Still our schools go on their complacent way, teaching words, words, words that are utterly devoid of meaning to the pupils, and, sad to relate, seem to think their mission accomplished.  The pupils are required to spell words, define words, write words, and parse words day after day as if these words were lifeless and meaningless blocks of wood to be merely tossed up and down and moved hither and thither.  So soon as a word becomes instinct with life and meaning, it kindles the child’s interest at its every recurrence and it becomes as truly an entity as a person.  It is then endowed with attributes that distinguish it clearly from its fellows and becomes, to the child, a vivid reality in the scheme of life.  To our two boys every star that meets their gaze conjures up a host of memories and helps to renew their spiritual experience and widen their horizon.  Space is a reality, to them, a mighty reality, and they cannot think of it without a deep sense of respect.

There are people of mature years who have never given to their hands a close examination.  Such an examination will disclose the fact that the hand is an instrument of marvelous design.  It will be seen that the fingers all differ in length but, when they grasp an orange or a ball, it will be noted that they are conterminous—­that the ends form a straight line.  This gives them added purchase and far greater power of resistance.  Were they of equal length the pressure upon the ball would be distributed and it could be wrested from the grasp far more readily.  No mechanical contrivance has ever been designed that is comparable to the hand in flexibility, deftness, adaptability, or power of prehension.  It can pick up a needle or a cannon-ball at will.  Its touch is as light as a feather or as stark as a catapult.  It can be as gentle as mercy or as harsh as battle.  It can soothe to repose or rouse to fury.  It can express itself in the gentle zephyr or in the devastating whirlwind.  Its versatility is altogether worthy of notice, and we may well hold the lesson in history in abeyance, for the nonce, while we inculcate due respect for the hand.  For no one can contemplate his hand for five minutes and not gain for it a feeling of profound respect.

What is true of the hand is true of the whole human body.  This is the very acme of created things; this is God’s masterpiece.  How any one can fail to respect such a wonderful piece of work is beyond explanation.  The process of walking or of breathing must hold the thoughtful person enthralled and enchanted.  But, strange as it may seem, there are those who seem not to realize in what a marvelous abode their spirits have their home.  Such scant respect do they have for their bodies that they defile them and treat them with shameless ignominy.  They saturate them with poisons and vulgarize them with unseemly practices.  They seem to regard them as mere property to be used or abused at pleasure and not temples to be honored.  The man who does not respect his own body can feel no respect or reverence for its Creator nor for the soul that dwells within it.  Such a man lacks self-respect and self-respect is the fertile soil in which many virtues flourish.  The teaching of physiology that fails to generate a feeling of deep respect for the human body is not the sort of teaching that should obtain in our schools.