Therefore, the public school, when it represents the world as it is,

represents the facts of life
Therefore, the public school, when it represents the world as it is,
represents the facts of life. The private school never has done and
never will do this; and as time goes on, it will be less and less a true
representative of the world. From this point of view, it seems to be a
mistake on the part of parents to exclude their children from the world.
Is it not better that the child should learn something of society, even
of its evils, when under your influence, and when you can control him by
your counsel and example, than to permit him finally to go out, as you
must when his majority comes, perhaps to be seduced in a moment, as it
were, from his allegiance to virtue? Virtue is not exclusion from the
presence of vice; but it is resistance to vice in its presence. And it
is the duty of parents to provide safeguards for the support of their
children against these temptations. When Cicero was called on to defend
Muraena against the slander that, as he had lived in Asia, he had been
guilty of certain crimes, and when the testimony failed to substantiate
the charge, the orator said, 'And if Asia does carry with it a suspicion
of luxury, surely it is a praiseworthy thing, not never to have seen
Asia, but to have lived temperately in Asia.' And we have yet higher
authority. It is not the glory of Christ, or of Christianity, that its
Divine Author was without temptation, but that, being tempted, he was
without sin. This is the great lesson of the day.

A considerable portion of human virtue springs directly from this

source
A considerable portion of human virtue springs directly from this
source. If purely disinterested tendencies were withdrawn from the
breast, the whole existence of humanity would be changed. Society
might not be impossible; there are races where mutual sympathy barely
exists: but the fulfilment of obligations, if always dependent on a
sense of self-interest, would fail where that was not apparent. On the
other hand, if we were on all occasions touched with the unhappiness
to others immediately and remotely springing from our conduct--if
sympathy were perfect and unfailing--we could hardly ever omit doing
what was right.

The fundamental fact in all ranges of life from the lowest to the

highest is _activity_, _doing_
The fundamental fact in all ranges of life from the lowest to the
highest is _activity_, _doing_. Every individual, either animal or man,
is constantly meeting situations which demand response. In the lower
forms of life, this response is very simple, while in the higher forms,
and especially in man, it is very complex. The bird sees a nook
favorable for a nest, and at once appropriates it; a man sees a house
that strikes his fancy, and works and plans and saves for months to
secure money with which to buy it. It is evident that the larger the
possible number of responses, and the greater their diversity and
complexity, the more difficult it will be to select and compel the right
response to any given situation. Man therefore needs some special power
of control over his acts--he requires a _will._