His habits, of neatness or disorder, of punctuality, of moderation. His general modes of thought, as affected by altruism or egoism. His consequent modes of feeling and action. His objects of thought--the small affairs of daily life, the natural world, the operations or the productions of the human mind, the ways of God with men. His distinguishing talent--music, eloquence, invention. His disposition or tone of character, as it shows itself in and affects his family and other close relations in life--reserved or frank, morose or genial, melancholy or cheerful, cowardly or brave. CHAPTER IV _PARENTS AS INSPIRERS_ PART II “Sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”--THACKERAY. The last chapter closed with an imperfect summary of what we may call the educational functions of parents. We found that it rests with the parents of the child to settle for the future man his ways of thinking, behaving, feeling, acting; his disposition, his particular talent; the manner of things upon which his thoughts shall run. Who shall fix limitations to the power of parents? The destiny of the child is ruled by his parents, because they have the virgin soil all to themselves. The first sowing must be at their hands, or at the hands of such as they choose to depute. What do they sow? _Ideas._ We cannot too soon recognise what is the sole educational instrument we have to work with, and how this one instrument is to be handled. But how radically wrong is all our thought upon education! We cannot use the fit words because we do not think the right thing. For example, an _idea_ is not an “instrument,” but an agent; is not to be “handled,” but, shall we say, set in motion? We have perhaps got over the educational misconception of the _tabula rasa_. No one now looks on the child’s white soul as a tablet prepared for the exercise of the educator’s supreme art. But the conception which has succeeded this time-honoured heresy rests on the same false bases of the august office and the infallible wisdom of the educator. Here it is in its cruder form: “Pestalozzi aimed more at harmoniously developing the faculties than at making use of them for the acquirement of knowledge; he sought to prepare the vase rather than to fill it.” In the hands of Froebel the figure gains in boldness and beauty; it is no longer a mere vase to be shaped under the potter’s fingers; but a flower, say, a perfect rose, to be delicately and consciously and methodically moulded, petal by petal, curve and curl; for the perfume and living glory of the flower, why these will come; do you your part and mould the several petals; wait, too, upon sunshine and shower, give space and place for your blossom to expand. And so we go to work with a touch to “imagination” here, and to “judgment” there; now, to