2. The attempt to make so-called "moral culture" a little less immoral; the rational method of discipline, looking to the growth of moral, self-directing power in the child,--the only proper discipline for future citizens of a free republic.
3. The development of certain practical virtues, the lack of which is endangering the prosperity of the nation; namely, economy thrift, temperance, self-reliance, frugality industry, courtesy, and all the sober host,--none of them drawing-room accomplishments and consequently in small demand.
4. The emphasis placed upon manual training, especially in its development of the child's creative activity.
5. The training of the sense of beauty, harmony, and order; its ethical as well as aesthetical significance.
6. The insistence upon the moral effect of happiness; joy the favorable climate of childhood.
7. The training of the child's social nature; an attempt to teach the brotherhood of man as well as the Fatherhood of God.
8. The realization that a healthy body has almost as great an influence on morals as a pure mind.
I do not say that the consistent practice of these principles will bring the millennium in the twinkling of an eye, but I do affirm that they are the thought-germs of that better education which shall prepare humanity for the new earth over which shall arch the new heaven.
Ruskin says, "Crime can only be truly hindered by letting no man grow up a criminal, by taking away the will to commit sin!" But, you object, that is sheer impossibility. It does seem so, I confess, and yet, unless you are willing to think that the whole plan of an Omnipotent Being is to be utterly overthrown, set aside, thwarted, then you must believe this ideal possible, somehow, sometime.
I know of no better way to grow towards it than by living up to the kindergarten idea, that just as we gain intellectual power by doing intellectual work, and the finest aesthetic feeling by creating beauty, so shall we win for ourselves the power of feeling nobly and willing nobly by doing "noble things."
"Not the cry," says a Chinese author, "but the rising of a wild duck, impels the flock to follow him in upward flight."
Long ago, in a far-off country, a child was born; and when his parents looked on him they loved him, and they resolved in their simple hearts to make of him a strong, brave, warlike man. But the God of that country was a hungry and an insatiable God, and he cried out for human sacrifice; so, when his arms had been thrice heated till they glowed red with the flame of the fire, the mother cradled her child in them, and his life exhaled as a vapor.