r it has color
and what color, whether it has form and what form. They should learn to
study real things by actually noticing them with their own senses, and
then learning to apply the right words to the knowledge so acquired. We
aim to apply this habit of observation in all the branches of study, so
that in every stage of progress the scholar shall know, not merely the
names of things, but the things themselves. In other words, we would
cultivate real, as well as verbal knowledge, and aim to awaken in every
pupil an active, inquiring, observant state of mind.

* * * * *

2. _To a New Pupil._

You have just been admitted to the privileges of this institution, and
are about to enter here upon a course of study. The occasion is one
eminently suited for serious reflection. At the close of a school career
it is difficult not to reflect. Thoughts upon one's course will, at such
a time, force themselves upon us. But then it is too late. The good we
might have achieved, is beyond our grasp, and its contemplation is
profitable only as a legitimate topic of contrition. How much wiser and
more profitable to anticipate the serious judgment which sooner or later
we must pass upon our actions, and so to shape our conduct in advance,
that the retrospect, when it comes, may be a source of joy and
congratulation, rather than of shame and repentance. How much wiser to
direct our bark to some definite and well selected channel, than to
float at random along the current of events, the sport of every idle
wave. Men are divided into two classes,--those who control their own
destiny, doing what they mean to do, living according to a plan which
they prefer and prepare, and those who are controlled by circumstances,
who have a vague purpose of doing something or being somebody in the
world, but leave the means to chance. The season of youth generally
determines to which of these classes you will ultimately belong. It is
here, at school, that you decide whether, when you come to man's estate,
you will be a governing man, or whether you will be a mere aimless
driveller. Those who at the beginning of a course in school make to
themselves a distinct aim, towards which day after day they work their
course, undiscouraged by defeat, unseduced by ease or the temptation of
a temporary pleasure, not only win the immediate objects of pursuit, but
gain for themselves those habits of aiming, of perseverance, of
self-contro