Some wise sayings of the good Dr. Holland, in “Nicholas Minturn,” come to me as I write.  Nicholas says, in discussing this matter of charities, and the various means of effecting a radical cure of pauperism, rather than its continual alleviation:  “If you read the parable of the Sower, I think that you will find that soil is quite as necessary as seed—­indeed, that the seed is thrown away unless a soil is prepared in advance....  I believe in religion, but before I undertake to plant it, I would like something to plant it in.  The sowers are too few, and the seed is too precious to be thrown away and lost among the thorns and stones.”

Last, but by no means least, the admirable physical culture that goes on in the kindergarten is all in the right direction.  Physiologists know as much about morality as ministers of the gospel.  The vices which drag men and women into crime spring as often from unhealthy bodies as from weak wills and callous consciences.  Vile fancies and sensual appetites grow stronger and more terrible when a feeble physique and low vitality offer no opposing force.  Deadly vices are nourished in the weak, diseased bodies that are penned, day after day, in filthy, crowded tenements of great cities.  If we could withdraw every three-year-old child from these physically enfeebling and morally brutalizing influences, and give them three or four hours a day of sunshine, fresh air, and healthy physical exercise, we should be doing humanity an inestimable service, even if we attempted nothing more.

I have tried, as briefly as I might in justice to the subject, to emphasize the following points:—­

I. That we must act up to our convictions with regard to the value of preventive work.  If we are ever obliged to choose, let us save the children.

II.  That the relation of the kindergarten to social reform is simply that, as a plan of education, it offers us valuable suggestions in regard to the mental, moral, and physical culture of children, which, in view of certain crying evils of the day, we should do well to follow.

The essential features of the kindergarten which bear a special relation to the subject are as follows:—­

1.  The symmetrical development of the child’s powers, considering him neither as all mind, all soul, nor all body; but as a creature capable of devout feeling, clear thinking, noble doing.

2.  The attempt to make so-called “moral culture” a little less immoral; the rational method of discipline, looking to the growth of moral, self-directing power in the child,—­the only proper discipline for future citizens of a free republic.

3.  The development of certain practical virtues, the lack of which is endangering the prosperity of the nation; namely, economy thrift, temperance, self-reliance, frugality industry, courtesy, and all the sober host,—­none of them drawing-room accomplishments and consequently in small demand.