I return to the child. Clearly in obeying the instinct which I
have tried to illustrate, he is searching to realise himself;
and, as educators, we ought to help this effort--or, at least,
not to hinder it.
Further, if we agree with Aristotle, in this searching to realise
himself through imitation, what will the child most nobly and
naturally imitate? He will imitate what Aristotle calls 'the
Universal,' the superior demand. And does not this bring us back
to consent with what I have been preaching from the start in this
course--that to realise ourselves in _What Is_ not only in degree
transcends mere knowledge and activity, _What Knows_ and _What
Does,_ but transcends it in kind? It is not only what the child
unconsciously longs for: it is that for which (in St Paul's
words) 'the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now'; craving for this (I make you the admission)
as emotionally, as the heart may be thrilled, the breast surge,
the eyes swell with tears, at a note drawn from the violin:
feeling that somewhere, beyond reach, we have a lost sister, and
she speaks to our soul.