the opportunities of to-day. If the decision regarding the eligibility of women to higher social and political status rested on their success as homekeepers and mothers, a favorable one might be warmly contested. There would be no impeachment of their mother love, moral appreciation, or good intention, but of their thoughtfulness, consistency, and knowledge of the best methods to secure the best possible development of their children.

Everywhere women of to-day are seeking improvement their energies being aroused to the utmost by the new independence and intellectual life which has come to them. The friction of mind with mind, the stimulus from associated ideas is awakening thoughts and theories on all possible subjects, which, if wisely directed, will result in the greatest benefit to mankind. But in their efforts for ameliorating human conditions, women should bear in mind that the best study in the humanities is in their own homes. The more one observes, the

7

more fervently must one feel the power and influence of woman in the life of the race and of the nation; and mothers are earnestly urged, not only to place their best efforts in the home because it is the nursery of souls and from it emanates the influence which guides the destiny of nations, but also to ascertain the best methods and apply them with zeal. Knowledge is of little value unless it body forth in worthy activity and a fuller sense of responsibility, at least to the nearest duty.

The world is a vast school which the child enters at birth, and from which he is only released by death. Education is the most important motive in that school, and he who is not advancing is retrograding. Education is the Hebe who hands man the elixir of the godswisdom and power. The great problem is, what are the best means of distilling this muchsought draught? Old methods are being revised and better ones evolved to meet the broader life, and this generation has shown itself most receptive to innovations engendered by new conditions. In all educational departments there has been more progress in method, and a better application of new methods, than in the home, the place of all where the influence is the greatest and most enduring.

The new educational method consists in a truer appreciation of the child nature—its long

ings and capabilities, and confers mentally and morally a more perfect observation, a nicer assimilation, a finer expression.

The endeavor of this book is to select the most essential, vital questions pertaining to this progress, to urge the better way with an earnestness that will move some thoughtless mother, and to offer a few practical suggestions to some aspiring one. If it succeeds in the least degree, it is its own excuse for being; if it does not, it is a misjudgment. Some of the thoughts may not appear directly applicable to the child's education, but these indicate the line of his development. Parents must lead the child, but they cannot do so in advance of their own enlightenment and appreciation.

If, by any suggestion, a single home is made the living fountain of health and happiness that it should be, if one girl or boy is inspired to a truer, more cultured womanhood or manhood, the author will account herself privileged.

Child Culture

I

THE EMOTIONS

EMERSON has said that the great difference between men is in their power of feeling. Feeling is universal and becomes an element of weakness or strength, as it is allowed to riot or is wisely directed. Unallied with the moral sense and the intellect, it degenerates into appetite and passion, in the exercise of which man is outdone by the brutes, to whose vehemence he seldom attains and then only revoltingly. But purified by the intellect and by true aspiration, judiciously harnessed, it becomes the strength of strengths, the fire which sets in motion the will, the energies and the mental faculties.

The emotions are a prime factor in the spiritual life, and when balanced by the judgment into perfect harmony with it, create the ideal man. To achieve this blending of the emotions and the intellect, requires a lifelong study for natures that are born, as most natures are,