has anything to do with the character of our thoughts? "We do not see how," you hesitate.

But why is it that some people think more correctly than others? How is it that we may have to argue longer with one person than another in order to convince them of what is known to be true. "Oh, because they are prejudiced," you suggest.

Yes, quite so. But if they let their prejudices influence their opinions, may it not be that they are under the influence of habits of thinking? Sometimes it would seem as if people actually had a habit of thinking crookedly, as we should say. They let themselves be controlled altogether by their feelings in the way they use their minds. This surely is a habit.

But if there are habits of the mind, as well as habits of the body, which do you think may be the more important? "Habits of the mind, probably," you reply. And why? I ask. "Because," you add, "the mind is more important than the body."

Yes, that is the reason. But perhaps there is another. Why is it easier for us to notice what is going on in the body, than what is going on in the mind?

"Oh, because," you explain, "one can see the body or feel what is going on there. But the mind somehow seems to be back out of sight." Yes, you are right, and this is most important. We are often liable to overlook habits of the mind, while we may have a great deal to say about habits of the body.

The mind has its way of working, just like the muscles or the fingers. If it is a good way, then it is very good; but if it is a bad way, then it is very bad indeed, because it is very hard for us to get at it, inasmuch as we cannot quite see it or feel it, the way we can see or feel how one's fingers move or one's hands work. If the mind is the highest part of ourselves, then it is exceedingly important that we should have the best Habits of Mind.

Points of the Lesson.

Name over, now, the further points we have discovered about habits.

f

In the first place, we have seen that there are habits of the body, and habits of the mind and heart.

In the second place, we have noticed that usually when a habit of the mind or heart is beginning, we are conscious of what is going on, but that after it has become fixed we are not conscious of it when we are influenced by it.

In the third place, we have learned that habits are hardest to control after they have been long fixed or established.

In the fourth place, we have found out that habits are more easily acquired when we are young.

In the fifth place, we have discovered that certain habits may be of great service to us, because they aid our bodies and minds, just as machinery aids us in the outside world.

FURTHER SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER-A very good story to tell the children as again illustrating the power of habit, would be "The Soldier at the Gate of Pompeii." Give a little account of the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius. Then tell how the people fled from the city, and how everything was buried many fect in the ashes. Describe how hundreds and hundreds of years later, when they came to dig the ashes away, they found the body of a Roman soldier lying at the gate of the city. Show how he had been placed there and stood there at his post because of the army discipline, which never allowed a man to leave the post assigned to him. Have a discussion as to whether any man who has never acquired very strong habits, or been under very severe discipline, .could have done anything of this kind. Make it plain that it was the long years of military discipline that had developed the habit in the soldier of "staying at his post." Show how this was a habit. pertaining both to the body and to the mind. See also Aesop's Fable about "The Camel." As regards the use of the terms "mind" and "body" it seems best to retain these distinctions which have become embedded in popular speech and which will always have their significance whatever may be the developments of the New Psychology. We must talk in the language to which children are accustomed and which the average person has adopted as expressive of his

innermost convictions. Such words as "thought," "feeling," "will," "mind," "heart," "soul," can never have the accuracy of scientific terms and yet they are most valuable for practical teachings in ethics or religion.

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CHAPTER III.

PERSEVERANCE.

Proverbs or Verses.

"An oak is not felled with one blow."—Spanish.

"In time a mouse will gnaw through a cable."-German. "Troy was not taken in a day."

"Many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little."Plutarch.

"Many strokes, tho with a little axe,

Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak."

"Be the day weary, or be the day long,
At length it ringeth to Even-song."

-Shakespeare.

-Ancient Couplet.

"In every work he began, he did it with all his heart and prospered."-II. Chron. xxxi. 21.

"Do not for one repulse, forego the purpose

That you have resolved to effect." -Shakespeare. "I'll fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.”U. S. Grant.

"Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. "'-Johnson.

Dialogue.

Suppose today we dwell on the habit of Perseverance. We must think out what it implies, how one acquires such a habit and in what way it may be of service to us in our lives.

If you heard someone speak of a boy or girl, and say"such a boy or girl is very persevering, "what would that suggest to you? "Why," you answer, "it means not giving up." "Yes," I continue, "but not giving up what?" "Oh," you add, not giving up if one does not

succeed the first time."

You say, then, that if a person did not succeed the

first time, and tried once more, you would describe him as a persevering individual?" "No, not exactly," you hesitate. "Why not?" I ask.

"Trying just twice would not be enough," you reply, "almost anybody might try twice." "Then how many times would a man have to try, in order to be persevering? Three or four times, do you think?" "More than that." "Well, how many, then?" "Oh, lots of times," you insist.

"What if a person, however, tried lots of times for one day, and did not succeed; and then when the next day came, he did not try any more? Would that be persevering?" "Certainly not," you assert. "But he had tried lots of times." "Yes," you admit, "but that was only for one day."

"You believe that being persevering implies trying lots of times for two days?" You smile at that. "Then how many days do you mean?" "Oh, a long while," you tell me.

"You assume, do you, that being persevering means trying a great many times and keeping it up a long while?"

What is the phrase we often use in urging one to perseverance? Can you recall the motto or maxim with the word 'try' in it? It contains just three words. ""Try, try again?" Yes, those are the words. But you have said that the habit meant even more than that. It was "try, try again" for a long while.

"But does perseverance apply to any sort of conduct? What if a boy or girl who was trying to do something not so very difficult, and failed the first time, should try and then find it easy enough the second time. Would you say quite positively that such a boy or girl was persevering?" "You are not quite so sure about that?"

"Why not?" "Because," you tell me, "being persevering about easy things is one thing; being persevering about hard things is another." "Yes, I agree with you. Then you would imply, would you, that perse