t his nature shall demand action; and that he should
conquer his world as he has conquered life, to the end that he may
elevate himself and not to the end that he may acquire external
splendor and comfort. When tempted, however, he cannot resist. He ends
by possessing the objects, the pretty, ready-made things; his soul
makes no progress; he loses sight of the goal. Behold the child
clumsy, unsteady, inept, enslaved! Those incapable muscles encase a
captive soul. He is oppressed far more by this fatal inertia than by
the physical contests which initiated his relations with the adult.
Often he has fits of rage like the sinner; he bites the bear that he
cannot break, cries desperately when he is washed and has his hair
combed, rebels and struggles when he is dressed. The only movements
allowed by the devil are those of anger. But gradually he sinks into
the depression of impotence. Adults say: "Children are ungrateful;
they have none of the higher feelings as yet; they care only for their
own pleasure."

Who has not seen patient mothers and nurses, "bearing" from morning
till night the humors of four or five discontented children, who are
screaming and playing pranks with their metal plates and rag dolls?
They seem to say: "Children are like this," and a benevolent
compassion takes the place of the natural reaction of impatience. Of
such persons we say: "How good they are! how patient they are!"

But the devil, too, is patient after this fashion: he too can
contemplate the agonies and impotent rebellions of the souls which are
in his power, which are prostrate among vanities, oppressed by a great
quantity of means, the ends of which they have lost, souls in which
the consciousness of sin is extinguished, and which are gradually
sinking into an abyss of mortal error. He is patient in contemplating
them, in supporting their cries--and he too offers them bears and
rubber dolls, and feeds them, stuffing them, that is to say, with new
vanities which mask their errors, and nourish their bodies.

He who, seized with doubt, should ask concerning these mothers and
nurses: "Are they really good?" might get an idea from the reply of
Christ: "None is good save God," that is, the Creator. Goodness is the
attribute of God. He who creates is good, only creation is good. Hence
he only is good who helps creation to achieve its ends.

* * * * *

Now we come to the school. Conceptions of goodness and naughtiness
must b