music out of the
heart becomes the object, then, of your lessons. One cannot drive
music into you; it must be led out.

Where shall we look for music that it may be led out? Only in the
heart. That is where all is in every one of us. But often in our
hearts there is so much else, so much vanity, self-love, conceit, love
for other things, that the music is almost beyond reach. _Almost_, but
never entirely. In the heart of every one is music. But often it is
deep, deep down, covered by these other things. The older we grow and
the more other things we see and think about, the deeper and deeper
down does the music get.

It is like heaping rocks, and dirt, and sticks on a bubbling spring.
The spring is down there, bubbling freely beneath it all, still
striving to be as free and as songful as before; but it cannot. People
may come and go, may pass near to it, and hear not one of its sounds;
they may never suspect that there is such a thing ready to go on
merrily if it could.

When is the best time to lead water out of the spring, and music out
of the heart? Before other things begin to cover it. With music the
best time is in the early days, in childhood time--_in the first
days_. We shall hear those words many times. Then little by little the
bubbling spring of melody gains its independence; then, even if other
things do come in, they cannot bury the music out of sight. The spring
has been led forth _and has grown stronger_.

Thoughtful people who have suffered in learning--all people suffer in
learning, thoughtful ones the most--wonder how they can make the task
less painful for others. It will always cause us sorrow as well as joy
to learn, and many people spend their lives in trying to have as
little sorrow as possible come with the learning of the young. When
such people are true and good and thoughtful and _have infinite
kindness_, they are teachers; and the teachers impose tasks upon us
severely, perhaps, but with kind severity. They study us and music,
and they seek out the work each one of us must perform in order that
we may keep the heart-springs pure and uncovered. Further than this,
they find the way by which we shall lead the waters of life which flow
out of the heart-springs. They find the way whither they should flow
best.

Often in the doing of these things we find the lessons hard and
wearisome, infinitely hard to bear, difficult, and not attractive. We
wonder why all these things should be so, and