further conclude that a child to whom the deeper truths of life or of
religion were given in the dogmatic positive forms of Church creeds
would imperatively need when a young man to be surrounded by pure and
manly lives, whereby those rigid creeds might be illuminated and
quickened into life. Otherwise the child runs great danger of casting
away his whole higher life along with the dogmatic religious forms which
he has been unable to assimilate. There, indeed, is the most elevated
faith to be found, where form and life work towards a whole, shed light
upon each other, and go side by side in a sisterly concord, like the
inward life with the outward life, or the special with the universal.

But I must return from this long digression, and resume the account of
my life and work as an educator.

Bodily exercises were as yet unknown to me in their educational
capacity. I was acquainted only with jumping over a cord and with
walking on stilts through my own boyish practice therein. As they fell
into no relation with our common life, neither with the pursuits and
thoughts of my pupils nor with my own, we regarded them purely as
childish games.

What the year brings to a man in the season when Nature lies clear and
open before him, that it does not bring to him in the season when Nature
is more often locked away from his gaze. And as the two seasons bring
diverse gifts, so do they require diverse things in return. In the
latter part of the year, when man is perforce driven more upon himself,
his occupations should take on more narrowly personal characteristics.
Just as the winter's life with nature is more fixed and narrowed, so
also is the winter's life with men; therefore, a boy's life at this time
needs material of some definite fashion, or needs fashionless material