=Her supremacy.=—­The vicissitudes of life have not availed to dethrone her, nor have the losses, perplexities, and sorrows of life caused the light of her influence to grow dim.  She is still an abiding presence with us, nor can we conceive of any influence that could possibly obliterate her.  She may have been idealized by degrees, but when she came fully into our lives she came to stay.  She came not as a transient guest, but as a lifelong friend and comrade.  She crept into our lives as gently as the dawn comes over the hills, and since her arrival there has been no sunset.  Nor was there ever by pupil or teacher any profession or protestation, but we simply accepted each other with a frankness that would have been weakened by words.

=The role of ideal.=—­But the role of ideal is not an easy one.  It is a comparatively simple matter to give instruction in geography, arithmetic, and history, but to know one’s self to be the ideal of a child, or to conceive of the possibility of such a situation and relation, is sufficient to render the teacher deeply thoughtful.  Once it is borne in upon her that the child will grow into her likeness, she cannot dismiss the matter from her thinking as she can the lesson in grammar.  The child may be unconscious of the matter, but the teacher is acutely conscious.  When she stands before her class she sees the child growing into her image, and this reflection gives cause and occasion for a careful and critical introspection.  She feels constrained to take an inventory of herself to determine whether she can stand a test that is so searching and so far-reaching.

=The teacher’s other self.=—­As she stands thus in contemplation she sees the child grown to maturity with all her own predilections—­physical, mental, spiritual—­woven into the pattern of its life.  In this child grown up she sees her other self and can thus estimate the qualities of body, mind, and spirit that now constitute herself, as they reveal themselves in another.  She thus gains the child’s point of view and so is able to see herself through the child’s eyes.  When she is reading a book, she is aware that the child is looking over her shoulder to note the quality of literature that engages her interest.  When she is making a purchase at the shop, she finds the child standing at her elbow and duplicating her order.  When she is buying a picture, she is careful to see to it that there are two copies, knowing that a second copy must be provided for the child.  When she is arranging her personal adornment, she is conscious of the child peeping through the door and absorbing her with languishing eyes.

=The status irrevocable.=—­Wherever she goes or whatever she does, she knows that the child is walking in her footsteps and reenacting her conduct.  Her status is irrevocably fixed in the life of the child, nor can any philosophy or sophistry absolve her from the situation.  She cannot abdicate her place in favor of another, nor can she win immunity from responsibility.  She is the child’s ideal for weal or woe, nor can men or angels change this big fact.  Through all the hours of the day she hears the child saying, “Whither thou goest I will go,” and there is no escape.