Momence High School - Monesse Yearbook (Momence, IL)

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Essay. ■a Has Nature or Education the greater Influence on Character? It becomes evident, by observation and experience, that both nature and education have great influence upon the character. But one will, in all probability, have a greater influence than the other. Hence arises the question. It is related in an Arabian story that a Prince of the East once upon a time offered a prize to be given to the loveliest boy in all his kingdom. Many came from the remotest confines of his wide domain and contended for the prize, but popular acclaim awarded it to one of the most surpas¬ sing beauty. Such perfect and angelic loveliness had never before been seen in the gay and wealthy court of the eccentric prince. Some years la¬ ter the caprice of the same prince prompted him to offer a prize for the ug¬ liest man that could be found in his realm. The most diligent search was instituted and many came to compete for the prize. There were all degrees and kinds of ugliness, so that a de¬ cision was difficult, but while the contest was yet undecided a man was. ushered into the presence of the judges whose aspect was so forbidding and utterly hideous as to have lost almost all semblance to humanity,. The spectators shrank from him in disgust. Sin had set its seal on every blotch and in every wrinkle of the seared and bloated face. The prize was awarded him ' ithout a dissenting voice. Inquiry among the neigh¬ bors of the horrible creature revealed the fact that he had been the lovely boy, who years before, had won the prize for beauty. Intemperance, debauchery, sensuality and crime had wrought the fearful change. It was early education that had transformed the boy of perfect beauty and loveliness into the man of hideous and forbidding aspect. How fearful the responsibility of those whose duty it is to educate the young. Here had been wrought a transformation most complete and startling. An innocent boy, of pure and perfect character, whose heart was a holy temple into which only pure thoughts should have been al-

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Prof. H. P. LITTLE, Supt. Momence Schools

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28 SENIOR YEAR BOOK. lowed to enter had been so neglected or perverted by his guardian, so hedged about with temptation, that he was changed to a thing of evil, a besotted wretch, despised of men, a disgrace to his race. But, important as is the office of teacher, it is not the only, nor even the chief influence in the education of the youth. “ Home is the sphere of harmony and peace, the spot where angels find a resting place, when, bearing blessings, they descend to earth.” The most important of all schools yet devised for the formation of an enduring character is the home. Within its sacred precincts every human being acquires his best, or his worst education, because it is there that he receives those impressions that are the most enduring ending only in death. It is a crime, in this age, and country, for a child to grow up without a fair education in the English branches and in the studies necessary to an ordinary business life. Education costs nothing, comparatively, in this country, but the time and effort necessary to acquire it. An ignorant man is an incubus on, and a standing menace to the community. Teach children noble ambitions and lofty purposes and so shape and diirect their minds that they may come instinctively to shun an action that looks alone to mere personal gratification. As Mrs. Jameson says, “Where the vivacity of the intellect and the strength of the passions exceed the development of the moral faculties the character is likely to be embittered or corrupted by extremes either of ad¬ versity or prosperity.” So, the higher the life the higher the character.