It is well to set before the child an ideal on which he may form
himself as far as possible; but when this ideal sits across the aisle,
plays in a neighboring back yard, or, worse still, is another child
in the same family, he is hated and despised. His virtues become
obnoxious, and the unfortunate evildoer prefers to be vicious, that
he may not resemble a creature whose praises have so continually been
sung that his very name is odious.
If the child grows accustomed to the comparison of himself with others
and the endeavor to excel them, he becomes selfish, envious, and
either vain of his virtue and attainments, or else thoroughly
disheartened at his small success, while he grudges that of his
neighbor. George Macdonald says: "No work noble or lastingly good can
come of emulation, any more than of greed. I think the motives are
spiritually the same."
To what can we appeal, then, in children, as motives to goodness, as
aids in the formation of right habits of thought and action? Ah! the
child's heart is a harp of many strings, and touched by the hand of a
master a fine, clear tone will sound from every one of them, while the
resultant strain will be a triumphant burst of glorious harmony.
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