ON THESE PLAIN PRINCIPLES

I hesitate not to assert as a Christian, that religion is the first
rational object of education. Whatever be the fate of my children in
this transitory world, about which I hope I am as solicitous as I ought
to be, I would, if possible, secure a happy meeting with them in a
future and everlasting life."

"A suspicious parent makes an artful child," says Haliburton. A tender
parent makes a wayward son. A cruel parent makes a timid son. Be harsh
when harshness is necessary, but be kind when kindness is needful, for
as the grass of the fields needs the light of the sun, so does the human
heart yearn for sympathy and kindness, in all the years of its wonderful
growth. Parents may in a great measure do much of the teaching which
that


NOTORIOUSLY HARSH SCHOOLMASTER, EXPERIENCE,

deals out, who beats our boys and girls so brutally. I cannot, in
closing this chapter, do better than to quote the words of wise old
Roger Ascham: "He hazardeth sore that maketh wise by experience. An
unhappy sailor he is that is made wise by many shipwrecks, a miserable
merchant that is neither rich nor wise but after some bankrouts. It is a
marvelous pain to find a short way by long wandering. He needs must be a
swift runner that runneth fast out of his way. And look well upon the
former life of those few who have gathered, by long experience, a little
wisdom and some happiness; and when you do consider what mischief they
have committed, what dangers they have escaped (and yet twenty for one