times more and in others a hundred thousand times less. A
beginning must be made in the tenderest age to establish the
child's feeling for nature. Let him live year in and year out
in the same country home; this is one of the most significant
and profound factors in training. It can be held to even where
it is now neglected. The same thing holds good of making a
choice library, commencing with the first years of life; so
that the child will have, at different periods of his life,
suitable books for each age; not as is now often the case, get
quite spoilt by the constant change of summer excursions, by
worthless children's books, and costly toys. They should never
have any but the simplest books; the so-called classical ones.
They should be amply provided with means of preparing their own
playthings. The worst feature of our system are the playthings
which imitate the luxury of grown people. By such objects the
covetous impulse of the child for acquisition is increased, his
own capacity for discovery and imagination limited, or rather,
it would be limited if children with the sound instinct of
preservation, did not happily smash the perfect playthings,
which give them no creative opportunity, and themselves make
new playthings from fir cones, acorns, thorns, and fragments of
pottery, and all other sorts of rubbish which can be
transformed into objects of great price by the power of the
imagination.

To play with children in the right way is also a great art. It
should never be done if children do not themselves know what
they are going to do; it should always be a special treat for
them as well as their elders. But the adults must always on
such occasions, leave behind every kind of educational idea and