and the subjects well taught, ought to be the means of exerting an influence on character. But from the ethical standpoint, certain parts of it are of peculiarly great significance. It is obvious that literature and history, drawing and music, and manual activities are all capable of exercising a great influence on the development of character. It is a mistake to ask, Which has the greatest influence? Their influence is greatest when they are all present, for each subject has its special contribution to make to moral training. In the study of literature and history, the child's attitude is passive and receptive; it receives passively the ideals which literature and history have to teach it. On the other hand, in manual activity the mind is active and re-creative. It strives to express its ideals, to reproduce them in tangible and visible form, to impose its will on wood or stone or marble. And in drawing and music both these attitudes are present together. On the one hand, the mind is passive and receptive in so far as it allows the melody of a piece of music or the beauty of a landscape to impress it; but active and re-creative in so far as it seeks to express the melody it has heard or the composition it has read or the beauty it has seen—to express them in beautiful sounds or lines or colours. These studies are morally valuable, not merely because they educate eye and ear and mind and will, but because they educate them not disproportionately but harmoniously.
But the most potent factor in all moral education has still to be mentioned. It is the personality of the teacher. The teacher can scarcely hope to exert an influence on the hidden springs of conduct of his
