to the teacher or be adapted to the experience of the class members. In one way or another the same subject must come up again and again in other forms in any scheme of ethical instruction. One's whole life is but a single prolonged lesson on this special topic, as it is borne in upon us in a thousand ways how much joy or pain we may give by the gentleness or callous roughness we display in dealing with the feelings of others. A teacher can surely illustrate this in a great variety of forms, although it should be done without too much preaching or moralizing. Something, at any rate, will be accomplished if the attention of the young mind is called to these points and one's thoughts are started in that direction, even if the suggestions are not put into practice until years afterwards. Observations of the violation of this habit are brought home to us every day of our lives. The adult can teach here from what he himself sees in the world around him. All that we have ventured to give in this outline is a few scattered hints capable of indefinite expansion,

CHAPTER VII.

BEING LAZY.

Proverbs or Verses.

"Laziness has no advocate, but many friends.'-German. "Who is lazy in his youth must work in old age.”—German. "Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him."-Franklin.

"" 'A lazy boy and a warm bed are difficult to part.”—Danish. "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, that leaned his head against the wall to bark."

"A lazy man eats his own brains."

"An indolent man draws his breath but does not live."Cicero.

"-Pollock.

"Enjoyment stops where indolence begins.
"A young idler, an old beggar."-German.

"An idler is a watch that wants both hands As useless when it goes as when it stands." "He that is busy is tempted but by one devil; he that is idle by a legion."

"Idle folks have the least leisure.

Idle people take the

most pains."

Dialogue.

Now for a good, plain, practical subject! We shall speak today about a habit to which we may be all tempted at times.

You may write it on the blackboard. Put down the words. First, "being." You see that means the "habit of," doesn't it? Now add the word "lazy." There it is: "Being lazy."

Did you ever hear that word before? "Surely." Anybody ever call you lazy? What do you say? Can you remember? "Yes," some of you admit, "we have had that term applied to us."

And did you ever call anybody else lazy? Did you

ever say, "Oh, you lazy fellow, you lazy girl?" I suspect you have. People are more liable to talk about other people in this way than about themselves.

But I must know what you had in mind when you called somebody by such language. What was the trouble with the boy or girl, for instance? "Oh," you suggest, "they would not do anything. They just sat still when we wanted them to help us about something."

You would say, would you, that anybody who was sitting still for a good while was lazy? What if, however, he had a book in his hand and were reading?

"It would depend," you explain, "on what he was reading." And what do you mean by that? What sort of a book would he be reading if you felt he were lazy and would not come away from it? "As to that," you tell me, "it would probably be a mere story or some pictures with nothing else there of consequence. He would be simply amusing himself."

You mean to assert that anybody who sits still reading a light book and will not get up to work or to render you a service when you ask him, is necessarily lazy? What if he is very tired? What if he has been working very hard? "No," you admit, "if he is very tired and has been working very hard, we should not call him lazy."

Yet you say you are convinced that if he is not tired and might just as well get up and help us, but will not do it on account of his story, he is lazy, is he? Now are you sure of that?

What if that boy or girl who was reading a story had some work on hand of importance to himself, then if it suddenly occurred to him and he jumped up and went about it and toiled at it with all his might, although he would not rise to please you or help you, could you say that he was lazy? "No, not exactly." What would he be, then-selfish? "Yes, certainly."

You see, after all, a person might be very selfish and not be lazy. You must tell me what this habit really

implies. Try it again. Practice now the habit of per

severance.

"Why," you suggest, "perhaps it applies to some one who sits around doing nothing a great deal of the time; some one who seems not to use his body or his mind very much."

How would you describe a lazy boy at school, for example. In comparison with the other kind, how would he conduct himself? "Oh," you add, "he would be looking around a good deal of the time, watching the other boys and girls, or looking out of the window, seemingly waiting until school should close.

And how would you describe a lazy boy or girl at play, when there was no school work, and you were out at games? What would be the difference between such a boy and the other kind? "Why," you point out, "the lazy boy would sit around and not care for the games which required hard work. Or if he went into them he would play for a little while and then stop and say, 'It is too much work.'"

You really believe, then, that a boy or girl could actually be lazy in their play? Did you ever hear any one in speaking of play, exclaim, "It is too much like work?" What is it, do you suppose, that a lazy person likes most of all? What would give him the greatest pleasure, such as it is? "Doing nothing?" you answer. Yes, I suspect that is it.

Did you ever hear of a person who said he would like to do nothing for ever and ever and ever? When a person makes such a speech, would it necessarily indicate that he was lazy? "Oh yes," you assert. Wait now. Do not be too sure. What if a person has had to work very hard for a long while. Might he not, when he was very tired, make that remark just because he was tired?

Think again. Some time after you have grown up and have to work to earn your living, what if you receive some sort of a position, two of you, and do your work through the day, both of you, perhaps, just alike, if it is not very hard. Now, at the end of the

day, what would the lazy one do? "Go home and eat his supper?" Yes, and after that what would he do? "Not much of anything," you answer.

And how would you describe those persons who in their evenings wander around and do not do much of anything? "Loafers?" Yes, that is the term. Put that down. We have come upon another word for lazi

ness.

And what would the other type of man do, if he was not too tired, at the end of the day, assuming he had his evenings free? "Why," you respond, "he would go to work at something." But he has done his day's labor, all he is paid to do. What more is left for him in the way of work?

You add, “He can go on improving himself, studying." But his school life is over, is it not? You mean that to improve himself a man must go on educating himself after school is over, when he is grown up?

You may seem a little puzzled over that. But I can promise you that when you are grown up you will realize that there is more need for study even than when you are boys and girls. The lazy person never studies. When his work is over his mind goes to sleep, while the other type of man keeps on trying in some way to improve himself.

It may be said of a person, "He always seems busy at something. Just as soon as one kind of work stops he goes and finds another." And then of still other persons it is remarked, "They never seem to be busy at anything." We call them the loafers.

Suppose two men are employed at the same kind of work during the day, of a comparatively easy kind, so that at times there is an opportunity for doing a little more than what they are paid for. Will the lazy man ever do it? "No," you exclaim, "never!"

Do you think it is worth while ever to do any more than what you are paid for? What do you say as to that?

Note to the Teacher: Here is a good opportunity to talk for a while with the boys and girls about work; in order somehow to make them feel the value of doing even more