“Your question, Mrs. Tremlow, suggests further ground we must cover: a few set rules will be of little service; we must know how much there is in ‘human nature,’ and how to play upon it as a musician on the keys of his instrument. We must add to our physiology, psychology, and, to psychology, moral science. Complex, yet most simple, manifold, yet one, human nature is not to be ticked off in a lecture or two as a subject we have exhausted; but there is no conceivable study which yields such splendid increase for our pains.” “And the spiritual life of the child? Does either of these ‘ologies’ embrace the higher life, or is it not susceptible of culture?” “Ah, there we have new conditions--the impact of the Divine upon the human, which generates _life_, ‘without which there is no living.’ The life is there, imparted and sustained from above; but we have something to do here also. Spirit, like body, thrives upon daily bread and daily labour, and it is our part to set before the child those ‘new thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven,’ which should be his spiritual diet; and to practise him in the spiritual labours of prayer, praise, and endeavour. How?--is another question for our Society to work out.” CHAPTER XII _A HUNDRED YEARS AFTER_ (AT THE CLOUGHS’ DINNER-TABLE, SEPT. 10, 1990.) “It’s a capital idea! the thing ought to be commemorated. At any rate, we can give a little dinner in honour of it. Whom shall we have?” “Dr. and Mrs. Oldcastle, and Harry’s form-master, young Mr. Hilyard, and his wife, will represent school-work; _we_ shall stand for parents in general; and with Dr. and Mrs. Brenton for our medical advisers, and the Dean and Mrs. Priestly to witness for things spiritual, we shall be quite a ‘representative gathering.’ Will my list do?” “Famously! Couldn’t be better. We all know the subject and each other. I shouldn’t wonder if we have some good things said.” Mr. Clough was a City merchant, as had been his fathers before him for four or five generations; he was reputed wealthy, and was a rich man, but one who held his wealth as a public trust, reserving for personal uses only what should keep his family in refined and comfortable living. Not that there was much virtue in this, for he, and others like him, held in aversion luxurious living, and whatever savoured of the “barbarous opulence” of earlier days. Dr. Oldcastle was the head-master of an old-established foundation school; for the remaining guests they have been sufficiently introduced by Mrs. Clough. During the dinner there was the usual gay talk, and some light handling of graver subjects until the ladies retired. Then-- “I wonder, gentlemen, has it occurred to you why my wife and I have been so pertinacious in trying to get you here to-night?” Every one’s countenance showed that he was struck by an interesting recollection.