each day, to repeat the passage to the
little children, sentence by sentence. The little ones, all standing up,
had then to repeat the text sentence by sentence in like manner, until
it was thoroughly imprinted on their memories.

I came into school on a Monday. The passage chosen for that week was,
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God." I heard these words every day in the
calm, serious, somewhat sing-song voices of the children, sometimes
repeated by one child, sometimes by the whole number. And the text made
an impression upon me such as none had ever done before and none ever
did after. Indeed, this impression was so vigorous and permanent, that
to this day every word spoken, with the special tone and expression then
given to it, is still vivid in my mind. And yet that is now nearly forty
years ago! Perhaps even then the simple boy's heart felt that these
words would be the foundation and the salvation of his life, bringing to
him that conviction which was to become later on to the working and
striving man a source of unconquerable courage, of unflinching,
ever-ready, and cheerful self-sacrifice. In short, my introduction into
that school was my birth into the higher spiritual life.

Here I break off my narrative to ask myself whether I dare venture to
pause yet a little longer over this first period of my life. But this
was the time when the buds began to unfold on my tree of life; this was
the time when my heart found its pivot-point, and when first my inner
life awoke. If, then, I succeed in giving an exact description of my
early boyhood, I shall have provided an important aid to the right
understanding of my life and work as a man. For that reason I venture to
dwell at some inordinate length on this part of my life, and the more
willingly since I can pass more quickly over later periods.

It often suggests itself to me, while thus reviewing and describing my
life, just as it does with teaching and education--namely, that those
things which are by most men thrown aside as common and unimportant are
the very things which are, as I take it, of weightiest import. In my
eyes, it is always a mistake to leave a gap in the rudimentary and
fundamental part of a subject. Still I know one may exhaust the patience
of a reader by touching on every minute detail, before he has been
permitted to glance at the whole picture and to gather its scope and
object. Therefore I beg your Highness[6] to pass over, at all events on
the