of reciprocal
contempt. Here, those who have calloused hands and working-clothes are
disdained; there, it is all who do not wear blue jeans. Children
educated in this spirit make sad fellow-citizens. There is in all this
the want of that simplicity which makes it possible for men of good
intentions, of however diverse social standing, to collaborate without
any friction arising from the conventional distance that separates them.

If the spirit of caste causes the loss of respect, partisanship, of
whatever sort, is quite as productive of it. In certain quarters
children are brought up in such fashion that they respect but one
country--their own; one system of government--that of their parents and
masters; one religion--that which they have been taught. Does anyone
suppose that in this way men can be shaped who shall respect country,
religion and law? Is this a proper respect--this respect which does not
extend beyond what touches and belongs to ourselves? Strange blindness
of cliques and coteries, which arrogate to themselves with so much
ingenuous complacence the title of schools of respect, and which,
outside themselves, respect nothing. In reality they teach: "Country,
religion, law--we are all these!" Such teaching fosters fanaticism, and
if fanaticism is not the sole anti-social ferment, it is surely one of
the worst and most energetic.

* * * * *

If simplicity of heart is an essential condition of respect, simplicity
of life is its best school. Whatever be the state of your fortune, avoid
everything which could make your children think themselves more or
better than others. Though your wealth would permit you to dress them
richly, remember the evil you might do in exciting their vanity.
Preserve them from the evil of believing that to be elegantly dressed
suffices for distinction, and above all do not carelessly increase by
their clothes and their habits of life, the distance which already
separates them from other children: dress them simply. And if, on the
contrary, it would be necessary for you to economize to give your
children the pleasure of fine clothes, I would that I might dispose you
to reserve your spirit of sacrifice for a better cause. You risk seeing
it illy recompensed. You dissipate your money when it would much better
avail to save it for serious needs, and you prepare for yourself, later
on, a harvest of ingratitude. How dangerous it is to accustom your sons
and daughte