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118 It is further asked of me in his letter to give information

Hereupon I answer that this is the hardest lesson for children and one which they do not learn willingly. It is a good while before they learn to speak and when they once can do it they are not easily kept from it. But in order that something orderly may be constructed and for improvement be implanted among children in school, it is necessary that speaking have its time and quiet also have its time, although it is so hard for children to accustom themselves to this rule. And it appears that we older ones have ourselves not properly learned this lesson that speaking and silence have each its time, which we ought to take more into thought in speaking and silence. That little member the tongue is not so easily tamed. It cannot be corrected with rods like the other members of the body. And the misdeeds which happen in words are performed by the tongue according to the state and inner condition of the heart. Matthew 12, 25. Although the talking and speaking, which children use among each other, is not regarded by many as very wrong, nevertheless nothing fruitful can be done unless, as has been said, speaking and silence have each its time. In order to bring them to it, many means and ways have been heretofore tried which have done well for a time, but when they became accustomed to them some change became necessary to bring them into quiet. My rule and way, which I hitherto have used to bring them to silence, is this: First when their lesson is given to them, according to the use and accustom here as well as in England, they learn it aloud. In order to keep them together in learning I go about the school here and