EDUCATION- THE THIRD PRINCIPLE
The third principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. The basis of a man's
nature is almost always, in addition to his soul's past, his heredity, his surroundings, his nationality, his country,
the soil from which he draws sustenance, the air which he breathes, the sights, sounds, habits to which he is accustomed.
They mould him not the less powerfully because insensibly, and from that then we must begin. We must not take up
the nature by the roots from the earth in which it must grow or surround the mind with images and ideas of a life
which is alien to that in which it must physically move. If anything has to be brought in from outside, it must
be offered, not forced on the mind. A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development. There are
souls which naturally revolt from their surroundings and seem to belong to another age and clime. Let them be free
to follow their bent; but the majority languish, become empty, become artificial, if artificially moulded into
an alien form. It is God's arrangement that they should belong to a particular nation, age, society, that they
should be children of the past, possessors of the present, creators of the future. The past is our foundation,
the present our material, the future our aim and summit. Each must have its due and natural place in a national
system of education.
In this investiture of fleshly life
A soul that is spark of God survives
And sometimes it breaks through the sordid screen
And kindles a fire that makes us half-divine.