course the special circumstances of any life tend to develop certain
innate faults of character into prominence; but it may safely be said
that circumstances never develop a fault that is not naturally there;
and, not to travel far for instances, I will only say that one of the
most unaffected and humble-minded persons I have ever met was a duke,
while one of the proudest and most affected Pharisees I ever
encountered was a servant. It all depends upon a consciousness of
values, a sense of proportion; the only way in which wealth and
poverty, rank and insignificance, can affect a life, is in a certain
degree of personal comfort; and it is one of the most elementary
lessons that one can learn, that it is not either wealth or poverty
that can confer even comfort, but the sound constitution and the
contented mind.

What I would here plead is that the artistic sense, of which I have
spoken, should be deliberately and consciously cultivated. It is not an
easy thing to get rid of conventionality, if one has been brought up on
conventional lines; but I know by personal experience that the mere
desire for simplicity and sincerity can effect something.

All persons engaged in education, whether formally or informally,
whether as professed teachers or parents, ought to regard it as a
sacred duty to cultivate this sense among the objects of their care.
They ought to demand that all people, whether high or low, should be
met with the same simple courtesy and consideration; they ought to
train children both to speak their mind, and also to pay respect to the
opinion of others; they ought not to insist upon obedience, without
giving the reasons why it is desirable and necessary; they ought
resolutely to avoid malicious gossip, but not the interested discussion
of other personalities; they ought to follow, and to give, direct and
simple motives for action, and to learn, if they do not know it, that
it is from this simple and quiet independence of mind that the best
blessings, the best happinesses come; above all, they ought to practise
a real and perceptive sympathy, to allow for differences of character
and taste, not to try so much to form children on the model of their
own characters, as to encourage them to develop on their own lines. To
do this completely needs wisdom, tact, and justice; but nothing can
excuse us from attempting it.

The reason why life is so often made into a dull and dreary business
for ourselves and others,