The most important point on which success rests is a strong will, accompanied by swift execution and the seizing of opportunities.

Did they not say "war is struggle" — in other words, "life is war"? And the best warrior is he who attacks and does not confine himself to defense, who acts and does not confine himself to caution. When an opportunity presents itself he steps forward and seizes it, and does not hesitate a moment lest he lose it. Then he aims at the target and makes sure of his hit; and no harm in failure, for he fails only in order to succeed.

If you hesitate too much and carry caution to extremes, and will not embark on any undertaking until you are one hundred percent sure of its success, you may do well as a dream-ing man of letters, or a philosopher swimming in fantasy, but you will not do as a successful man of business.

For the battle is not won by the cowardly commander, nor by the cautious commander, nor by the commander who will not sacrifice a single one of his soldiers. It is won by the one who thinks according to his capacity, and does not prolong his thinking beyond what is needed, then strikes the blow at its proper moment, contending for success even though he cannot be certain of it; and if he fails after that, he has done his duty.

Modern morals prefer the "impera-tive" to the "prohibitive": "be truthful" is better than "do not lie," and "be just" is better than "do not oppress"; commanding virtue is better than forbidding vice, for in the first there is action, existence, and life, and in the second abandonment, nothingness, and death.

Better than prevention is "vitality" — through exercise, work, movement, and activity. It is the sick in their beds who rely on prevention; the healthy rely little on prevention, and much on vitality and work.

Development and change are often joined with the idea of mental maturity and social awareness. Perhaps nothing is more exposed to change than educational theories, so much so that their conception today differs greatly from what it was in bygone centuries.

Perhaps the development of life produced various kinds of influence upon this science, so that it kept pace with life in its development... until the twentieth century came and strengthened the child and raised his standing in the home, so that it has rightly been called "the century of the child."

The reactionaries and those of their stripe believe, after the fashion of the ancients, that children are like grown-ups, only in miniature. The modern theory refutes their belief, charging it with flagrant defiance of the child's personality and rights; for the child is distinguished by a special character in his behavior, his thinking, and his feeling, which makes it necessary to study him in a special way. As for modern education's call for understanding the child, its philosophy is drawn from two basic ideas:

First — children, like the other members of society, have the right to be given every possibility for the development of their personality.

Second — since children carry the seed of the new generation, they are the men and the mothers of tomorrow, and therefore it behooves us to understand them.

How greatly the modern theory has stirred our feeling toward children and changed the direction of our treatment of them! We have come to deal gently with them, after it became clear to us that everything that issues from them in the way of conduct, whether approved or condemned, is the result of some cause... it is built upon their previous expe-rience and influenced by their present situation, while their hopes for the future also exert a great influence. And it is no secret that every unseemly behavior is capable of change.

Our understanding of the child holds another great benefit: our accepting him as nature made him, keeping before our eyes the truth of every child's influence upon his society — which makes it necessary to respect the gifts latent within him. Add to this our realization that nature has endowed each child with differing gifts and ways of behaving, which stamp him with a character of his own. The child's individuality grows in importance day by day; and no wonder, since modern education counts it one of its basic pillars. And the future will show!