Chapter 7

To go more deeply into a question is often the only means of answering it rightly. If, for instance, we were to see men fighting over a piece of bread, we might say: "How bad men are!" If, on the other hand, we entered a well-warmed eating-house, and saw them quietly finding a place and choosing their meal without any envy of one another, we might say: "How good men are!" Evidently, the question of absolute good and evil, intuitive ideas of which guide us in our superficial judgment, goes beyond such limitations as these. We can, for instance, provide excellent eating-houses for an entire people without directly affecting the question of their morals. One might say, indeed, that to judge by appearances, a well-fed people are _better, quieter, and commit less crime_ than a nation that is ill-nourished; but whoever draws from that the conclusion that to make men good it is _enough_ to feed them, will be making an obvious mistake.

It cannot be denied, however, that _nourishment_ will be an essential factor in obtaining goodness, in the sense that it will _eliminate_ all the _evil acts, and the bitterness_ caused by lack of bread.

Now, in our case, we are dealing with a far deeper need--the nourishment of man's inner life, and of his higher functions. The bread that we are dealing with is the bread of the spirit, and we are entering into the difficult subject of the satisfaction of man's psychic needs.

We have already obtained a most interesting result, in that we have found it possible to present _new means_ of enabling children to reach a higher level of calm and goodness, and we have been able to establish these means by experience. The whole foundation of our results rests upon these means which we have discovered, and which may be divided under two heads--the _organization of work_, and liberty.

It is the perfect organization of work, permitting the possibility of self-development and giving outlet for the energies, which procures for each child the beneficial and calming _satisfaction_. And it is under such conditions of work that liberty leads to a perfecting of the activities, and to the attainment of a fine discipline which is in itself the result of that new quality of _calmness_ that has been developed in the child.

Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left _free_ without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if _left free_ without nourishment, would die of starvation. _The organization of the work_, therefore, is the corner-stone of this new structure of goodness; but even that organization would be in vain without the _liberty_ to make use of it, and without freedom for the expansion of all those energies which spring from the satisfaction of the child's highest activities.

Has not a similar phenomenon occurred also in the history of man? The history of civilization is a history of successful attempts to organize work and to obtain liberty. On the whole, man's goodness has also increased, as is shown by his progress from barbarism to civilization, and it may be said that crime, the various forms of wickedness, cruelty and violence have been gradually decreasing during this passage of time.

The _criminality_ of our times, as a matter of fact, has been compared to a form of _barbarism_ surviving in the midst of civilized peoples. It is, therefore, through the better organization of work that society will probably attain to a further purification, and in the meanwhile it seems unconsciously to be seeking the overthrow of the last barriers between itself and liberty.

If this is what we learn from society, how great should be the results among little children from three to six years of age if the organization of their work is complete, and their freedom absolute? It is for this reason that to us they seem so good, like heralds of hope and of redemption.

If men, walking as yet so painfully and imperfectly along the road of work and of freedom, have become better, why should we fear that the same road will prove disastrous to the children?

Yet, on the other hand, I would not say that the goodness of our little ones in their freedom will solve the problem of the absolute goodness or wickedness of man. We can only say that we have made a contribution to the cause of goodness by removing obstacles which were the cause of violence and of rebellion.

Let us "render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

Illustrations have been moved closer to their relevant paragraphs.

The page numbers in the List of Illustrations do not reflect the new placement of the illustrations, but are as in the original.

The list of "didactic material for the _education of the senses_" on pages 18-19 is missing item (j) as in the original.

Author's archaic and variable spelling is preserved.

Author's punctuation style is preserved.

Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.

Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.

Typographical problems have been changed and are listed below.

Transcriber's Changes:

Page vii: Was 'marvellous' [In fact, Helen Keller is a =marvelous= example of the phenomenon common to all human beings]

Page 46: Was 'anvles' [which vary either according to their sides or according to their =angles= (the equilateral, isosceles, scalene, right angled, obtuse angled, and acute)]

Page 63: Added commas [recognized and arranged in order--doh, _re_, =doh,= re, _mi_; doh, =re,= mi, _fah_; doh, =re,= mi, fah, _soh_, etc. In this way he succeeds in arranging all the]

Fig. 35 caption: Was 'si' [the spaces which remain where the discs are far apart: do-re, re-mi, fah-soh, soh-la, la-=ti=. The discs for the semitones]

End of Project Gutenberg's Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook, by Maria Montessori