daughters, good brothers and
sisters, good friends, good husbands and wives, and good fathers and
mothers. In other words, it is the social aspect of life that we have
in mind, and our social ideals. Whatever the boy "wants to be when he
grows up," he is sure to have social relations with his kind. Whether
the girl marries or remains single, she cannot entirely escape these
relations. Indeed they are thrust upon both boy and girl already. What
then do they need to enable them to be successful in the human
relations of living?

We might enumerate here a long list of virtues that will help, but,
since long lists shatter concentration, let us narrow them to four:
(1) sympathy, (2) self-control, (3) unselfishness, (4) industry.

I do not mean to say that, with these four qualities only, a man will
make a successful merchant or farmer, or that a woman will become a
good housekeeper or a skillful teacher. But I do mean that in family
relations these four qualities are worth more than intellectual
attainments or any sort of manual skill. It is really astonishing to
see how much these four will cover. We desire thrift--what is thrift
but self-control? Tolerance--what but sympathy--the "put yourself in
his place" feeling? Courtesy--what but unselfishness?

Let us, then, in the child's early years concentrate upon sympathy,
self-control, unselfishness, and industry. You will doubtless remember
Cabot's summary of the four requirements of man[5]--work, play, love,
and worship. Suppose we could write on the wall of every nursery in
the land:

Sympathy } { Work
Self-control } in { Play
Unselfishness } { Love
Industry } { Worship

Would not this writing on the wall be a fruitful reminder to the
mothers?

The period of early childhood is the one in which the home may act
with least interference as the child's teacher. Later, whether she
will or no, the mother must share the work of training with the
school, the church, and that indefinite influence we class vaguely as
society. During these few early years, then, the mother must use her
opportunity well. It will soon be gone.

How shall she teach such abstract virtues as sympathy, unselfishness,
self-control? Recognizing the fact that the little child acts merely
as his instinct and feelings prompt, she must make all training at
this stage of his life take the form of developing the instincts.
Probably the strongest of these at