“The Parts and Signes of Goodnesse are many.  If a Man be Gracious and Curteous to Strangers, it shewes he is a Citizen of the World, And that his Heart is no Island cut off from other Lands, but a Continent that joynes to them.  If he be Compassionate towards the Afflictions of others, it shewes that his Heart is like the noble Tree, that is wounded to selfe when it gives Balme.  If he easily Pardons and Remits Offences, it shewes that his minde is planted above Injuries, So that he cannot be shot.  If he be Thankfull for small Benefits, it shewes that he weighes Men’s Mindes, and not their Trash.  But above all, if he have St. Paul’s Perfection, that he would wish to be an Anathema from Christ, for the Salvation of his Brethren, it shewes much of a Divine Nature, and a kinde of Conformity with Christ himselfe.”—­BACON, “Of Goodnesse.”

No one who has the good of children at heart, and the training of their characters, can leave the subject without some grave thoughts on the formation of their own character, which is first in order of importance, and in order of time must go before, and accompany their work to the very end.

“What is developed to perfection can make other things like unto itself.”  So saints develop sanctity in others, and truth and confidence beget truth and confidence, and the spirit of enterprise calls out the spirit of enterprise, and constancy trains to endurance and perseverance, and wise kindness makes others kind, and courage makes them courageous, and in its degree each good quality tends to reproduce itself in others.  Children are very delicately sensitive to these influences, they respond unconsciously to what is expected of them, and instinctively they imitate the models set before them.  They catch a tone, a gesture, a trick of manner with a quickness that is startling.  The influence of mind and thought on mind and thought cannot be so quickly recognized, but tells with as much certainty, and enters more deeply into the character for life.  The consideration of this is a great incentive to the acquirement of self-knowledge and self-discipline by those who have to do with children.  The old codes of conventionality in education, which stood for a certain system in their time, are disappearing, and the worth of the individual becomes of greater importance.  This is true of those who educate and of those whom they bring up.  As the methods of modern warfare call for more individual resourcefulness, so do the methods of the spiritual warfare, now that we are not supported by big battalions, but each one is thrown back on conscience and personal responsibility.  Girls as well as boys have to be trained to take care of themselves and be responsible for themselves, and if they are not so trained, no one can now be responsible for them or protect them in spite of themselves.  Therefore, the first duty of those who are bringing up Catholic girls is to be themselves such as Catholic girls must be later on.  This example is a discourse