Justice. In judging others to make allowance for temperament, and for their ignorance, temptations, and prejudices. To redress wrongs and champion the right. A knowledge of magistrates, their duties and responsibilities. Courts of justice: their constitutions, value, and limitations. Equality of all before the law. Work. The necessity for and dignity of labor. Humdrum work. Systematic and strenuous labor, its bracing effect-physical, intellectual, and moral; the demoralizing effect of idleness. Earning a living; responsibilities and social value of different pursuits. The wealth of the country: how it is produced. Work as a sure expression of the worker's character. Thrift. Forethought enables us to provide for unforeseen events and difficulties, strengthens independence, promotes self-improvement, and enables us to advance worthy causes. The Will. The training of the will. The right to be done intelligently. Moral laziness, indecision, putting off, gradual deterioration. Patriotism. The vote, its nature and responsibilities; the ballot. The machinery of government and the duty of the individual citizen. True patriotism, devotion to our country's highest interests. America's greatness and her obligations to other nations. Peace and War. Duty of citizens when war threatens: control of passions and avoidance of panic. War, when justifiable; self-defense against aggression. In support of oppressed peoples. The evils of war. The value of peace. Recreation. The need for recreation and pastimes. Games as an outlet for friendly rivalry and emulation. Value of play as a socializing factor. Hobbies. The development of the body and its powers. "A sound mind in a sound body." The value of athletics in developing character; playing the game. Danger of giving too much thought to athletics. Sports, beneficial and injurious; avoidance of cruelty. The Development of Personal Relationships. Children and parents, brothers and sisters, other relatives. Friendship, choice of friends, loyalty and candor in friendship, comradeship. The duty of understanding those outside our own circle. of good as the best. The growth of our ideal; childhood, youth, etc. Perfection of character. Growth of social ideals; a perfected humanity. Growth of religious ideals; a perfected life. The retrospect of a noble life. This syllabus of moral instruction can only be of value in helping the boy in developing moral characteristics, when used in a tactful and wise manner, and not in a dry, mechanical manner. Moral color-blindness, and low moral admirations, can only be eliminated from boys through the "expulsive power of a new affection.” Character depends partly upon moral perception or insight, partly upon habit. "Doth not the soul the body sway? "Look inward if thou wouldst be fair: -BERTHA HASSELTINE. An act of good moral character should receive its return of honor. "Humanity," says Colin A. Scott, "is almost instinctively ready to oblige, to serve and to receive honor from those really felt to be on a higher level. And... when those who are looked up to by others receive a service without returning honor and admira tion... they are meanly and proudly attempting a fraud upon human nature. If the Good Samaritan cared nothing for the feelings that would be awakened in the traveler to Jericho, but was only serving God, he missed the point." It is this failure of recognition of the good within the boy on the part of older people which has discouraged many older boys and made them indifferent to the appeal of the best. "The responsiveness of the soul and body in the domain of morals is a law of our nature, in which are consequences of the greatest moment. The soul can be corrupted by the body and the body by the soul." As a boy thinketh in his heart so is he, therefore the mental association with everything that is pure and wholesome, means living up to one's best. Dr. Philip S. Moxom in his "Moral Education" says: "It is a greater and more difficult thing to live, in the true, deep sense, than it is to get a living. Boys must be made to feel and then to see that honesty is better than brilliancy, that integrity is more than riches, that good character is a prize valuable beyond the power of all material means to measure. ... A clever intellect without a tender conscience makes a Mephistopheles. We are seeking to make men who shall know their duty to the world, and have the will to do it. That is an end to call forth our deepest wisdom and our strongest endeavors. On the achievement of that end depends the soundness and permanent prosperity of the nation." Let us see the man in the boy. "In the acorn is wrapped the forest, In the little brook, the sea; The twig that will sway with the sparrow today Is tomorrow's tree. There is hope in a mother's joy, Like a peach in its blossom furled, And a noble boy, a gentle boy, And a manly boy, is king of the world. "The power that will never fail us Is the soul of simple truth; The oak that defies the stormiest skies The beauty no time can destroy -GEORGE SHEPARD BURLEIGH. CHAPTER VI RELIGIOUS CHARACTERISTICS "You hear that boy laughing? You think he's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done." -OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES-The Boys. Underneath the fun and mischief, noise and dirt of a boy, beats a heart that responds quickly to the appeal of religion, especially if the appeal is in the form of doing rather than being. Religion to a boy means motive power to give up wrong and do right. The Sunday school was singing, "I want to be an angel and with the angels stand," when Billy's teacher discovered that he was not singing. "Why aren't you singing, Billy?" asked the teacher. "I'm singing the way I feel," responded honest Billy. Being an angel did not appeal to Billy, and he refused to tell an untruth even in his singing. What Billy wanted to be was a man, a redblooded man of heroic action, and not a cherub. Religion to a boy is not sitting still and being good, it is doing worth-while deeds. Somehow a boy resents being called good, and many times he is the other kind of hypocrite in that he |