The object of nurture is to provide an unhindered path along which the soul may move, to bring into full and free exercise all the powers which it possesses, and to secure for them development and harmony.  To insure for each individual soul in the struggle of life a fair opportunity to be itself is the end of nurture.  Emerson has said that at birth every child is loaded with bias, and that the purpose of culture is to remove all impediment and bias, and to secure a balance among the faculties so as to leave nothing but pure power.  The same may be said as to the object of nurture.  Since impediment and bias are never a part of the essence of the soul, the statement that the aim of nurture is to furnish a full and free opportunity for each individual to secure a normal development is, practically, identical with what Emerson has said of culture.

What are the agencies which have most to do with promoting the ascent of the soul?  The first is atmosphere.  In a bright, clear, sunshiny atmosphere the body attains its most healthful growth.  So with the soul.  Atmosphere is one of those intangible things that every one understands and no one can easily define.  It is composed of a thousand different elements.  The atmosphere of a household is the spirit by which it is pervaded.  Are all reverent, earnest, cheerful, optimistic?  Do love and mutual helpfulness prevail?  Do the members of the family live as if God were a near and blessed reality, and right and duty were more sacred than life?  Then there will be an atmosphere of hopefulness, devotion, service, reverence, pure religion, which will affect all as sunlight and air, unconsciously but evidently, grow into the beauty and fruitfulness of meadows and gardens.  The rare spirituality, the urbane manner, the exquisite regard for others, the dignity and deference which are found in some persons have no explanation except that they have been absorbed from the households in which their early lives were passed.  Nurture is chiefly a matter of mental and spiritual atmosphere.  Attraction is always stronger than compulsion.  A child born into conditions in which love prevails, where truth, duty, honor, are reverenced, and where all dwelling together seek the highest things, will need neither instruction in morals nor motives in religion.  It will naturally turn toward truth and righteousness.  It will revere virtue and worship God as inevitably and spontaneously as it breathes.  We are all influenced more by the words which we hear and the examples which we see than by the lessons given us to learn, by the spirit of a man, or an institution, rather than by rules.  Persons show the conditions in which they have been reared by their choice of words, their bearing, the subjects of their conversation, by their mental and spiritual attitude.  Reverence is seldom found except in an atmosphere of reverence, and sincerity grows among those who are sincere.  It is a moral necessity that some men should be earnest and enthusiastic,