Spark of God. Collection for girls

Good education of peasant girls for family life I have always considered it one of the main tasks of primary education. From the Highest Rescript to Bishop Hilarion of Poltava No one can teach morality better than a mother. Words of Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow The proposed collection, entitled “The Spark of God,” is the first attempt in our pedagogical literature to actually read books for girls 4 . And therefore, the judgment about him, in our personal opinion, should not be very strict. It is not particularly difficult to work in a field in which all the paths have long been trodden by people of knowledge and experience - but this is not the case where almost nothing has yet been done here, as well as in Western European pedagogical literature, where everything has to be done - both outlining goals and finding means to achieve these goals, where one question about a book for girls itself seems completely unnecessary for the majority, since they do not notice or do not want to notice any differences in character and purpose for life boy and girl. The compiler of this book looks at the matter somewhat differently, bearing in mind practical life and the data of history, psychophysiology and pedagogy. Without recognizing any difference in the initial teaching of the Russian language for boys and girls, without noting this difference even in the first two or three years of schooling for children of both sexes, we are firmly convinced that with the further course of teaching the Russian language, from approximately the 3rd or 4th year, there should be a significant difference in the selection of educational material in the Russian book for class and family reading for boys and girls. Since we are convinced that this or that book read in childhood does not indifferently influence the spiritual make-up of the child, that certain ideas, pictures, images, likes and dislikes, spirit and direction evoked in the soul of the reader actively participate in the formation of the spiritual, mental and moral-religious content of a person’s personality, we must, through books for reading, through corresponding works of the human word, plant in the child’s soul those ideas and moods, those tastes and habits that are approved by true Christian pedagogy, correspond to his position in life and which will develop and bear fruit according to their kind. After all, it is not the same objects that interest a boy and a girl—they do not have the same drives and aspirations, they do not have the same views on the phenomena and tasks of life, and most importantly, they do not have the same activities in the future and do not have the same purpose. Stories about military exploits, stories about daring adventures and adventures requiring physical strength and dexterity, about love for activities and exercises characteristic of men, about external (i.e., outside the home) activities of husbands, and in general stories about what is more characteristic of men than women, are less interesting to these latter, since by their nature they are, for the most part, incapable of activities common to men, or, in any case, are less called upon than men. On the contrary, a quiet family life, love for the hearth and housekeeping, for family and relatives, small children, sympathy for everyone in their grief and misfortune, an active desire to wipe away everyone’s tears, whether as a mother, a teacher and educator of children, a selfless nurse in a hospital or a nurse on the battlefield, etc. etc., - all this is very close to a woman’s heart, all this interests her more than anything else, because of her psychophysical structure and purpose and the position in life and family in which she is placed by the historical, socio-economic and everyday conditions of her life. We have not found in our literature more correct and sublime words about this purpose or calling of a woman than the following words of His Eminence Anthony, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, which we allow ourselves to quote here: “Family, motherhood, raising children - this is the true calling of a woman. From this holy calling the first woman in the world, our common ancestor, received the most excellent of all human names. She was called "life" because she is the mother of all living things. So, “life”, “mother” - these are the truly correct names for a woman. Motherhood, from a sublime Christian point of view, of course, is not only physical motherhood in a woman. It is predominantly characterized by high moral traits. The woman is not the mother who just gives birth to children, but the one who raises them with tender, heartfelt love, plants the seeds of goodness in their souls, and teaches them the knowledge of God and His holy will. Therefore, true motherhood is the source of that life-giving light, that affection and warmth that gives beauty and joy to human life. It is the source of that human happiness in which people rightly see the expression of God's blessing. It is also for the woman herself the source of that incomparable greatness, that pure, high reverence with which our hearts are accustomed to surround the sacred name of a woman-mother. Indeed, for which of us is not the most precious spiritual heritage the bright memory of the joys of a happy childhood, warmed in a mother’s embrace and enlivened by the warm rays of a mother’s affection?.. This pure, moral area of ​​motherhood undoubtedly requires high moral development of a woman. The broader and more correct this development is, the more it gives life-giving maternal rays of light and true love, the more it elevates a woman, the more it brings her closer to that bright ideal for which she was given the name “life.” So, motherhood is the focal point of a woman’s vocation and the ultimate goal of her education. Understood in the broadest moral and Christian sense, motherhood can be achieved by a woman, without a doubt, even when she is not a mother in the proper sense of the word. It can be carried out in fruitful educational activities in general. Love, the soul of motherhood, far exceeds the boundaries of consanguinity. It is immeasurably wider than them. And beyond this kinship, a woman’s tender love is powerful to sweeten the grief of homeless orphanhood, to ease the torment of a sick sufferer, to bring consolation to the sad, to elevate and confirm the joy of the joyful. What a truly great and incomparable vocation of a woman in her motherhood...” 5 And if these words really correspond to the truth of life: if they are actually justified by history and life, which is undoubtedly; if any deviation, voluntary or forced by socio-economic conditions, from this great and holy purpose of women is each time accompanied by incalculable disastrous consequences for humanity in terms of mental, religious-moral, socio-economic, even political; if, indeed, the disintegration of the family as a result of a false view of a woman and her incorrect position in life is the main reason for the decline and gradual disintegration of an entire state (for example, France), which in essence is nothing more than a harmonious collection of individual families, then everyone who has devoted themselves to the education and training of the younger generations, these flowers of the future of humanity, should especially take care of the correct development and upbringing of girls - these future mothers and the most powerful educators of the next generation. One of the effective means for the normal development of girls is an appropriately compiled book for girls to read both in the family and at school. The legality and necessity of a separate book for reading in women's schools is also supported by the fact that at present, both among private individuals - teachers, and among government institutions in charge of public education, the idea of ​​​​the need to establish separate women's (parochial) schools, not joint with men's, has matured. So, “you know what I’ll tell you,” one peasant said to the famous advocate of primary women’s education in Kharkov, Kh.A. Alchevskaya, “if you teach five girls, it’s the same as if you taught 25 people: after all, they will have children.” “If,” writes one pastor of the Tula diocese, “20 years ago we had started teaching girls instead of boys, then now we would have almost the entire younger generation literate, and in schools we would not have to spend expensive time memorizing sounds, prayers and the first rules of community life. But if,” continues that priest, “now it is impossible to turn this back, then at least we need to make up for lost time and by all means attract girls to schools...” It is gratifying that the needs of life that we have noted regarding women’s education find a response in areas that actively influence the direction of public education. The first emergency meeting of the School Council at the Holy Synod on the issue of girls’ education in parochial schools found it useful to “recommend the opening of separate girls’ schools” (see “Public Education,” 1901, Jan., p. 13). The same meeting spoke out in favor of the need to compile a special book for class reading in women's parochial schools. But perhaps someone will say that the existing books for classroom reading in Russian language lessons are quite sufficient and suitable as reading material for girls. But experience and observation show the opposite. We will allow ourselves here to refer to the words of one person who is close to the cause of public education: in order to cultivate a woman’s cordial, and not just a utilitarian, attitude towards the household, there should be stories in reading books that contain thoughts about maintaining cleanliness and tidiness, about sobriety, etc.; to instill in future mothers the concepts of their high purpose and responsibilities, one should, in the form of sincere stories, draw pictures of the ideal attitude of mothers towards children - how a mother, for example, cared for children, taught children to read and write, prayers, etc.; in the form of stories about mothers caring for their children, one can instill the belief in the need for careful care for the latter; in the form of the same stories, one can imagine a picture of family happiness, mutual love between wife and husband and tender feelings for children. To raise the concept of female virtue to a high degree, one can place, in the form of simple stories, historical examples of the exploits of women, as well as short stories about the lives of ordinary women. Articles of this nature, in addition to articles of general content, should be included in books for girls in order to instill in them a sound understanding of the importance of a mother, wife and mistress of the house. Unfortunately, despite the abundance of books for primary education, it is not easy to identify one that would contain material that is fully consistent with the desired setting for the education of girls. “In the existing books,” notes one spiritual educator, “the content is of a general nature, and there is nothing that would vividly paint pictures of the life activity of girls and women, pictures of family life and housekeeping. In books for class reading - by Popov, Radonezhsky, Baranov, Odintsov and others - there are no deliberate articles and stories about the wives of saints and historical ones; In the historical section you can only find legends about St. Princess Olga. Given such a gap, the disappointing “samples” in these books—the wife of righteous Job and the wife of St. Philaret the Merciful. Meanwhile, in a book for class reading assigned to a girls' school, how appropriate and edifying would be the stories about St. wives - martyrs and preachers of faith, about mothers and sisters, about holy families. With these articles, the reading book would directly help the cause of the Law of God.” 6 In response to this urgent need, we have compiled this collection for reading by girls aged 12 to 14–15 years. The entire content of this book is divided into four sections. In the first section we gave a number of articles from the life of little girls. In the second - from the lives of already grown girls. In the third - from the lives of Christian women of different ages, positions and conditions; Particular attention is paid to mothers - wonderful educators of their children. In the fourth, they presented examples of holy Christian life using examples borrowed from the lives of the saints of the Eastern and our Russian Church. In all departments, we tried, through lively biographical sketches, stories, poems, fairy tales, proverbs and short public reflections, to acquaint the young readers of our book with all the bright and ideal sides of women’s nature, richly gifted by the Creator, such as: with selfless love for relatives - father, mother, brothers and sisters; extraordinary patience - this precious, irreplaceable quality that is so necessary for the mother of a family, a teacher of small children, a sister of mercy and other great workers; with firm and heartfelt faith in God - our Creator, Provider and Savior, fiery love for Him and all our neighbors to the point of complete readiness to joyfully give our lives for them; with saving hope for the life of the next century, for bliss with Christ and all the saints, which alone can protect a person from grumbling, cowardice, despair and reconcile him with all the imperfections of temporary life and with all the troubles, sorrows and misfortunes that may befall this or that person; with extraordinary hard work and perseverance - these are the conditions for success, which is unattainable where these conditions do not exist; with amazing courage, patience and fearlessness, which is especially amazing in weak girls, who often saved many people with their heroism, despite the obvious danger to themselves; with the commendable desire of some girls and women, despite all unfavorable conditions, to achieve the highest possible education for themselves, in order to serve their neighbors with greater benefit; with the remarkable ability of many girls and women to be content with little - that modest in appearance, although high before God and all good people, the life of a daughter - an assistant to a mother, father, wife and mistress of the house; with the commendable love for the family and family hearth, which most women have, where, in fairness, the wife and mistress is irreplaceable and where her work is as respectable as the work of any statesman; finally, with love for simple, modest, alien to any splendor and luxury, life and clothing, with love, which in the end can dispose adult girls and women to give up slavish worship of fashion - “this dear sister of death,” as one philosopher rightly put it, and encourage them to lead a generally simple, reasonable, hygienic lifestyle. If all these seeds of goodness, truth and pure beauty and all religious and moral truths, like the spark of God, revealed and scattered in various articles of our book, would fall on the good soil of the receptive hearts of our young readers, then, without a doubt, they would bear fruit a hundredfold, and our family life, this cell of the state organism, almost entirely dependent on the Christian mother, would be transformed in the spirit of the demands of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ, would become one of the main and most powerful reasons for the improvement of all our personal, social and state life. They may tell us that we are already pinning too many hopes on a book intended for school and family reading, that family and life have no less, if not more, influence on the formation of views, tastes, moods and inclinations among the younger generation. Without denying the full power of these latter influences, we must, however, say that the ideals instilled in childhood through an entertaining book to read, 7 and, moreover, those ideals and views that our Holy Orthodox Church, the educator, develops in children, have always had and will have a tremendous influence on the young and receptive soul. As an example of the influence of a book on readers, even adults, we point to the famous Beecher Stowe novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” Read by millions of readers in America, this book created such a ferment of ideas, so attuned the hearts and wills of its listeners, that it caused a great war against the slavery of blacks, who finally received all their human rights. This one example is enough, it seems, to convince us of the truth that a good book to read can do a lot in educating a person, in instilling in him certain beliefs and views. How far we have achieved our goal is not for us to judge. We have conscientiously tried to offer to the attention of our young readers the most artistic, and most importantly, sincere works of prose and poetry that introduce all periods of human life in relation to women. As for the techniques that we followed when processing this book, they were as follows: 1) First of all, we consider it our duty to declare that we do not at all look at this book on the Russian language as an encyclopedic collection of various sciences, with the help of which one can communicate a variety of elementary information from the Law of God, Russian history, geography, zoology, botany, agriculture, etc. etc., but only as a) a powerful tool of self-education, which gives the student the opportunity to read books that may be useful to her; then as b) a completely expedient tool for educating an aesthetic sense, thanks to which, if it is developed, the student can find pure and high pleasure in reading the best works of the human word; c) as a means of developing in children a noble sense of curiosity, which will subsequently encourage them, through reading, to replenish the meager supply of knowledge they receive at school; d) as a powerful means for the religious and moral education of girls who, through appropriately selected articles read at an early, impressionable age, will learn with a living heart and fresh memory the most important truths of the holy Christian faith and true piety, especially in relation to the family, and will love with all their hearts their spiritual mother - the Holy Orthodox Church. In view of this, we tried to highlight articles of a religious nature, in the pure spirit of the Holy Orthodox Church, primarily in a narrative way of presentation, distinguished by a living, artistic content, with the help of which children will imprint in their hearts the most important truths of Christian teaching. To this we consider it our duty to add that in this category of articles we did not include articles either on biblical history, which constitutes a separate subject in the school system, or articles related to the Slavic department, for which there are special books for reading, which is overlooked by almost all compilers of books for children's reading. 2) The articles of a moralizing nature included in the “Spark of God” do not consist of dry sayings about the behavior of a Christian, which bore children and are mostly inaccessible to them due to their conciseness and abstraction, but from living stories of the best writers, pedagogically processed by us, from which one or another moral position follows by itself and is firmly imprinted in the memory of children, awakening in them at the same time the proper feelings and moods. 3) In this book we have not included a single article that is usually placed in books for reading to serve as material for various kinds of grammar exercises. We find that these articles should be given a place in special textbooks, and not in a book for school or family reading, all articles of which should make a living, integral, immediate impression on children with their language, their artistic form and images, their construction and the thoughts and feelings that develop in the articles. Detailed analysis and endless questions of a grammatical and especially spelling nature greatly hinder the integrity of the impression of reading articles and the development in children of a love of reading in general. There is no sufficient reason to sacrifice the high educational goals achieved by a reading book to spelling, which is already studied in special grammar lessons. 4) Selected articles from the works of the best poets, writers and teachers of both our time and those of the past were subjected, if circumstances required, to pedagogical processing, for example, the omission of certain places, the replacement of some words and figures of speech with others, retelling in some cases of prose works, and the provision of the necessary explanatory notes, which were made either right there in the text, in parentheses, or under the line, if they were somewhat complex. 5) The articles included in this book are predominantly of a narrative nature as they are the most convenient for understanding and retelling. Lessing 9 proved scientifically that the human word can make a vivid impression on listeners when it depicts successive moments in time, and does not try to simultaneously describe many features of an object in one picture, that it will never succeed to the same extent as painting, which has large resources, can simultaneously and vividly present a description of the most complex object in one picture. Pedagogical experience constantly shows that the so-called “descriptions” of various objects placed in books for children’s reading are read by children in most cases reluctantly and without almost any interest. As for comparisons, characteristics, reasoning, etc. verbal forms that require significant mental development for their assimilation, such articles have no place in our book for reading; only the briefest and most accessible examples of articles of this kind, such as proverbs, brief extracts from the works of the holy fathers of the Church, from the diary of the famous Kronstadt pastor Fr. Archpriest John Sergiev, etc. found a small place in our book. 6) We included several exemplary, highly artistic fairy tales and legends in “The Spark of God” on the basis that with the help of these types of poetry one can promote the development of the imagination. The development and proper direction of all the faculties of the human spirit, including the power of imagination, is the necessary task of every school. In particular, imagination is of great importance in the ethical education of a person, since the latest experimental psychology 10 proves that the lack of sympathy or compassion for people depends mainly on the lack of the power of imagination, with the help of which we can very vividly put ourselves in the place of the unfortunate. Therefore, fairy tales and legends, which develop the power of imagination within the proper boundaries and direction, are very important, in our opinion, in the school education system. 7) All articles, both prose and poetic, which are included in the book, are distinguished as lively, interesting as possible, without any dryness and conciseness (characteristic of textbooks) presentation, accessible to children’s understanding, pure and correct modern language, useful content, which, gradually introducing children into the treasury of the native word and enriching them with a stock of words and figures of speech, developing their thinking through reading, should awaken and educate at the same time aesthetic, religious, moral and patriotic feelings and develop a love of knowledge and enlightenment in the spirit of the Holy Orthodox Church and the requirements of pure reason. We make special efforts to ensure that when girls read a real book, they arouse their love for reading books in general. Therefore, we avoided everything that caused boredom and disinclination to reading. 8) Dark pictures of the vicious and criminal life of some people, scenes of atrocity and cruelty, gloomy colors when describing life “at the bottom” of it, consciously or unconsciously (under the influence, for example, personal pessimism) thickened immoderately by some writers, flat jokes and jokes and pathetic ridicule of human stupidity or oversight, humiliating the human personality, etc. negative phenomena in people’s lives as having a harmful effect on the spiritual side of the younger generation by influencing their imagination and heart had no place in our reading book. We boldly assert that all its contents are pure and in no case can offend the moral feelings of the readers. Any mother, in our opinion, can safely give this book to her daughter. We firmly believe that everything in a book for children should be morally pure, like crystal. 9) Great and holy examples of faith and piety, patriotism, courage, tireless work, selfless devotion to the duty of service and the duties of the Christian calling, in a word - everything that is truly great, holy and beautiful, encouraging, joyful, infusing Christian love into the heart, courage, hard work, patience, fear of God, respect for the law, veneration of elders, contentment with one’s condition, obedience to the will God's, all-joyful, all-enlivening and all-reconciling and calming hope for a future afterlife, etc. - all this has found a place in our present book for reading. In conclusion, let's say a few words about the objections that can be expressed to us regarding this book. They can tell us that the stories included in “The Spark of God” and especially the biographical sketches of outstanding Christian girls and women in the field of public life and activities are not all borrowed by us from Russian history and modern life, that many stories about wonderful women who have rendered great services to humanity are borrowed from the literature of foreign peoples, other Christian faiths, that is, non-Orthodox. What can be said in response to this objection, which we feel will certainly be made by our severe critics? First of all, we must say that if Russian literature and poetry were rich in various kinds of descriptions of the life and work of remarkable women, then, without a doubt, we would not have much need to look for such biographies in the literature of foreign peoples. Unfortunately, and everyone will agree with this, our literature, which counts its growth as only tens of years, 11 is far from providing rich material in depicting examples of female virtues in the Christian sense of the word. We cannot consider as models for the younger generation the heroines of those novels and stories of our writers who, in addition to fun and entertainment of various kinds: balls, dances, masquerades, luxurious costumes, sewn in the latest fashion and often ruining health (like the notorious corsets), trips, visits, platonic and more real love, have not declared themselves in any way in the image of our poets and writers. But it would be a great misunderstanding to think that in Rus' there are few women who are truly great in spirit, strong in faith, ardent love for God and neighbors and strong hope in God. No, if anywhere, then here, in Holy Rus', under the saving leadership of the Orthodox Church and under the harsh labor school of life, great and strong female characters have never been translated. We only want to say here that hardly a thousandth of them has become the property of our young literature. And everything that we could find in our spiritual and secular literature, which served as exemplary reading for our girls, we included in our book, having previously subjected this material to the necessary pedagogical processing. It would be strange after this to reproach us for having borrowed something from the works of foreign literature, namely, the examples of women’s deeply meaningful character that we are missing. After all, these are only extremely naive connoisseurs of other people’s works, forgetting the teaching of Christ about love for everyone and about who our neighbor is, ready to think that only the people to which they belong deserve exclusive attention, respect and study; all other peoples, even if they were highly cultured Christians, according to their concepts, are our worst enemies, in whom there is nothing but savagery, rudeness, ignorance, vices and crimes. The spirit of gospel truth and meekness does not at all allow us to justify such hostility and intransigence. We must appreciate everything that is holy and good from our neighbors, even from our enemies. Adopt all that is good and avoid all that is bad. In addition, the diversity of peoples, descended, according to the undoubted biblical teaching, from one pair of ancestors, with their individual inclinations and talents, does not it indicate that those gifts and powers, those properties and characteristics of the spiritual and physical organization of man, which were imparted by the Creator to the first couple, can develop in all their completeness and diversity not among any one family, tribe or people, but among all of them, in their totality: in one more, in another less, more or less one-sided in each, depending on local geographical, historical, political-economic, everyday and other conditions? This philosophical consideration prompts the teacher to want children to see examples of the life and virtues of all possible peoples of the world, the entire family of God’s children. Whoever will stand his ground and argue that the Eskimo, Tungus, Yakut, Kaffir, resident of the island of Fiji and other wild “stepchildren of nature” should raise their children exclusively on the examples of the life of their supposedly most ideal tribe on earth, we will no longer argue with them. Then, we expect the following objection: why did we give place in our book to several fairy tales, and did not place instead of them any articles conveying this or that knowledge? We answer: because our task in compiling “The Spark of God” was not to enrich female readers with knowledge from various fields of science - for this there should be special lessons with the necessary visual aids and experiments - but to awaken in young readers good religious, moral, patriotic, especially family feelings and sentiments. If these moods and feelings are evoked and developed when reading our book, if the fascinating form of exemplary, highly artistic fairy tales maintains interest and love of reading, then our goal has been fully achieved. The purpose of this book is not to promote the enrichment of the mind with various knowledge, but the education of the heart and imagination with the help of highly artistic forms and concepts, pure as crystal, teaching goodness and Christian love, without any admixture of those elements that could leave the slightest stain on the receptive heart, bright imagination and impressionable memory of young Christian readers. Further, we may be reproached for the fact that we compiled our book not from the lives of saints alone, 12 but from narratives and articles borrowed, albeit from pure and instructive sources, of secular content. In our justification, we must say that we did not have the goal of giving a course of readings on the Law of God and the history of the Christian Church, offering a number of articles and poems of a spiritually instructive nature. Without entering the realm of the teacher of the law, we, however, in the end, although by other means, pursue the same goals as him, that is, we instill in the hearts of children religious and moral feelings and the desire for goodness, truth and pure beauty. If children, after reading our stories about outstanding Christian girls and women who have immortalized themselves in the memory of posterity through deeds of Christian love for others, come to the conclusion that the duty to be saints, to live according to the Gospel is the duty not only of saints in the proper sense of the word, but of all Christians in general, that even living in the world, it is possible, albeit with difficulty, to be saved, that to refuse deeds of goodness and Christian courage under the pretext that We are not saints, which means we are only covering up our laziness and cowardice - if children come to all these conclusions after reading our book, then we will be highly rewarded for our work. “By raising children in a religious and patriotic spirit,” says one scientist, 13 a mother fulfills her purpose and only by doing this creates glory for herself, which no envy will ever destroy and which will always matter in the court of God and man, in the court of conscience and posterity. At this trial we will not be asked how often we traveled, how well we knew how to dress and behave in society, how we excelled one another in the field of amusements, witticisms and artificial entertainment. All this usually disappears along with the day for which we made vain sacrifices. We will be judged by the fruits that we bequeath to the future in our children and pets. And if here, in these fruits, there is bitterness and rottenness, those brilliant successes, because of which we are ready to forget the main thing, will fall on our heads. The son is mad, says the wise one, a dishonor to the mother." The practical nature of the information conveyed in school, of course, through, among other things, books for reading, is also evidenced by the following judgment of one American magazine, answering the question: how should girls be raised? “Give them proper schooling. Teach them how to prepare healthy, nutritious meals. Learn to sew, iron, darn stockings, sew on buttons, make your own clothes and underwear. Teach them how to bake bread and that thanks to good cooking, they will spend less money on the pharmacy. Teach them that a ruble has 100 kopecks. and that only he is thrifty who spends less than he receives, and that, on the contrary, expenses that exceed income must of necessity lead to ruin and poverty. Teach them that with cash, a sewn cotton dress fits on the body much more beautifully than with borrowed money. Teach them that one round, plump face means more than 50 consumptive children. Teach them to wear shoes that are durable and roomy. Teach them to make purchases and check accounts themselves. Teach them self-confidence, self-help and hard work. Teach them that an honest artisan with his sleeves rolled up, wearing an apron and without a penny of capital is more important than a dozen richly dressed and skilled thieves. Teach them to garden and find joy in God's free nature. Teach them, if you have money, music, painting and other arts, but remember that these are secondary things. Teach them that walking is incomparably more pleasant than pleasure trips, and that the flowers of the field, when you look closely at them, are amazingly beautiful. Teach them to disdain ostentation, and that if they say “yes” or “no” to you, then they should think so. Teach them that happiness is not in marriage and not in external luxury, nor does it depend on the husband’s money, but solely on the principles of the Christian faith that we follow, and on our character. If you inspire them with all this, then reassure yourself by marrying them off when the time comes; and there they will find their own way” 14. This is where we end our preface. Whoever can do the job better, let him do it: this is his sacred duty. Judging and criticizing without pointing out how best to do it is anti-Christian, useless and downright harmful. 1902 August 25. Moscow This preface is intended for parents, educators and connoisseurs of this book, but not for children We by no means want to say with these words that “The Spark of God” is unsuitable for boys See Sunday. day, 1900, No. 17 See "People" image.”, 1901, Jan., pp. 22–23; see Polt. Eparch. Ved. for 1897 We think that “Spark of God” is distinguished by this character, where there is not a single dry article like the boring dry descriptions of animals, insects, etc. See book. "New School", ed. K.P. Pobedonostsev, p. 97, etc. In the essay “Laocoon, or on the boundaries of poetry and painting” See book. “Essays on psychology based on experience” G. Geffding, 1898, p. 219, etc. Although our periodical press is 200 years old, in the true sense the life of the Russian press began to develop correctly only from the half of the last century, i.e., from the time of the Sevastopol War They are given one last section - “From the life of holy virgins and women”, although throughout the book, here and here, there are numerous examples of the pious life of virgins and Christian women See works Kyiv. spirit. Ak., 1868, Apr. Shepherd. conversation, 1898, No. 45 You might be interested in: