The second principle is simply that the mind must be consulted in its own growth. The idea of hammering the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher is a barbarous and ignorant superstition. It is he himself who must be induced to expand in accordance with his own nature. Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him or her to take or refuse. The task is to find, develop and use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.

The third principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. The basis of man’s nature is almost always, in addition to the souls past, his heredity, his surroundings, his nationality, his country, the soil from which he draws his sustenance, the air which he breathes, the sights, sounds, habits to which he is accustomed. They mould him not the less powerfully because insensibly, and from that then we must begin If anything has to be brought in from outside, it must be offered, not forced on the mind.