Blue Grass Blade

FABLED WISDOM.

One day a father was taking his son for a walk through the woods. Observing a tree that had grown crooked and bent he pointed to it and asked the boy if he could tell why it was the tree had grown in that particular shape.

"I am unable to answer intelligently," replied the boy, "but I suppose somebody trod on it while it was young."

So it is the mind of children. Be careful not to tread on them and warp them while they are young. Earliest impressions made upon the mind are clearest, strongest, most influential and remain the longest. In the course of time the mind becomes blurred with constant impressions, but those received in childhood remain intact.

Dealing with this subject Arthur Schopenhauer uses a piece of blotting paper as an illustration. The first serious impression made stands out bold and clear. The second and the third may be distinctly traced in outline. After a time numerous impressions are made and the whole becomes a blurred and confused mass with none distinguishable from the others. The beauty of thought is to trace out and retain impressions clearly, but the first essential is to secure the best impressions.

Parents are often troubled in securing methods whereby the best results can be obtained. They know that the mind of a child is like a plain sheet of paper, that you may write thereupon whatsoever you please, and it will remain for life, provided you take sufficient care that your writings are not erased before they are dry. Proper safe-guards should be placed about the child, Good and useful companions only should be allowed. Many a boy is spoiled for life by evil associations in infancy. Others acquire bad habits from bad books. Books, like companions, should be selected with great care and thought. Everything that will have a tendency to produce an impression on the mind of a child should be of the very best. As a rule boys will select some ideal character from among their playmates and strive to imitate him. Even to manners, speech, habits and the like, this imitation becomes strongly marked. Sometimes the ideal is good. Sometimes it is bad. The heart and nature of a boy is inclined towards the good and with care parents may develop what is best within them and make them a credit and an ornament to society.

It may not be within the power of every boy to become a great man, as the world understands greatness to-day, But all boys can become good men, and goodness is greatness par excellence. The boy lays the foundations for the character of the man, in fact the boy is the beginning of the man.

The greatness of a country or a nation is not to be measured according to its wealth or scholastic attainments. It is determined from the character of its men. We cannot successfully measure the value of an epoch by its machinery, but by its men. To produce good men we must begin with the boy.

Neglect the boy and the man is handicapped in the struggle for existence.