From this time forth
my own childhood no longer seemed wasted. I acknowledged how entirely
different a thing is the cultivation of plants, to one who has watched
them and studied them in all the stages of their own free development,
from what it is to one who has always stood aloof from Nature.
And here already, living cheerfully and joyfully in the bosom of Nature
with my first pupils, I began to tell myself that the training of
natural life was closely akin to the training of human life. For did not
those gifts of flowers and plants express appreciation and
acknowledgment of the love of parents and teacher? Were they not the
outcome of the characteristic lovingness and the enthusiastic
thankfulness of childhood? A child that of its own accord and of its own
free will seeks out flowers, cares for them, and protects them, so that
in due time he can weave a garland or make a nosegay with them for his
parents or his teacher, can never become a bad child, a wicked man. Such
a child can easily be led towards love, towards thankfulness, towards
recognition of the fatherliness of God, who gives him these gifts and
permits them to grow that he, as a cheerful giver in his turn, may
gladden with them the hearts of his parents.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145