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thing to eat. To put something into their stomachs becomes their highest idea of enjoyment. They have taken a second step in sensuality.

I know one child, brought up on this plan, who at the age of ten years was suffering from the disease known as St. Vitus' dance. Not only his welfare at that time but his whole future welfare depended upon proper nourishment. But as he had always eaten only what he liked, and as he did not like eggs, meat or vegetables, or any other wholesome diet, he was living upon soda-crackers and milk with candy between meals, and rapidly becoming worse. When the physician remonstrated with the mother, she said: "But he will not eat anything else; shall I let him starve?" If he had been taught to eat for health and growth, he would not have had St. Vitus' dance, at least from malnutrition, and if he had acquired it from other causes, its treatment would have been much facilitated.

A second source of sensuality is the love of admiration which may be fostered either by too much attention to the child's actions or to his clothing. When a child does or says some bright thing and is laughed at, when he is asked to show off his accomplishments to all the relatives and friends who laugh and applaud, or when he hears his sayings rehearsed for general amusement, he very soon learns to act for the sake of admiration and the attention which he may attract. If mothers discuss their neighbors' style of dress, or worse still make commending remarks on those who dress well and slighting remarks on those who dress poorly, will not the child attach too much importance to dress and infer that it is that which counts in his favor?

When a child is dressed up for show and is told that he looks pretty; when his fine clothes induce friends to make remarks about the "sweet little dresses," and his attention is in this way drawn from his surroundings to himself and his appearance, will it not cultivate within him a love of admiration? If he learns that shoes, though they may be comfortable, can not be worn because they are not pretty

or stylish, while the pretty ones, though highly uncomfortable, must be worn because they are the style, and when all his clothing has looks rather than comfort or utility as a prime object; when he sees that not only he but his mother herself, is willing to sacrifice health, comfort, everything to appearance, has he not taken still another lesson in sensuality?

I watched one little girl go straight to ruin by this road. When a mere baby her hair was curled on papers, and if she complained that the papers hurt, she was pacified by the prospect of looking "pretty tomorrow." Her mother, at a great sacrifice to herself, for they were far from rich, kept her dressed in clothes dainty enough for a princess. As soon as she was old enough she became self-conscious, and instead of playing children's romping-games she preferred to play "dress up" and "make calls." At ten years she wore to school clothes that were more suitable for partywear than for school-wear, and her principal thought was of what the "boys would think" of her. At thirteen she spent most of her time in dressing and primping, and walking out to show her clothes; the admiration she excited being her very food. At fifteen she became the mother of an illegitimate child, and almost broke her parents' hearts, for up to this time they had been so blind that they did not dream that their idolized child was going to ruin. These parents were Christian people, too, who thought they were doing their duty by their child.

Children should be taught that clothes are for covering and warmth, and should, of course, be clean and neat, and that no article of clothing which sacrifices health and comfort is to be tolerated.

Let us recapitulate: If we teach a child to eat for the sake of pleasure, to do things for the sake of applause, to dress for the sake of admiration-in every case putting sense before soul-and continue this treatment for fourteen years, the result will be a youth trained to satisfy his desires and not his needs. What preparation has such a child to

resist the impulses that surge in upon him at this time, and the appetites and passions of a later period? It is contrary to the laws of nature for a child who has had fourteen years' training in sense gratification to be strong enough to resist the impulses of the adolescent period and the passions of later life.

Another fruitful source of sensuality is ignorance on the part of the mother and on the part of the child. A boy is so constituted that he requires special care regarding cleanliness, and often surgical care in addition, while both boys and girls need special instruction as to the care of their bodies, the significance and sacredness of life, and the origin of life in relation to both father and mother.

If these truths are taught honestly, clearly and purely, there will be no morbid curiosity as soil in which impure seed can grow. What attraction has an impure and untrue view of a subject to a child who already knows the truth from a pure, loving mother or trusted father, in whom his confidence is unbounded, and from whom he can learn anything which he wishes to know on the subject? Cases are known where two or three children, who have learned from their mothers the truth regarding themselves, have rid a whole child community of impurity by spreading the truth and sending the other children to their mothers for information.

Give the children first good physical conditions, that their minds may not of necessity dwell upon their bodies, then implant higher motives than gratification of sense for their actions, and the result will be nobler men and women. "Be not deceived, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Berwyn, Ill.

MRS. WINFIELD S. HALL.

The beautiful souls are those that are universal, open and ready for all things,-if not taught, at least capable of being taught.-Montaigne

THE

SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD.

'HE late Henry Drummond, the genial, broad-minded Christian man, in his "Evolution of Man," devotes the last, the culminating chapter, to the proof that the evolution of motherhood is the highest product of the prehistoric or of the historic civilized ages. To us of a still later time has come the vision of a brighter glory-that of a spiritual motherhood. Too often, of the mother in name, it must be said,"As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy," while for the teacher, the kindergarten, the child-lover is reserved the blessing the mother should have coveted as one of the best gifts. "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Happy the mother who is both a natural and spiritual mother! Happy the child of such a mother! Such know in truth that

Most gracious gift of God divine, the last,
Free touch His spirit adds to woman heart;
Last! Best! Providing symmetry of soul,

That sympathy which makes the child-world kin,
Which calls life's angel forth long hid within

A sealed casket. Loves the beauteous whole

Expressive of life's unity; sees part

Unfolded, much to free e'er childhood's past.
The mother heart! That touching Nature near
Imparts to universal childhood, lore

Of sky, sun, moon, stars, clouds, bud, leaves, the dear
Sweet song of birds, the laugh of waters. More
Than all through all in all, the Loving Friend
Shows God. Such motherhood hath never end.

123 Mill Street, Watertown, N. Y.

J. H. ROGERS.

No man goeth about with a more godly purpose than he that is mindful of the good bringing-up, both of his own and other men's children.-Socrates.

CLUB DEPARTMENT.

(For Parents' and Teachers' Round Table.)

BY WILLIAM O. KROHN.

DEPARTMENT OF PARENTS' AND TEACHERS' ROUND

TABLE.

THE 'HE subject this month is the important one of "Children's Rights." The questions outlined below will certainly be productive of much discussion. A good book to read in connection with the preparation of this subject is "Children's Rights," by Kate Douglas Wiggin, and published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and Chicago.

We have received many interesting reports from various Round Tables and Clubs organized after the plan published in the November and December issues of THE CHILD STUDY MONTHLY. The plan works well.

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS.

Please study these questions and bring them to our next meeting, ........ School, Saturday,

3 o'clock. Children's rights to: 1. Justice, (a) discipline, (b) instruction. 2. Happiness. 3. Contact with natural surroundings.

1. At what age does the child first begin to claim things as his own? Do boys or girls more readily surrender their rights?

2. Shall the child's will be developed by opposing desire or by training in the power of choice?

3.

Have children certain rights which grown people are bound to respect? Name some of them.

Does appropriating or giving away the toys and other belongings of a child without consulting him ever tend to destroy the distinction between his property and that of others? Other effects.

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