Homeschool

5. Therefore we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas.

Points 6-8 explain in more detail what is meant by each of the three instruments. I think the key thought in point 5 is the word "limited." If we are limited to these three instruments, what other instruments are forbidden?

I see the answer in a paragraph in volume 3 chapter 17. The paragraph is repeated in chapter 20 with some modifications. Here's the quote from chapter 20, with the variations from chapter 17 in brackets:

"By this we mean that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere) [to forward his sound education], should train him in habits of good living (discipline), and should nourish his mind with ideas, the food of the intellectual life [the food upon which personality waxes strong]. These three we believe to be the only instruments of which we may make lawful use in bringing up children. An easier way [short cut] may be found by trading on their sensibilities, emotions, desires, passions; but the result must be disastrous [will bring us and our children to grief]. And for this reason, that habits, ideas, and circumstances are external, and we may help each other to get the best that is to be had of them; we may not, however, meddle directly with personality of child or man; we may not work upon his vanity, his fears, his love, his emulation, [or any thing that is his by very right,] or anything that goes to make him a person. Most people are in earnest about the bringing up of children; but we are in danger of taking too much upon us, and of not recognising the limitations which confine us to the outworks of personality."

Charlotte Mason's point 5 is saying that we can only lawfully use external instruments which respect the child's person. We cannot use manipulative techniques. Manipulation (working upon vanity, fears, love, emulation) may result in outward achievement, but not the desired inward growth.

Yesterday, we saw a falconer. He explained how he trains hawks. It is not easy. He said he cannot make the hawk do anything. He can only use external means to try to convince the hawk to follow him. If the falconer gets impatient and tries to force the hawk to comply, he may lose the hawk forever. The falconer said the two skills required of a trainer are patience and discipline: patience to wait for the hawk to respond to training, and discipline to be perfectly consistent in every interaction.

At yesterday's demonstration, the falconer brought out two hawks. One of them returned when called. The other hawk, named Fire, would not return to his master. The falconer had a large crowd to please. Perhaps he was embarrassed. But he had the discipline to not rush. to not force the hawk to return. He remained calm, and gently called Fire. But Fire remained perched high on a pole, and would not come back. Finally, the falconer dismissed the audience and ended his demonstration early.

As I sat watching the hawk on his perch, I thought of my children. I want my children to come to me; I want their hearts. But I cannot force them. I can only gently and patiently call to them, with the hope that they will freely give themselves to their father and to their father's God.

My son is training for a figure skating competition. Tonight I wanted him to practice by skating his routine during a public skating session. My son did not want to. I started to get embarrassed, and I stated to get impatient. I was about to get angry and to raise my voice. I was about to work upon vanity, fears, love, or emulation. But I remembered the falconer's patience and discipline. So I remained calm and patiently addressed my son's concerns. And after a few minutes he agreed to skate his routine.

The hawk attacks his prey with precision, strength, and speed. Yet he employs this lethal strength with grace and beauty. The dive of the hawk is breathtaking. I had seen my son's skating routine many times before from the stands, but I had never before seen it from the ice myself. As my son swooped by me, I could not help but see the grace of the hawk.

6. By the saying, Education is an atmosphere, it is not meant that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child environment,' especially adapted and prepared; but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to a 'child's' level.

"By the way, we lose something by substituting 'environment' (that blessed word, Mesopotamia!) for atmosphere. The latter word is symbolic, it is true, but a symbol means more to us all than the name of the thing signified. We think of fresh air, pure, bracing, tonic,––of the definite act of breathing which must be fully accomplished; and we are incited to do more and mean more in the matter of our children's surroundings if we regard the whole as an atmosphere, than if we accept the more literal 'environment.'" (C14)

Is "Education is an atmosphere" a sufficient instrument for education?

"No; because though we cannot live without air, neither can we live upon air, and children brought up upon 'environment' soon begin to show signs of inanition; they have little or no healthy curiosity, power of attention, or of effort; what is worse, initiative; they expect life to drop into them like drops into a rain-tub, without effort or intention on their part." (C14)

7. By Education is a discipline, is meant the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to habitual lines of thought––i.e. to our habits.

"That the discipline of the habits of the good life, both intellectual and moral, forms a good third of education, we all believe." (C14)

8. In the saying that Education is a life, the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

"In truth, a nation or a man becomes great upon one diet only, the diet of great ideas communicated to those already prepared to receive them by a higher Power than Nature herself" (C14)

Is "Education is a life" a sufficient instrument for education?

"Education is a Life, results in Intellectual Exhaustion" (C14)
"'Education is a life' was the (unconscious) formula then; and a feverish chase after ideas was the outcome" (C14)

Chapter 13 : Some Unconsidered Aspects of Religious Training

Prior to reading chapters 12 and 13, I thought that CM religious training involved 1) reading the Scriptures, 2) narrating the Scriptures, and 3) masterly inactivity. Once the child has a relationship with God through His Word, the Holy Spirit brings the growth.

Chapter 13 broadened my understanding of CM religious training to include the following:

A. Reading devotional literature. Fortunately, this is well-covered in the AO curriculum.

B. Establishing habits of Christian practice. These habits include consistent daily devotions, reverent singing of hymns, and special Sunday activities. Also included is the habit of outward forms that encourage inward reverence.

C. Establishing the habit of "the thought of God."

For me, the most challenging (even overwhelming) of these is "to keep [my] child in this habit of the thought of God––so that to lose it, for even a little while, is like coming home after an absence and finding his mother out." Charlotte says this "is a very delicate part of a parent's work." Delicate indeed! Charlotte says, "Of the child it should be said that God is in all his thoughts." Oh that it could be said of me that God is in all my thoughts!

I understand that one instills the habit of Christian practice as one instills the habit of closing the door. But installing the habit of God in all the thoughts? I am inclined to sneak back to chapter 3 to take refuge in "masterly inactivity." This new habit of the soul? I say with Job, "Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not."

Chapter 14 : A Master Thought

Dr. John Thorley is former Principal of Charlotte Mason College at Ambleside. At the 2006 ChildLight conference, Dr. John Thorley quoted Charlotte Mason from this chapter: "Evolution [is] the master-thought of the age, ... the keyword for the interpretation of life, both animal and vegetable." Dr. Thorley then added, "Now I don't know whether that surprises you or not."

Later in the conference, Jack Beckman also alluded to this topic. Dr. Beckman is Associate Professor of Education at Covenant College. Dr. Beckman said that many in the Charlotte Mason movement believe "that Charlotte can do no wrong, that everything she ever wrote is as clear and as clean as Scripture, [that] the problem is that our interpretation of it might be off." In correction of this, Dr. Beckman said that we must not commit "the fallacy of historical anachronism" where we "take our 21st century evangelicalism and project it backwards to Charlotte Mason and say, 'that's what she is.'"

In this chapter, Mason writes that, "others of us, again, take refuge in repudiating 'evolution' and all its works and nailing our colours to religion, interpreted on our own narrow lines." I freely and without apology admit that I fall into this camp. I hang all my beliefs on my narrow presupposition that the Bible is infallible, and so I repudiate evolution with all my might.

Nor do I take my evangelicalism and project it backwards to Charlotte Mason. It is not for me to say whether Mason would believe in evolution were she alive today, in this era of ICR, Answers in Genesis, and CMI. I do not wish to look back through the tunnel of history only to find a mirror reflecting my own image back to me. Instead, I want find the person who I know is different from me. I want to find Mason herself, in her time and in her system, and I wish to sit at her feet and learn.

So what do I do when the teacher I admire tells me that evolution is "the keyword for the interpretation of life"? First, I must discriminate between the "essential and [the] accidental" elements of her teaching. (A principle that Mason is willing to employ to interpret a Teacher of much greater wisdom and accomplishment.) Is evolution essential or accidental to Mason's teaching? I say it is accidental. For even in this chapter, surrounding her bold statement about evolution, are profound words of insight which are absolutely true:

1. "Let us first of all settle it with ourselves that science and religion cannot, to the believer in God, by any possibility be antagonistic." This statement is so simple and yet so limitless in application.

2. "Our piety, our virtue, our intellectual activities, and, let us add, our physical perfections, are all fed from the same source, God Himself." Thanks to Miss Mason, I place before my children the best in music, art, and literature, (and I provide them training in skating and dancing), knowing with a clear conscience that it is all to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength.

3. Scientists are "the mouthpieces, not merely of the truth, for which they are so ready to combat and suffer, but also as the chosen and prepared servants of Him who is the Truth." Do we receive the benefits and conveniences of technology and medicine as the accomplishment of men? Or do we receive it from God's hand as gifts of common grace? (Note that by science here I mean real or operational science, not the religion of evolution which only masquerades as science.)

4. "Many times since, with each epoch-making discovery, has science cried––Eureka! over the one principle which should explain all things and eliminate Personality. But Personality remains." Science will never and can never erase the Person of God, or the person-ness of those made in His image. I bless God for leading me to a philosophy of education which begins with the truth that "children are born persons."

I say evolution is only accidental to Mason's teaching. And a bad accident at that. For she notes Coleridge's lamentation, "What ... is Botany at this present hour? Little more than an enormous nomenclature." Mason thinks that evolution is the unifying principle "which should give it organisation." But the real unifying principle is actually much closer to Mason's heart than she realized. Why are children born persons? Because they are made in the image of the eternal God of Three Persons. The works of a great artist are endless in variety, and yet all reveal a common style. So to the endless diversity of plant and animal life points back to a common Designer, the Person who is there.

Chapter 15 : School Books

This extraordinary chapter is entitled, "School-Books and How They Make for Education." It is a living chapter about living books. The chapter includes a lengthy quotation from the book The Neighbors. The quotation tells an astonishing story about school-girl life 200 years ago. The story is as inspiring as the books which inspired the heroine. It must be read to be believed.

In this chapter, Charlotte Mason describes the aim of education: "The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care?" This beautifully-worded statement is a fine one-sentence answer to the question, "Why a CM education?"

The criteria for identifying a living book remains elusive to me. So far, I have seen only intuitive descriptions from Mason. This chapter expands the description, but it remains intuitive. I think my own attempts to define a more objective criteria have been pretty weak. I come up with tests like "context" and "style" and "story." But should I even bother? Perhaps it is better to just rely on Mason's living descriptions like:

"Now, if we send to any publisher for his catalogue of school books, we find that it is accepted as the nature of a school-book that it be drained dry of living thought... all that is left for the unhappy scholar is the dry bones of his subject denuded of soft flesh and living colour, of the stir of life and power of moving."

Perhaps that should be enough for me. My hobby is World War II history. I intuitively know enough to read Fighter Squadron at Gudalcanal instead of World War II: A Military And Social History. Thanks, AO, for choosing the rest of the curriculum.

Chapter 16 : How to Use School Books

What are living books? I hoped this chapter would finally give me the heuristic. Charlotte Mason says that:

• "The 'hundred best books for the schoolroom' may be put down on a list, but not by [her]." • Living books may be long or short.

• Living books need not be written by the original thinker. A book can be second-hand and still be living. (Phew!)

• A living book must be "quick, and informed with the ideas proper to the subject of which it treats."

• "The children must enjoy the book."

How does one "teach" a living book?

• The teacher does not "impart" the knowledge. The teacher should show excitement and interest, but should not talk or explain too much.

• The child must labor and dig for knowledge, by connecting to the thinker's mind through his book. The child is the one who generalizes, classifies, infers, judges, visualizes, discriminates, and ultimately accepts or rejects ideas.

The primary activity to use with living books is narration, not surprisingly. What surprised me were the "other ways of using books," alternatives to narration:

A. Enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter.

B. Analyze a chapter. (Divide it into paragraphs under proper headings; tabulate and classify series.)

C. Trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause.

D. Discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact.

Surely we all use narration... But do any of you use these other activities?

My 7-year-old son is reading Acts (KJV) and narrating it back to me. Sometimes we encounter passages that are hard for him to understand. For example, he was not clear on the events of Acts 17:14-15 after two or three slow readings. So we drew a simple map and moved around tokens representing Paul, Silas, Timothy, and "they that conducted Paul." Once he saw it, he was able to narrate it easily. In this case, was I the teacher who "deadens the impression by a flood of talk," or did I help my son to dig and analyze?

Chapter 17 : Education, The Science of Relations

"We are Educated by Our Intimacies"

Charlotte Mason quotes "Pastor Pastorum," by H. Latham. In the quotation, Latham describes how Jesus Christ taught His disciples. Latham says that the disciples, in the eyes of Christ, were persons growing from within, not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. In other words, some of the basic principles outlined by Charlotte Mason can be seen modeled by Christ. Does anyone know anything more about this "Pastor Pastorum"?

Mason quotes Hamlet saying, "Every man hath business and desire." But Mason asks, "We have business, but have we desire? Are there many keen interests soliciting us outside of our necessary work? Perhaps not, or we should be less enslaved by the vapid joys of Ping-Pong, Patience, Bridge, and their like."

Vapid joys! I won't stand up to defend Ping-Pong or Patience, but certainly Bridge has some value? But if Bridge is vapid, then what of spectator sports, movies, or (oh my!) video games? As parents, it is our responsibility to "make provision for the future of our children" by setting up dynamic relationships that will lead to the fullest joys.

And so education is more than career preparation, and it is more even than discipleship. Education is also the cultivation of the appetite for better things. Mason says that children are born with a readiness for these relationships. Our job as parents is not to construct these affinities ex nihilo, but rather to 1) remove obstructions, 2) give stimulus, and 3) give guidance.

Mason concludes the chapter with excerpts from Wordsworth's childhood. Now granted, "prudence and not panic should rule our conduct towards" our children. But even so, the free and wild childhood of Wordsworth is hard for me to even contemplate. I can perhaps imagine that "there were giants in the earth in those days," but surely the "rough-and-tumble bringing up" of Wordsworth occurred in a different world.

Chapter 18 : Further Affinities

"We are Educated by Our Intimacies, Part II"

In this chapter, Charlotte Mason supports her principles by referring to the education of two well-known writers, John Ruskin and William Wordsworth. Mason seems to assume that her reader is not only familiar with Ruskin and Wordsworth, but also has read some of their autobiographical sketches. I confess that prior to reading this chapter and the previous, I could have recorded all that I know about Wordsworth on a postage stamp, and I had never even heard of Ruskin. Have any of you read more about Ruskin and Wordsworth?

Mason makes the case that the child should develop affinities, or relationships, with the following:

• Material, such as objects used for constructing things
• Living things, such as birds and flowers
• Rocks and minerals
• Living books
• Poetry
• History, through a living touch with the past
• People (comradeships)

Mason shows how Ruskin and Wordsworth were either blessed by or deprived of these relationships.

This chapter gave more illustrations and helped me understand better what is meant by the phrase, "education is the science of relations." It also further reinforced to me the importance of nature study and handicrafts. Handicrafts are certainly not a "local truth" of Charlotte Mason: I believe they are an essential part of a Charlotte Mason education even in the Information Age.

When my daughter was three, she gathered some pebbles at the Kenosha Sand Dunes and gave them to me as a gift. Now she is four, and just the other day, she saw the pebbles in a place of honor on my desk. She told me she needed to go and find more pebbles for me. Thank you, Ms. Mason, for opening my eyes to see that this affinity for pebbles is a living relation.

Chapter 19 - Vocation

1. Unnatural Growth

Charlotte Mason includes a moving quote from Wordsworth. If I interpreted it correctly, the quote describes an accomplished child educated under a certain system. Yet:

"Meanwhile old grandame earth is grieved to find The playthings, which her love designed for him, Unthought of: in their woodland beds the flowers Weep, and the river sides are all forlorn. Oh! give us once again the wishing-cap Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood, And Sabra in the forest with St George! The child, whose love is here, at least, doth reap One precious gain, that he forgets himself."

I think the point of the quote is that the education of the child should foster natural affinities with nature and adventure. I do try to bring my children to nature. But I confess that in Chiwaukee Prairie there are flowers that weep because they miss a certain boy and girl.

2. Liberal Education

Someone in the homeschool community said, "What we've discovered is that some subjects need to be mastered, and others just require exposure. When it comes down to it, the two subjects that must be mastered to prepare your children for adult life are the English language and mathematics."

Hmm. Charlotte Mason says, "We must get rid of the notion that to learn the 'three R's' or the Latin grammar well, a child should learn these and nothing else. It is as true for children as for ourselves that, the wider the range of interests, the more intelligent is the apprehension of each."

In my life, reading history (for example, about Dick Winters) has helped me professionally as a manager. For our children to master "the English language," other subjects require more than just "exposure."

3. Affinities not Cravings

Charlotte Mason points out that children have natural affinities for the relations of education. But these are not cravings. Although we do not create the affinities in our children, it is our responsibility to nurture them. This nurturing must not be "desultory."

4. The Captain Idea

Miss Mason includes a paragraph called, "The Angel troubles the still Pool." I believe she is saying that the simple method of education yields better results than the fancy. For example, might I suggest it is better to learn Christian apologetics from reading (and narrating) William Paley than a fancy multimedia DVD course with study guide?

The chapter closes with an account of Brother Lawrence and the Captain Idea that filled his heart with a lifelong love for God. No human teacher taught him this, only the Holy Spirit. I think that Charlotte Mason included this account to show that as teachers, the best we can do is bring our children to the still pool with the hope that the angel will stir the waters.

5. An Educational Manifesto

Page 214 contains a one-page "Educational Manifesto." It is more practical than the 20 principles, and it seems to me to be a great one-page summary of CM applied.

Chapter 20 - Suggestions Toward a Curriculum

This helpful chapter is in many respects a summary of the preceding chapters. Charlotte Mason asks for the "reader's patience with such repetitions," and I for one was gladly patient for (more than) one careful reading. The summary nicely displays the conceptual links between all the preceding ideas.

Charlotte Mason further explains the phrase "Education is the Science of Relations" by saying that, for her, the goal of education is to give children the use of as much of the world as may be.

Miss Mason discusses the difference between knowledge and information. Information is "the record of facts, experiences, appearances, etc.," whether in books or memory. By contrast, knowledge is "the result of the voluntary and delightful action of the mind upon the material presented to it." Her use of these terms seems a bit obscure to readers of our time, because we tend to think of knowledge as "the record of facts."

At first, I thought that "understanding" might be today's term for what she called knowledge. However, in Chapter 22, Miss Mason further differentiates between "knowing" and "thinking," and she makes it clear that "knowing" is more than just a thought process. So here's my interpretation of Charlotte Mason's terms, borrowing the words "incorporated" and "remembered" from this chapter:

Knowledge: Living ideas understood and incorporated by a knower.

Information: Facts or experiences recorded in documents or remembered in the mind.

Miss Mason says the mind processes material to form knowledge as naturally as the organs process food to form energy. We don't teach our stomach how to digest food. Nor do we really teach judgment or imagination. We only give opportunity for these God-given gifts of the mind to act.

I was delighted by the statement that "education should give knowledge touched with emotion." The child should have an emotional relationship with the material (not the emotions associated with rewards, grades, and exams). Knowledge is most enriching when it leaves behind a "dormant appetite for more of the kind."

Jesus said to the Jews, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life" (John 5:39-40). Could it be that they found only Information in the words of Scripture? But to find Knowledge - the knowledge of God - one must come in relationship to Christ the Living Word.

Chapter 21 - School Books

This chapter is packed with detailed guidance from Charlotte Mason on designing a curriculum for children under twelve.

Miss Mason says that education should be done by Things and Books.

> Education by Things: Science, nature study, handicrafts, art appreciation.

> Education by Books: Religion, history, languages.

Miss Mason says that education should NOT be done by Lectures or Appliances.

Lectures are nice if they are given by orators, but most teachers (and parents) are not orators. The teacher should only give "a word or two of his own interest in the matter contained, of his own delight in the manner of the author," and then let the student engage with the book.

Appliances are apparently elaborate models that are "stultifying," and that "stale on the senses and produce a torpor of thought." Miss Mason describes how the torpedo was clearly explained to her using the simple model of a spectacle case. A "few lines on the blackboard" are better than elaborate printed diagrams. This is good news for homeschoolers who would find it costly and difficult to gather up expensive materials.

The Books must be living books. Miss Mason says rightly that the cornerstone for both religion and literature is the Bible. Second in educational value is Plutarch's lives. All other books must of course be living books.

In this chapter I finally find out how to choose living books. The answer is... "The expert is not the person to choose; the children themselves are the experts in this case." A living book is one that opens the door to the child's mind. The expert can make an educated guess about a particular book, but then must "experiment or test the experiments of others," presumably by actually seeing how children respond to the book.

This chapter contains welcome guidance on nature study that I have long sought for. The main goal of nature study is observation. "The teachers are careful not to make these nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction." The children "notice for themselves," manage their own nature note-books, and are ideally given "very little direction."

The chapter also includes what seems to be Charlotte Mason's verdict on unit studies. Arbitrary connections are not allowed, so math problems about logistics should not be invented for a study of the Spanish Armada. However, inherent connections such as literature and travels should be brought in when studying history.

I have heard other people say that Charlotte Mason advocated linking ideas together so children could remember them. Yet in this and many other chapters, Miss Mason vigorously rejects the concept of "apperception masses." It seems that Miss Mason is not overly concerned about linking together topics in the curriculum. Have I misunderstood this point?

Chapter 22 - The Love of Knowledge

1. Short Hours

Finally at the end of Volume 3, Charlotte Mason discloses the now famous distinctive that book-work in her schools ends at 1 PM, with no homework. But, there are one to two hours of handicrafts, field-work, and drawing in the afternoon. Also, the preceding 21 chapters explain how book-work can end by 1 PM: it requires the habit of close attention and the flame of steady interest.

In other words, the careful application of all of the CM methods makes it possible to have a short school day. Simply ending at 1 PM because that is the CM way is mistaking the fruit for the method.

2. Knowledge

In Chapter 20, Miss Mason contrasted knowledge with information. In this chapter, she contrasts knowing with thinking. She is concerned about educational theorists who feel it is more important that the child should think than that the child should know. But Miss Mason says that "giving 'education' without abundant knowledge" is like trying to achieve physical fitness by "giving the maximum of exercise with the minimum of food."

In fact, she points out that knowing is impossible without thinking. So by providing an abundance of material (living ideas), the child will grow in knowledge and by necessity learn how to think.

3. Causes of Failure

Miss Mason gives a nice concise list of methods that undermine education:

a. The oral lesson b. The lecture c. The text-book d. Motivating by appealing to anything but the desire for knowledge e. Dependence on appliances (which I understand to be elaborate models) f. Readers (instead of whole books)

4. Fads

Charlotte Mason cautions against trying the latest fad in education. I think this advice is relevant in our day of homeschool curriculum fairs where there is always a new trick for sale. Miss Mason says that new methods should only be employed when they have proven to be successful with real students, or they have been clearly derived from previously established principles.

5. School

Miss Mason says that children love school (not homeschool) because of the social interaction, the opportunity for reward and praise, the frequent fun and games, and the inviting personality of favorite teachers. But these are not the love of knowledge. We send our children to Sunday school and Awana. What do they enjoy most about these group settings? I think Miss Mason is right. She points out that all the joys of school will pass, and only the love of knowledge will remain.

To grow in the knowledge of God for a lifetime, the child must love the knowledge of God. Will this love be born in Sunday school? Or is there some quiet hidden spot in my home where my children will, like Samuel, hear God's voice for the first time and say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

Volume 4 : Ourselves

Book 1

Preface and Introduction - The Dual Self

They are "merely conscious little rocks, every one of them, whereas ... I am Charlotte Simmons." (Tom Wolfe)

This week, I read the Preface and Introduction of Volume 4 in which Charlotte Mason discusses the dual self. "This [fact], of a dual self, is perhaps our most intimate and our least-acknowledged consciousness," writes Mason.

In this, one would think, Charlotte Mason is on solid ground. J.P. Moreland writes, "It is safe to say that throughout human history, the vast majority of people, educated and uneducated alike, have been dualists." Furthermore, he adds, "For two thousand years, the vast majority of Christian thinkers have believed in the souls of men."

And yet even in Mason's day doubt was forming. Mason could not, "as yet, go to Psychology for an answer, because [psychology] is still in the act of determining whether or no there be any spirit." Nowadays, Psychology has long since determined that there be no spirit. Moreland writes, "Today things have changed. For many, the rise of modern science has called into question the viability of dualism... Many argue that neurophysiology demonstrates the ... identity between mind and brain."

Sadly, the trend among Christian thinkers is to follow the spirit of the age. "Among contemporary Christian intellectuals there is a widespread loathing for dualism as well... In short, dualism is [considered] outdated, unbiblical and incorrect," writes Moreland. For example, Christian theologian Bruce Reichenbach denies the existence of the soul. For Reichenbach, "Persons are indetical to properly functioning ... brains; when the body dies the person ceases to exist." How does Reichenbach explain life after death? "At the future, final resurrection, persons are re-created after a period of nonexistence."

I am happy to find in Charlotte Mason not just a guide for education, but also a defender of belief in the soul. Miss Mason stands firmly with Thomas Aquinas, who writes that man "is composed of a spiritual and corporeal substance."

In the Introduction, Miss Mason describes the objective self and the subjective self. The objective self is "the self of great and beautiful possibilities"; in a sense, the self's potential. However, the subjective self is what actually chooses the unfolding destiny of the person. "Upon its insight and its action depends the redemption of that greater self, whose limitations no man has discovered."

Mason draws an analogy between the dual self and a country. The objective self is the country itself, and the subjective self is its governing body. "The country is ever greater than the governing body; and yet, for its development, the former must depend upon the latter."

From this, I gather that the subjective self is the conscious self. (The "I" who I am, which would make sense, since "I" is the subject.) I believe this is called "qualia." Daniel Tate, in "Journal of Creation", Vol 21(1) 2007, says that "the 'hard' problem concerns whether neuroscience can explain our subjective awareness or experiences (phenomenal consciousness), which in the analytic tradition are often called qualia."

Tate also writes that "... dualism, with humans consisting of both a physical brain and a non-physical component or components (soul and/or spirit), remains the best explanation for the phenomenon of consciousness. This conclusion seems sound both philosophically and scientifically. Unfortunately, the term 'dualism' is currently very unpopular within theology."

Moreland, Tate, and Mason all appeal to philosophy. Charlotte Mason explains that her methodology is based on philosophy, guided by Scripture and reason. Mason writes, "Where I appear to abandon the dicta of our more ancient guide, Philosophy, it is only as I am led by common intuition." Also, "The scheme of thought rests upon intuitive morality, as sanctioned by the authority of Revelation."

I am glad to be reading Volume 4. Once, I invited Charlotte Mason to structure my homsechool. To my surprise, she began to change my life.

Introduction - Part I Chapter 1 - The Perils Of Mansoul

This week I read and pondered the first four chapters of Volume 4. Charlotte Mason had already introduced me to "Mansoul" back in Volume 1, Part VI. But here in Volume 4 I learn much more about this wonderful land. "Of all the fair lands which God has made, there is no country more fair." In the tradition of "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Pilgrim's Regress" (C.S. Lewis), Miss Mason discusses abstract concepts with the help of allegory.

Fortunately for us, Miss Mason helps us understand the symbols of her allegory. Even with this help, she supposes the reader has "already found it difficult to make everything fit." (Even Lewis gives us some help understanding his allegory, adding interpretive headings to each page.) These allegories work because certain spiritual concepts are simply easier to understand when mapped to familiar physical realties. I like her analogy. I am enjoying thinking of the soul as a land for which "no map has been made of the country, because a great deal of it is unexplored, and men have not discovered its boundaries."

I read of the perils of Mansoul with great interest. I have an idea of what is meant by the peril of fire. My guess is that these are dangerous ideas planted in the soul that lead to destruction. "Sometimes an incendiary will land at one of its ports from some foreign country, perhaps with the express purpose of setting fire to what is best in Mansoul; but perhaps a man sets fire to things by accident because he does not know how inflammable they are." As a homeschooling father and family defender, I feel I must do my best to block the incendiaries from reaching one of the ports under my care. Or at least to help the young governments to recognize and extinguish the fires.

I certainly agree that the peril of sloth is a "most common evil." I think that the warning of Proverbs 24 applies to all aspects of Mansoul: "I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man."

I enjoyed reading about gluttony. Perhaps I have been going to the wrong churches, but in the twenty plus years that I have believed the Bible, I can only recall hearing one sermon on gluttony. That seems a bit odd, given that it is one of the seven deadly sins recognized by church history. Miss Mason's advice seems unusual nowadays: "Never think of your meals till they come, and, while you are eating, talk and think of something more amusing than your food." However, it reminded me of words written by Susanna Wesley (who is, by the way, mentioned in Volume 1):

"'Twill be very necessary to think often upon the true end of eating and drinking, which is to repair the decays of nature and thereby to strengthen and refresh the body, that it may be serviceable to the mind, as both must be to God. And whatever other end is proposed, as pleasure, company, etc., are directly contrary to the will of God and the great law of nature."

"All I intend is that we should by no means make pleasure our principle end in eating or drinking. But whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, let us do all to the glory of God."

What does this have to do with homeschool? Well, I suppose I can only teach what I have learned, and I certainly have not learned such an attitude towards food. But Charlotte Mason did not intend this material primarily for the teacher. Rather, from the Preface, "The teaching in Book I. is designed for boys and girls under sixteen." In the Introduction she explains how to use it: "I think that in teaching children mothers should make their own of so much as they wish to give of such teaching, and speak it, a little at a time, perhaps by way of Sunday talks. This would help to impress children with the thought that our relations with God embrace the whole of our lives."

To that end, I wonder if I should start telling my children about this wonderful land called Mansoul. My son certainly loves Pilgrim's Progress. I did speak a line today (on a Sunday, no less), when I told my son that "Sometimes the people still care to play; but play without work becomes dull after a time, and soon comes to a stop." Perhaps I could have elaborated more, if I hadn't been so preoccupied with my turtle sundae.

Part II Chapters 2-5 - Our First Parents

This week I read the remainder of Volume 4, Book 1, Part 1. I continue to be very pleased with the allegory and model of Mansoul. There are classic Christian concepts here, most notably, that one's desires are God-given and good, but when one makes the desires the master, the result is sin and ruin. The concepts are familiar, but Charlotte Mason's model and mode of presentation is especially clear, convicting, and useful.

Besides the wise words about eating, drinking, purity, and alertness, I was very pleased to read some words of sound orthodoxy:

"Remember that God puts before each of us in this matter the choice between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, which he put before Adam and Eve. They sinned, and death entered into the world. And so surely as you allow yourself in this sin of Uncleanness, even to think a thought which you could not go straight and tell your mother, death begins in you, death of body and soul. Fight the good fight, and do not let yourself, like our first parents, be the victim of unholy curiosity."

Here are words that resonate with the creationist:

- God placed a choice before Adam and Eve.
- Death entered the world because Adam and Eve sinned.
- Adam and Eve were the first people, our first parents.

I choose to take these words at face value, and assert that Miss Mason believed in a literal Fall, by which death entered a perfect world. I think one must believe in the Fall to make sense of Mansoul, and I think that Mason's sympathetic words elsewhere on evolution reveal an inconsistency on her part which later generations can and should correct.

Furthermore, someone might criticize Charlotte Mason's teaching on habits and moral training as overemphasizing the human aspect, and perhaps even suggesting that man can sanctify himself. But in these chapters, I read:

"It is our thoughts that we must rule, and the way to rule them is very simple. We just have to think of something else when an evil thought comes, something really interesting and nice, with a prayer in our hearts to God to help us to do so."

I appreciate this quote because it shows that Charlotte Mason acknowledges God's role in sanctification and holiness. While we use our wills to change our thoughts and develop habits, we still must seek help from God in prayer. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow."

In general, I am very comfortable with Charlotte Mason's pairing of desire and vice in these chapters (hunger - gluttony, thirst - drunkenness, rest - sloth, etc.). I would suggest adding one vice, though. The Bible often associates greed with the desire of the eyes. For example, Ecclesiastes 5:11:

"As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?"

Of the sense of sight and hearing, Miss Mason says, "I do not know that they have any serious faults as servants, excepting those of laziness and inattention." However, I would say that greed (in at least some form) is a Dæmon of sight.

So far I still think that Book 1 could be quite useful for teaching young people in the homeschool. I am still pondering how to best use it in my family.

Part II Chapters 1-3 - Intellect and Beauty

This week I moved on from the House of the Body to the House of the Mind, and I read about my Lord Intellect and his dæmons. These chapters struck me as an allegory of Charlotte Mason's teaching on education. For example, Miss Mason famously says that "education is the science of relations." In Volume 3, she explains this phrase: "What we are concerned with is the fact that we personally have relations with all that there is in the present, all that there has been in the past, and all that there will be in the future––with all above us and all about us––and that fulness of living, expansion, expression, and serviceableness, for each of us, depend upon how far we apprehend these relationships and how many of them we lay hold of." Now in Volume 4, this concept is illustrated. She writes that my Lord Intellect "establishes relations with many foreign kingdoms."

One relation is history. "Of all the pleasant places in the world of mind, I do not know that any are more delightful than those in the domain of History." The emphasis is on the joy of learning history, rather than its utilitarian benefit. One delight of history is that "the longer you look at any one person, the more clearly he stands out until at last he may become more real to you than the people who live in your own home." This is certainly true in my experience. It suggests to me that the most fulfilling study of history involves some degree of specialization: One can't have such a deep and lingering look at every one of history's personages.

Learning history is not about memorizing facts and dates, but making "acquaintance with many who were noble and great." To do so, it is necessary to "think of things and figure them to ourselves, until at last they are real and alive to us." That is why we need living books. Books that are dry outlines of history do not provide the food the imagination requires to bring history to life in the mind.

Another relation is mathematics. I thought Charlotte Mason's analogy was very clever: the Principality of Mathematics "differs from most mountainous countries in this, that you cannot lose your way, and that every step taken is on firm ground." Math is indeed the land of proof and certainty.

Literature is another rich source of relations. As with history, with literature we can make a "multitude of acquaintances." The characters in great books can "live in [our] thoughts." After I read the Bride of Lammermoor, the Master of Ravenswood did live in my thoughts! I can still look through the chink with Caleb and see Ravenswood "engaged in measuring the length of two or three swords which lay in a closet adjoining to the apartment." Ravenswood mutters to himself, as he selects one of these weapons, "It is shorter: let him have this advantage, as he has every other."

Literature also requires living books. When I read through Volume 3, I struggled to find the criteria that identifies a living book. This section illustrates it, by saying that non-living books are "where pictures are painted for you and where people are introduced; but you cannot see the pictures with your eyes shut, and the people do not live and act in your thoughts." Living books are identified in a practical way: do they come alive in your mind?

Charlotte Mason also talks about Nature Study in this section. Is the main point about Nature Study to learn the names of plants and the steps of photosynthesis? Perhaps in the Province of Science. But "the person who watches Nature closely and knows her well, like the poet Wordsworth, for example, has his Beauty Sense always active, always bringing him joy." This section enhances Volume 3 by emphasizing observation and beauty in the study of nature.

Besides Nature, we find Beauty "in picture, statue, glorious cathedral, in delicate ornament, in fugue, sonata, simple melody." Edgar Allan Poe wrote, "That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating, and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the Beautiful. In the contemplation of Beauty we alone find it possible to attain that pleasurable elevation, or excitement of the soul, which we recognize as the Poetic Sentiment, and which is so easily distinguished from Truth, which is the satisfaction of the Reason, or from Passion, which is the excitement of the heart."

My favorite composer is Maurice Ravel. His biographer said that this quote from Poe is "the closest approximation of Ravel's aesthetic." "Ravel's art strove neither for passion nor for truth, but rather for the 'contemplation of the Beautiful,' through the satisfaction of the mind by means of the ear's pleasure." He is one of those "whose souls become so filled with the Beauty they gather through eye and ear that they produce for us new forms of Beauty."

But beware! There is "a dull and dreary Hall of Simulation which we may enter and believe it to be the Palace of Art." Indeed, we have a whole culture and industry based on simulated sound, which some call music. Plato observed what we see: "I notice endless innovation in dancing and all branches of music generally, constant change, inspired not by the laws but by a sort of unregulated taste." In our homeschools let us train the Beauty Sense to tame this unregulated taste.

In Volume 3 Chapter 15, I read the measure of an education: "The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care?" This is echoed here in Volume 4: "The happiness of the intellectual life comes of knowing and thinking, imagining and perceiving or rather, comes of the range of things which we know and think about, imagine and perceive." We should be occupied with bigger things, not the "stamp collection or of the next cricket match." (Actually, I would be somewhat impressed with a boy nowadays who was concerned about a stamp collection!)

A Charlotte Mason education is built on the right motivation. "Boys and girls may be so full of marks and places, prizes and scholarships, that they never see that their studies are meant to unlock the door for them into this or that region of intellectual joy and interest." When I was in school, that was all I thought about in education. It is only as a believer and an adult that I have begun to discover this "region of intellectual joy." Hopefully my children will be able to experience this from their youth.

Interestingly, this section identifies a dark side of habit, which I have not seen before in Miss Mason's writing. "The other Dæmon of Intellect is Habit... The mistake is to keep always on the same beaten track. It may be the mechanical round of lessons, without a thought of what it is all about." This I think is an important caution or balance as we work on habit in the homeschool.

Another Dæmon is excessive specialization. The remarks here on Leonardo da Vinci echo those in Volume 3 Chapter 14. From Volume 3: "But when art was great, men were not mere artists. Quentin Matsys wrought in iron and painted pictures and did many things besides. Michael Angelo wrote sonnets, designed buildings, painted pictures; marble was by no means his only vehicle of expression. Leonardo wrote treatises, planned canals, played instruments of music, did a hundred things, and all exquisitely."

My own Lord Intellect likes to wander in the Palace of Art. Maurice Ravel invites me, as four hands play La Ma Mère l'Oye. I have a recording of the Empress of the Pagoda where the pianos becomes bells, and sounds sparkle as light reflecting on a fountain. My Beauty Sense knows it well. But alas Charlotte Mason gives me another test. She presents me two examples of verse. "Try if the first gives you a sense of delight in the words alone, without any thought of the meaning of them, if the very words seem to sing to you." I read the two samples over and over, trying to find in either of them a key the Palace. Alas, my Beauty Sense could find no difference between the two.

Miss Mason offers me hope: "If you cannot see any difference in value between these two passages, perhaps you will do so some day." Perhaps after a few more years with Ambleside Online, I may grow up, too.

Part II Chapters 4-6 : The Way of the Reason

In this section of Ourselves, Charlotte Mason discusses My Lord Chief Attorney-General Reason. This chapter is essentially a lengthy exposition of her Point 16, "The Way of the Reason." Point 16 reads as follows:

"We should teach children, too, not to 'lean' (too confidently) 'unto their own understanding,' because the function of reason is, to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth; and (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case reason is, perhaps, an infallible guide, but in the second it is not always a safe one; for whether that initial idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs."

Chapter 6 explains this in detail. As such, I again find Ourselves to be not just a text book for young people, but a guidebook for interpreting Miss Mason's other writings. Why is reason not always a safe guide? How do we know that the function of reason is to give logical demonstration of ideas already accepted by the will?

Charlotte Mason provides several points of evidence to show the fallibility of reason:

When reason was deified by revolutionary France, the result was the Reign of Terror.
Good and sensible persons come to opposite conclusions.
Criminals have logically justified their crimes using reason.
There are many different schools of philosophy.

Reason is fallible because "Reason does not begin" the process of reason. Rather, "the beginning, ... is almost always a notion admitted by ... the Will." Therefore, "Reason has no right to speak the last word on most subjects; because to speak the first word does not rest with him, and the last word follows the lead of the first." That is most certainly true; however, whereas Charlotte Mason says that the conclusion ("idea") is first "accepted by the will," and then reason develops the logical arguments that prove the conclusion, I would add that the will also accepts presuppositions or assumptions, from which reason develops the logical implications and new conclusions.

Charlotte Mason says that reason is perfectly reliable in the area of mathematics, and here we find "absolute and certain truth." Indeed this is so, but why? Unfortunately, Miss Mason does not explain it (at least here). I would suggest that reason is so reliable in mathematics because 1) the presuppositions and assumptions are extremely few in number and agreed upon by all and 2) every intermediate and final conclusion of reason is completely testable in numerous ways. Errors can be spotted as easily as placing two Math-U-See blocks side-by-side.

Perhaps today, Charlotte Mason would say that operational science (technology) is a close second to mathematics. It is similar to mathematics, in that, for example, all mechanical engineers agree on the basic presuppositions of force and vector, and it is completely testable. The structure as designed by the engineer either stands or falls.

But in other areas, reason is fallible, mainly because reason acts on presuppositions that have already been accepted by the will. Since secular scientists today presuppose naturalism, their reason logically deduces evolution. On the other hand, I presuppose the authority of the Bible, so my reason logically deduces a recent Creation, with variation of life only within the created kinds.

Unfortunately, Miss Mason has set herself up for a problem. Back in Volume 1, she suggests that passages in the Bible contain both accidental and essential truth. Accidental truth concerns only "time, place, and circumstances," and may discarded without harming the essential truth. Presumably, she believed that the accidental truth could be mythical. But who logically determines which elements of Scripture are essential and which are accidental?

In the "Parents Review" article "How to Give Religious Instruction," Miss Agnes Mason writes, "But in the New Testament the fact is history, and is only the other side of the spiritual relation. Indeed, the second part of the Creed is nothing but a recitation of historical facts about Jesus Christ." In other words, "time, place, and circumstances" are so essential that they are not only enshrined in the most ancient creeds, but they are inextricably linked to the spiritual truth. If this is true of the New Testament, why not the Old? The same creed that says Christ "suffered under Pontius Pilate" also says, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth."

Charlotte Mason can only appeal to fallible reason as the arbitrator between essential and accidental truth. But for me, in Scripture there is only essential truth. When the Bible speaks of time, place, and circumstances, it does so with as much accuracy and authority as when it speaks of spirituality. So then for me, mathematics is not the crown jewel of truth. Rather, God's Word is "absolute and certain truth, ... perfect joy to us." When My Lord Chief Attorney-General Reason calculates the age of the earth based on the half-life rate of radioisotopes, I do not believe him. Rather, I tell him to take a closer look at the times and places of the Old Testament genealogies.

Why would will, the Prime Minister, accept such a dangerous presupposition as the absolute truth and authority of the Word of God? Because "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit." It is not a notion a man lets in "because it is an old one, or because it is a new one; because a man he respects thinks so-and-so, or because a man he dislikes thinks the other thing; because it is for his interest to think thus and thus, or because it is for his pleasure, or because it shows him to be a clever fellow, in advance of the rest of the world, to have such a notion," but because "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Part II Chapters 7-8 : Motivation

The more I read of Ourselves, the more I see it as a commentary on Charlotte Mason's other writings (at least of volumes 1-3, the only volumes I've read). This continues in the two chapters I read this week on The Lords Of The Exchequer, The Desires. Here, Charlotte Mason uses another approach to describe concepts already presented in earlier volumes on the topic of motivation.

First, Miss Mason elaborates on Point 10, which reads, "a child's mind is ... a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal, and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs." This analogy is used to explain the Desires: "their office is to do for Mind pretty much what the Appetites do for Body." Miss Mason lists six basic Desires:

The Desire of Approbation
The Desire of Excelling
The Desire of Wealth
The Desire of Power
The Desire of Society
The Desire of Knowledge

Each desire has its proper function (which leads to a well-fed mind) and its potential abuses (its dæmons).

The Desire of Approbation is a good and wholesome desire for approval. Its abuse is vanity (or, shall I say, pride). Back on July 9, Lorraine asked, "is pride [a misplaced] appetite too"? I think this chapter gives a pretty close answer from Miss Mason, who writes, "He is stupid who wants nobody's approval; he is vain who wants the approval of the unworthy."

The Desire of Excelling is also called Emulation. Charlotte Mason discusses the danger of emulation in detail in other places, such as Chapter 20 of Volume 2. Here, she summarizes the danger well: "Mind is sometimes so starved by the boy who comes out first that it never afterwards recovers its appetite." Certainly when I was a student, I cared only about grades; I have only lately recovered the real appetite for knowledge. One can recognize emulation when students "only want the marks, or prize, the place in class." Surely that's not a problem in Awana, is it?

The Desire of Wealth can lead to Avarice (greed). I had suggested earlier that greed was a dæmon of the eyes. But Miss Mason argues that greed is an abuse of a good and wholesome desire for "things useful and necessary for our lives." Charlotte Mason's words on this Desire remind me of a sermon by John Wesley: "'Gain all you can.' ... And it is our bounden duty to do this: We ought to gain all we can gain... No more sloth! Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might! ... But employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all men!" I sometimes feel guilty that I buy too many books. Miss Mason eased my conscience with these words: "Let us begin soon to collect a good library of books that we shall always value."

While discussing the Desire for Society, Charlotte Mason points out the great value of being a good listener. "To listen with all one's mind is an act of delicate courtesy which draws their best out of even dull people." This is an extremely important lesson and shows me again the value of having a young person read this book.

The Prince of Desires is the Desire of Knowledge. I suspect this concept is a key to unlocking a Charlotte Mason education. Miss Mason says "every human being has a natural Desire to explore those realms open to intellect." Here is the key to making a place "where children love to learn." Miss Mason writes, "It is only in so far as Knowledge is dear to us and delights us for herself that she yields us lifelong joy and contentment. He who delights in her, not for the sake of showing off, and not for the sake of excelling others, but just because she is so worthy to be loved, cannot be unhappy." This chapter contains one of the most beautiful sentences from Charlotte's pen that I have read so far: "But Knowledge has her own prizes, and these she reserves for her lovers."

It was especially relevant for me that this week's chapters gave the example of skating (to illustrate emulation):

"If we are learning to skate, we have no peace till we skate as well as a boy we know who learned last winter; then we want to outdo him; then, to skate as well as another better skater; then, to outdo him; and so on, and when we go to bed at night we dream of the day when we shall skate better than anyone in the neighbourhood; nay, we think how glorious it would be to be the very best skater in the whole world."

This week my son finally had his figure skating competition, for which he had been practicing for many weeks. He competed for the first time against other boys, one from New York and one from Pennsylvania. He skated to the best of his ability, but the judges gave him 3rd place (of 3). My son was very disappointed.

In the weeks leading up to the competition, he was often half-hearted while practicing on the ice. But now he says he wants to beat those boys next year. I think he will be more serious about his practicing now. Ah, sweet emulation. Such a convenient and powerful motivator. I only help Lady Knowledge will not get too jealous.

Part III Chapters 1-2 : Rulers of the Heart

This week I moved on from the House of the Mind and began reading about the House of the Heart. This House is ruled by two great Lords, Love and Justice. The office of these Lords is to bring Mansoul happiness, and to cause him to bring happiness to others. Unlike previous chapters, I did not see these chapters as commentaries on Charlotte Mason's other writings. Rather, I found them to be helpful (and convicting) expositions on Christian virtue.

I was most pleased to see so many Scriptural principles in these chapters on love:

1. The Scriptural balance of self-love. Miss Mason writes that a certain degree of self-love is required, or else, "we should not take care of our own lives, property, or interests at all." This is just the point in Ephesians 5, which says, "After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church." But Miss Mason points out that focused self-love is a counterfeit love. Similarly, Paul writes to Timothy, "In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves."

2. The kingdom of God. I was very intrigued by this sentence: "For it is they who love, rather than they who are beloved, who live every day in the kingdom of God." At least in my circles, I don't hear this kind of expression. Often in evangelical circles, the Kingdom of God is only some future state that begins with the Millennial reign of Christ. But for Miss Mason, the kingdom of God is here right now, for those who chose to walk in love. What a beautiful and motivating thought.

3. The mark of true love. Charlotte Mason says that true love always has a thought and a desire for service. Miss Mason quotes 1 John directly: "'Love not in word, neither in tongue,' says the Apostle, 'but in deed and in truth.'" Love comes from one's heart but is shown by one's works.

4. The power to love. Some of Charlotte Mason's writings may sound like behaviorism. The material on habit-formation may seem to suggest that sanctification is a human effort. But this chapter shows that Miss Mason truly believes that God is the source of good in each individual. I was so happy to read her words: "We have it not in us in our own strength to forgive. It is only in the Love and the presence of God that we can forgive injuries, and when we forgive, we love." Amen and amen.

5. Joy in suffering. Charlotte Mason says that to avoid self-pity, "We must never let our minds dwell upon any pain or bodily infirmity... Many great sufferers are the very hearth of their homes, so cheerful and comforting are they." Furthermore, we are "never to go over in our minds for an instant any chance, hasty, or even intended word or look that might offend us." So says the Apostle James, who instructs us to "count it all joy when you fall into various trials."

In addition to these Scriptural concepts, Charlotte Mason also makes several statements that were very convicting to me. The most convicting was her warning that "Every movement of pity which does not lead to an effort to help goes to form a heart of stone." She used this powerful illustration: "The tears of [idle pity] ... are like the water of certain springs in the limestone which have the property of coating soft substances with stone." I must pray that my feelings of pity do not harden my heart.

Charlotte gives examples of the extraordinary deeds that can be done for Love's sake. She mentions "the soldier who goes into the thick of the fight to rescue his comrade." This reminded me of an account from "Quartered Safe out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser served as a young man in the British army during World War II. He fought against the Japanese in India. "Quartered Safe out Here" are his extremely well-written and personal memoirs from when he was a foot soldier in that terrifying conflict.

One fateful night, Fraser was safe within the perimeter when the Japanese made a surprise attack. Within the perimeter there was some degree of safety, but outside in the dark, death was lurking. Stanley and Wells were two bodies who had been stationed well outside the perimeter as lookouts when the Japanese struck. They both made a run for their lives back to the safety of the perimeter. Fraser tells the story:

"[Stanley] had been in the o.p. with Wells, and when Jap arrived they had cut out for the wire. Stanley had made it into the perimeter, only to find that there was no sign of Wells. So he had slipped out again, without a word to anyone, when the fighting was at its height, into the Jap-infested dark, to look for him. By sheer luck he found him, near the o.p., dying of bayonet wounds; there was no way of helping him, but Stanley had stayed with him; he could have sought cover for himself, but he didn't."

Stanley's courage - his love - stuck with Fraser for the rest of his life: "Whenever I heard the word 'hero' loosely used, as it so often is of professional athletes and media celebrities and people who may have done no more than wear uniform for a while, I think of Stanley going back into the dark."

Part III Chapters 3-6 : Many Virtues

This week I read about four more virtues, thoroughly explicated by Charlotte Mason:

1. Benevolence. "To be benevolent is to have goodwill towards all men." There are many dæmons which obstruct this virtue, including Fastidiousness, Exigeance, Censoriousness, Selfishness, Slothfulness, and surprisingly, Tolerance. In our day, the only virtue embraced by the world is Tolerance. But for Charlotte Mason, tolerance is a vice. "To tolerate, or bear with, the principles and opinions which rule the lives of others is the part of Indifference and not of Goodwill. Candour, fair-mindedness to other people's thoughts, is what Benevolence offers."

2. Sympathy. "Sympathy is comprehension." Since all children and all people are persons, we should expect them to be able to understand the music, art, and poetry that moves us. "We must give freely of our best, without the supercilious notion that So-and-so would not understand." If we withhold a picture, poem, or story from someone, we actually denigrate that person. For Miss Mason, such is "giving Sympathy to all that is base in others, and thus strengthening and increasing their baseness: at the same time we are shutting ourselves into habits of hard and narrow thinking and living."

3. Kindness. "The office of Kindness is simply to make everyday life pleasant and comfortable to others." Acts of kindness should be without fanfare, ceremony, or thought of reward. It is humorous to read of "a movement to make children kind by counting up how many kind things they do in the course of each day." Miss Mason says such a program "spoils it all." Actually, it is not so far-fetched. I would not be surprised to hear of a similar contest nowadays. Charlotte Mason also stresses the importance of kindness in "Construction" or interpretation. We should give people the benefit of the doubt, always assuming the best motives rather than the worst.

4. Generosity. "The nature of Generosity is to bring forth, to give, always at the cost of personal suffering or deprivation, little or great." For Charlotte Mason, real generosity is about having an attitude of trust rather than giving large gifts. "It is a certain large trustfulness in his dealings, rather than the largeness of his gifts, or the freedom of his outlay, that marks the generous man." Charlotte Mason acknowledges that we are not generous to everyone equally. "He does not affect to love other countries as he loves his own, or his neighbour's children as his own family." This reminded me of a passage from C.S. Lewis's Pilgrim's Regress, which contrasted the love of man from the love of angels:

'Out, little spear that stabs. I, fool, believed
I had outgrown the local, unique sting,
I had transmuted away (I was deceived)
Into love universal the lov'd thing.

'But Thou, Lord, surely knewest Thine own plan
When the angelic indifferences with no bar
Universally loved but Thou gav'st man
The tether and pang of the particular.'

I feel deeply "the tether and pang of the particular." Though Charlotte Mason never married and never had children, she still seems to have such deep insight into the heart of the parent. I wonder how she was able to do this.

Recently, I was at a small gathering, and I reflected on my own lack of benevolence, sympathy, kindness, and generosity. I tried to have "Kindness in Construction"; I tried to remember that "the benevolent perceive that obvious and unpleasant faults are no more compared with the whole human being than his spots are compared with the sun." In the end, my effort was not so successful. Had I not been reading these chapters, I would not have been so convicted. It would be easier to toss the book away -- but then, I cannot teach what I do not know, and I cannot give what I do not have. The tether of the particular says, "Read on."

Part III Chapters 7-9 : Fearless and Loyal

This week I continued to read Charlotte Mason's catalog of virtues, which I again found to be both challenging and inspiring.

1. Gratitude. What I found most interesting about Miss Mason's comments on Gratitude is that she directs the grateful person to rejoice in the character of the giver more than in the gift itself. "Joy in that other's beauty of character gives more delight than any gain or pleasure which can come to us from favours." This reminds me of Paul's words in Philippians 4:17: "Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account."

2. Courage. Charlotte Mason points out that the English word "courage" comes from the French word "coeur," which means "heart." To have courage is to have heart, and in the Age of Chivalry, "Courage was the whole of character to a man; he who had not Courage, had no quality of manliness." Most books published today that have anything to do with Charlotte Mason feature a picture of a mother and a daughter on the cover. Yet Miss Mason also speaks to father and son, for she points out the virtues of manhood. Charlotte Mason speaks of the courage of the draftee: "The Courage shown by men drawn by conscription is not less than that of our own army." When I was in college, it seemed that students and faculty alike conspired to promote cowardice. Imagine what could be accomplished by a fearless generation of Americans.

3. Loyalty. Charlotte Mason esteems both patriotism and civic responsibility as positive facets of the virtue of loyalty. She also celebrates loyalty to friends, associates, and even storekeepers. Her words run against the grain of our culture which celebrates climbing the social and economic ladder by trading up and finding the best deal. She also tells a story that I think is a great model for the working world:

"It is told of certain elegant young diplomats, who serve their several chiefs as private secretaries, that one, more superb than the rest, grumbled because his chief summoned him by ringing a bell; but another, who had learned the secret of 'dignified obedience and proud submission,' asserted that, if his chief asked him to clean his shoes, he would do it of course."

I go to work to support my boss and to help make his vision a reality. I do so with proud submission.

Whenever I read Charlotte Mason, I look for clues that might give insight into her doctrinal beliefs and spiritual principles. There were many interesting details in my reading this week.

A. I inferred that Charlotte Mason supported missionaries and rejected pluralism. She gives an example of someone remarking, "'I think missionaries are a mistake!' 'The religions people have are those best suited to their natures.'" From the context, it seems that Miss Mason rejects this notion.

B. Charlotte Mason says that the "worst distress" is "when those dear to us fail us and fall away from godly living." She follows this statement by pointing to the authority of Christ: "'Let not your heart be anxious' (R.V.) is the command of Christ."

C. Miss Mason seems to see God's providence behind opportunities that might otherwise seem coincidental. At least that is how I interpret this line (and the surrounding context): "Holding as Creed, That Circumstance, a sacred oracle, Speaks with the voice of God to faithful souls."

D. Charlotte Mason even makes a statement about the purpose of life. Rather than citing any kind of temporal objective, she suggests that "the purpose of this life is our education for a fuller." In other words, our work in this life is to prepare for the hereafter.

E. Finally, I was extremely intrigued by Miss Mason's words about loyalty in religion. Here is a most interesting passage:

"Perhaps highest amongst these principles is our religion––not our faith in God; that is another matter––but that form of religion which to us is the expression of such faith. A safe rule is, that Loyalty forbids our dallying with other forms and other ideas, lest we should cease to hold religious convictions of any sort, and become open to change and eager for the excitement of novelty."

As far as I know, Charlotte Mason was born Anglican and remained faithful to her denomination throughout her life. As a matter of principle, she refused to "dally with other forms and ideas," or to be eager for any form of religious "novelty." Stephen Kaufmann writes: "In general, Mason draws on nineteenth-century Anglican theologians and men of letters. Interestingly, I found no reference in her writings to the evangelical preacher Charles Spurgeon, who was also her contemporary."

Perhaps here is a clue as to why Miss Mason did not quote Spurgeon. Perhaps for her, to dally with Spurgeon's evangelicalism was to betray her loyalty to Mother Church. John Wesley loosely defined orthodoxy as "right opinions." I am reminded of Wesley's words:

"Religion is, in other words, the love of God and man, producing all holiness of conversation. Now, are right opinions any more (if they are so much) than a very slender part of this? Once more: Religion is the mind that was in Christ, and the walking as Christ walked. But how very slender a part of this are opinions, how right soever!"

I too was born Anglican (the American kind -- Episcopalian). I left my father's religion to find truth and life. Miss Mason chose to remain. Yet in her book I read chapter after chapter that describe "all holiness of conversation ... the mind that was in Christ."

Part III Chapters 10-12 : The Valley of Humiliation

I am reading through volume 4, and this week I read about Humility, Gladness, and Justice.

I think the section on Humility is especially relevant today, given the emphasis today in schools on self-esteem. Charlotte Mason does not encourage the student to esteem himself, but rather to forget himself. It seems to me that humility is difficult to define. Charlotte Mason bases her definition on Scripture, by citing two examples of humility:

"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3-4)

"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:8)

Charlotte Mason points out examples of false humility, and identifies them as either cowardice or hypocrisy. True humility is found in the child: "Humility is perhaps one with Simplicity, and does not allow us to think of ourselves at all, ill or well. That is why a child is humble. The thought of self does not come to him at all; when it does, he falls from his child estate and becomes what we call self-conscious."

While I thought Charlotte Mason's perspective on humility was helpful, for me the best commentary I have seen on humility is from Pilgrim's Progress. In the Valley of Humiliation, the shepherd's boy sings:

"He that is down, needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride:
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.
Fulness to such, a burden is,
That go on pilgrimage;
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from Age to Age."

The section on Gladness was very helpful. Charlotte Mason again begins with Scripture: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4)

Miss Mason says that "there is a fountain of Gladness in everybody's heart only waiting to be unstopped." Gladness is not based on circumstances, but "Gladness [is] a Duty." Her words have been with me this week and have challenged me to keep my own fountain of Gladness running clear.

This week I also read the first chapter on Justice. Miss Mason says that Justice is universal, existing in every Mansoul. Justice demands that "fair-dealing, honesty, integrity must govern our actions."

On a side note, yesterday I again saw the falconer who I wrote about in my July 8 email. He has been doing demonstrations for several weekends now, so the hawks have been getting more practice. But there was a lot of rain in Wisconsin last week, so there has been no hunting for a few days. In the falconer's discipline of habit-formation, there is either progress or regress. No coasting.

The falconer brought out Fire again. It turns out Fire is actually female. This time she was attentive and obedient to her master's voice. Fire has a little brother named Duke who was also brought out. At first, Fire and Duke were pestering each other and bickering. The falconer scolded them, saying that such behavior would not be tolerated. The falconer brought out a fake rabbit on a string, and brother and sister set aside their differences to focus on the hunt. With precision and coordination, the hawks seized the rabbit and tore it to pieces.

As a father of a boy and a girl, I thought again of the many parallels between hawk and child.

Part III Chapters 13-15 : Truth

This week I read three very interesting chapters in Ourselves:

Chapter 13 is called "Justice To The Persons Of Others". This chapter talks about how to treat others fairly. Charlotte Mason says, "To think fairly about the personal rights of others requires a good deal of knowledge as well as judgment. But we can all arrive at some right conclusions by calling in the help of Imagination." She says to use imagination to think about how our behavior affects other people. My sense is that many elements of a CM education build imagination in a child, such as unmanaged play time and living books. A robust imagination can then lead to more thoughtful and courteous behavior.

In fact, according to Charlotte Mason, imagination should lead us to think about what we buy. A sense of fairness should "forbid us to buy at the cheapest shops; for most likely some class of work-people have been 'sweated' to produce the cheap article." This is interesting (and neglected) advice. But perhaps if more Americans followed it, some dogs would still be living and some tests for lead would be negative.

In this chapter, Miss Mason says that we are not free to think of others as we wish. For example, she writes, "Most of us know that we are not free to think what we like about our parents or other Heads, of our school household, or office." This reminds me of Ecclesiastes 10:20: "Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say." Indeed, this is a powerful principle and one which I certainly wish to teach my children.

Chapter 14 begins a discussion of Truth. In this chapter, Charlotte Mason discusses the last of the Seven Deadly Sins: Envy. "In the Middle Ages people were afraid of Envy, and counted it one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Now, we forget that there is such a vice." If Envy was forgotten even in Miss Mason's day, what has become of it today? I had been thinking about envy and wondering if it had a stronghold in my heart. Miss Mason's examples of Envy assist in my self-examination: "when we allow ourselves in grudging thoughts about the possessions or advantages of others, we say, 'It's not fair'; that is, we cover our injustice to others with a mantle of what we call justice and fairness to ourselves."

Chapter 15 discusses truth-telling and has some principles that seem to me to be distinct to Charlotte Mason . Miss Mason previews these topics in Volume 1 on page 165. In Volume 1, she talks about accuracy of statement and avoiding exaggeration. Now in Volume 4, Miss Mason gives a fuller set of guidelines for truth-telling. Her principles are immensely practical and actually confirm some techniques that I discovered from experience in the workplace. "But what are we to do, when, having said a thing, we begin to doubt if it is true? Words once spoken must be let alone: it is useless to unsay or qualify, explain or alter, or to appeal for confirmation or denial to another person."

Besides being practical, Charlotte Mason's ideas on truth-telling also connect to school training. Miss Mason writes, "by the indulgence of this manner of loose statement, we incapacitate ourselves for the scientific habit of mind––accurate observation and exact record." So again I see the various elements of the CM approach link together. Through nature study the child learns the habit of accurate observation and record. This in turn leads to the habit of truthfulness, which is part of responsible living, and in turn reinforces scientific skills.

Finally, in this chapter Charlotte Mason explains the difference between Accidental Truth and Essential Truth. In several of my posts I used these terms, but now I think I have misused them. Charlotte Mason defines the terms as follows: "What we may call accidental Truth; that is, that such and such a thing came to pass in a certain place at a certain hour on a certain day; ... The other, the Truth of Art, is what we may call essential Truth." What interests me is that, for Miss Mason, accidental Truth is still Truth: "this is the sort of Truth we have to observe in our general talk."

In this chapter, when she applies these concepts to the Bible, it is actually the critic who attacks the accidental truth, not herself. In the face of the critics, she is "not staggered." In other words, she is "quite ready to wait the verdict of the critics" as she embraces the essential truths. In college, I learned the inductive method of Bible study: Observation, Interpretation, and Application. I would loosely say that Observation focuses on the accidental truth, and Interpretation is the bridge to Application, which is the essential truth. I will be more careful now as I use these terms. For Miss Mason, accidental truth is still truth. While she does not engage the critics, she does not become a critic herself.

Part III Chapters 16, 17 : Integrity

This week I read two more fascinating chapters from "Ourselves". While Chapter 16 was what I would have expected, Chapter 17 held a few surprises.

Chapter 16 is called "Some Causes Of Lying" and in this chapter, Charlotte Mason explores why people lie. She includes the quotation, "all liars are an abomination unto the Lord," which is perhaps a paraphrase of Proverbs 12:22: "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord." She explains that people like out of malice (to slander others), cowardice (to escape punishment), boastfulness (to win admirers), and friendship (to protect buddies). Miss Mason says we must not lie even to our enemies, for "no one can wear 'the white flower of a blameless life' who is not known to friend and foe alike as one whose word is to be trusted." All this is sound and direct ethical teaching.

Chapter 17 is entitled "Integrity: Justice In Action." Interestingly, Charlotte Mason identifies integrity primarily with thorough and excellent work. Certainly, there is a biblical concept here; Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Miss Mason does not quote this verse.) Nevertheless, this is not what I normally think of as integrity.

To check my understanding, I looked at how my Dictionary of Synonyms differentiates between honesty and integrity. It says, "Integrity implies such rectitude that one is incorruptible or incapable of being false to a trust or a responsibility or to one's own standards." This does resonate with Miss Mason's statement, "Now, everyone carries a similar standard measure in his own breast––a rule by which he judges of the integrity of a workman." It seems again that Charlotte Mason knows her English better than I.

This chapter, like all those before, seem to me to be an excellent resource for true character training. Miss Mason shows that character is linked to success. In a wonderful analogy, she writes, "He has also another employer, who is apt to be lax while the work is being done, but visits the worker with heavy penalties in the long run." Who is this employer that penalizes the lazy worker? Self! "Every person owes integrity to himself ... it is he, himself, who will suffer most in the end for every failure to produce honest work in a given time."

This is one example of how "Ourselves" advocates what Stephen Covey refers to as the "Character Ethic." When Covey was working on his doctorate, he surveyed the history of "success literature." He found that success literature from the 1920's onward focused on tactical solutions to specific problems. Covey calls this the "Personality Ethic." By contrast, before the 1920's, success literature argued that success is linked to underlying character qualities such as integrity, courage, justice, patience ... many of the very qualities that Miss Mason so thoroughly advocates in "Ourselves."

Amazingly, Charlotte Mason even offers wise time management advice: "Do the Chief Thing." Miss Mason explains the rule of "'putting first things first.' Now, the power of ordering, organising, one's work which this implies distinguishes between a person of intelligence and the unintelligent person who lets himself be swamped by details... The power to distinguish what must be done at once, from what may be done, comes pretty much by habit. At first it requires attention and thought. But mind and body get into the way of doing most things; and the person, whose mind has the habit of singling out the important things and doing them first, saves much annoyance to himself and others, and has gained in Integrity."

I am reminded of Covey's book entitled "First Things First." Sorry, Stephen -- Charlotte Mason already laid out all the habits of effective people. She in fact called them habits, she focused on character, and she showed the link to success. Don't bother reading "The Seven Habits" -- read "Ourselves" instead. (Note that I also see the "first things first" concept in Scripture. Proverbs 24:27 reads, "Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.")

Later in the chapter, I was shocked to find that Charlotte Mason considers bargain-hunting to be a violation of integrity. Here's how she puts it: "There is another failure in integrity which people do not realise to be as debasing as debt, though probably its effects are as bad; and that is the bargain-hunting in which even right-minded persons allow themselves." Up until this point, I at least recognized all the virtues and vices that Miss Mason was outlining. But bargain-hunting? I have never heard that described as a vice.

In discussing bargains, Charlotte Mason refers to the "just price," which I thought went out with the Middle Ages. In my experience, capitalism and all business practice are based on a rejection of this principle. But Miss Mason writes, "What we want is––not the best thing that can be had at the lowest possible price––but a thing suitable for our purpose, at a price which we can afford to pay and know to be just." She says to shop locally, and to be loyal to the tradesmen of our own neighborhood. For her, this is a matter of integrity.

My question to the group: Is this an anachronism? Do we part with Miss Mason on this point? Or is Miss Mason actually arguing for an ethic that is valid but hidden to our generation?

Part III Chapters 18, 19 : Opinions

The two chapters I read this week are about Opinions, including special kinds of Opinions called Principles.

Charlotte Mason defines Opinion as follows: "The thought we have about person or thing is our opinion." She analyzes the word by saying, "The word opinion literally means 'a thinking'; what I think, with modesty and hesitation, and not what I am certain-sure about."

Charlotte Mason says that some opinions are worth having. These are opinions based on knowledge, reflection, and objectivity. Opinions formed in any other way are not worth having. Charlotte Mason says that the development of right opinions is one of the chief activities of life. "It is a great part of our work in life to do our duty in our thoughts and form just opinions." Furthermore, it is also critical that we develop the ability to spot bad opinions. "We must learn ... to recognize a fallacy."

Since 1) the development of right opinions is a key life activity, and 2) the development of right opinions requires knowledge, Miss Mason concludes that 3) the acquisition of knowledge is an urgent task for young people. But do young people work in school for the attainment of knowledge? No, their focus is cramming for tests:

"That we may be able to do this, we spend a good many years, while we are young, in getting the knowledge which should enable us to think. When we are grown-up, also, it is still necessary to spend time in getting knowledge, but few can give the chief part of the day to this labour, as we all have the chance of doing while we are young. This chance is, however, wasted upon young people who read to learn up facts towards an examination. The lectures we hear, the books we read, are of no use to us, except as they make us think."

Once again Charlotte Mason emphasizes the importance of motivation in education. The love of knowledge is the highest motivation. Lord, grant that we can cultivate this motivation in our children!

In these chapters on opinions, there is a gem that applies generally to education:

"As a fact, the books which make us think, the poems which we ponder, the lives of men which we consider, are of more use to us than volumes of good counsel. We read what boys call 'good books,' thinking how good they are, and how good we are to read them! Then it all goes, because the writer has put what he had to say so plainly that we have not had to think for ourselves; and it seems to be a law in the things of life and mind that we do not get anything for our own unless we work for it. It is a case of lightly come, lightly go. That is why we are told of our Lord that "without a parable spake He not unto them." He told the people stories which they might allow to pass lightly through their minds as an interest of the moment, or which they might think upon, form opinions upon, and find in them a guide to the meaning of their lives."

I think that this idea is central to understanding a Charlotte Mason education. People question that my eight-year-old is reading the King James Bible. People wonder at the difficulty of the AO reading list. Yet "we do not get anything for our own unless we work for it." I have a long drive to work, so I often listen to an audio Bible. I find that the easier the translation, the less I engage with the text. I found the most value listening to the King James Version, until recently I started listening to the New Testament in French.

Charlotte Mason defines principles as a special kind of deeply held opinion: "These opinions rule our conduct." Charlotte Mason describes how principles try to get into our minds and hearts: "Good principles are offered to us in an unobtrusive way, with little force and little urging. Bad principles are clamorous and urgent, drowning the voice of conscience by noisy talk, inviting us to go the way we are inclined and to do the thing we like."

This reminded me of the personification of Wisdom and Foolishness in Proverbs 9. Wisdom is "unobtrusive," with "little force and little urging":

"Wisdom has built her house... She has sent out her maids to call from the highest places in the town, 'Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!' To him who is without sense she says, 'Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simpleness, and live, and walk in the way of insight.'" (Proverbs 9, RSV)

By contrast, Foolishness is "clamorous and urgent":

"A foolish woman is noisy; she is wanton and knows no shame. She sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 'Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!'" (Proverbs 9, RSV)

I was told that my son should start bringing a Bible to Sunday school. So this evening we went to our bookshelf to get a Bible for him. I asked him which kind he wanted. His reply: "A King James."

Part III Chapters 20, Part IV : Vocation

This week I finished my study of Volume 4 Book 1. Chapter 20 is entitled "Justice To Ourselves: Self-Ordering" and retraces some of the ground of earlier chapters. Part IV is on "Vocation" and presents career advice in a wonderful way that (in my opinion) cuts against the grain of today's conventional thinking.

In the chapter on self-ordering, Charlotte Mason stresses the importance of soberness and temperance in all areas of life. There is much great advice and instruction here, but I was especially struck by her story about prisoners of war in the era of gentlemen. The prisoner is granted much liberty, but must give his word that he will not try to escape. "There is an invisible wall, confining him which he cannot pass beyond, and this wall is no more than his word––he is en parole."

Charlotte Mason says that this is an analogy for how God treats us in this life. We too are "en parole". "This is very much the way that God treats us in the matter of self-indulgence. The way is open to us down the Broad Road, but we are hindered by our parole. We may not have given our word out loud, but the word is only a sign, it means 'on my honour'; and we are all on our honour to safeguard ourselves from ruin, however easy and inviting may be the way thereto."

For Charlotte Mason, soberness includes freedom from addiction to excitement. She says that if you develop good interests in life, you will not feel the constant need for excitement: "Have interests and give them to others, and you are fairly safe from the desire for excitement which leads to drunkenness." These words are wonderfully applicable today.

This chapter again reveals that Charlotte Mason recognizes God's role in the process of sanctification. Right behavior is not just the physical matter of habit formation. Charlotte Mason writes: "'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation,' says our Lord and Master; watch, that is, look at the thoughts you let in, and shut the door upon intruders. Pray every day and every night with the confidence of a child speaking to his father,––'Our Father which art in Heaven, lead us not into temptation'; and then, think no more of the matter, but live all you can the beautiful, full life of body and mind, heart and soul, for which our Father has made provision."

I often hear people refer to Charlotte Mason's teaching that 1) habit leaves a physical mark on the brain and 2) God does not do for us what He expects us to do for ourselves. But that is only part of her teaching. I hope that all Charlotte Mason advocates will point out that she also teaches us to "pray every day and every night" that God would "lead us not into temptation." Miss Mason did not forget the spiritual!

I enjoyed the chapter on vocation because Miss Mason placed the emphasis on being of use, rather than on finding enjoyable work. The focus is on others, not on self. In fact, she seemed to accept the notion that for some people, career is pre-selected: "Some boys know, at an early age, that they are being brought up for the navy, for example." I think this cuts against the grain of today's conventional wisdom.

Charlotte Mason offers fine words on how to sense God's calling: "God, who fixes the bounds of our habitation, does not leave us blundering about in search of the right thing; if He find us waiting, ready and willing, He gives us a call. It may come in the advice of a friend, or in an opening that may present itself, or in the opinion of our parents, or in some other of the quiet guidings of life that come to those who watch for them, and who are not self-willed; or it may come in a strong wish on our own part for some particular work for which we show ourselves fit."

I felt chills on my spine when I heard her final words on this topic: "But this, I think, we may be sure of, that his call comes as truly to a ploughman as to a peer, to a dairymaid as to a duchess."

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