Eulogium Magistrorum Meorum

EULOGIUM MAGISTRORUM MEORUM PERClVAL BAILEY* The psychologists tellus that most important for the development ofour characters are the first five years of our lives and the ethologists have demonstrated that each species ofanimal has a characteristic period during which its environment imprints itself most easily and deeply in the animal 's behavior. But these are not the only influences which are important. At all ages we may be powerfully conditioned by contact with our environment , particularly by the social environment. Of the social stimuli most deeply implanted are the images ofcertain of our teachers. I present here briefsketches ofpeople who taught me what seem to me the most important and influential lessons. I have had many other teachers who were good scholars, had excellent characters, and were accurate thinkers in their fields but, although they taught me many facts and skills, they did not have the same impact on my development. My fundamental reactions were implanted by my mother, Estella (Orr) Bailey. Up to the age of six years I was practically intellectually alone with her; my father worked away from home or was in the army until then. I lived most ofthe time on an isolated farm belonging to my maternal grandfather, who was hard worked to make a living, and my grandmother was busyfrom daylight to dark with the householdchores and garden. My mother took care of me and my younger brother and sister. She helped with the housework as much as she could and in the evening told us stories from the Bible or read, I am told, from the Youth's Companion, which was almost our only contact with the outside world in the wintertime , since the roads were all but impassable. When I was about four and a halfmy Aunt Aurie came back to the farm with her daughter, about three years older than I. Together we started to go to the district school when the * Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, 1601 West Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60612. This paper was read to the Chicago Literary Club, April 20, 1964. SU weather was good. It was about a mile from the farm across the fields. I am told that I could already read McGuffey's first reader and was put in the second class. I have no recollection of my mother teaching me. I am told that she used to sing hymns to us in those early years. In later years she sang to us often. Her favorite hymn was composed and set to music by one ofher cousins, Porter Orr. I remember the portable organ ofAunt Aurie and my ecstatic pleasure when she played it. My mother was very sweet-tempered. She never scolded or punished us. When we were naughty shejust looked hurt and stopped talking to us. We mended our ways very soon and were happy when she chattered with us again. She never minded ifwe made a mess, just patiently cleaned up after us. My cousins loved to come to our house for this reason and in later years often remarked about her tolerance. She was often reading the Bible, the only book in the house. I cannot remember that she read it to me. Her Bible eventually came into my possession. On one ofthe worn pages was the famous passage in The First Epistle ofSt. John (chapter 4) which begins , "Beloved, let us love one another." This was the philosophy on which she founded her life, and her example had a profound influence on our lives. When I was six years old we moved into our own home, a new house built with green oaken planks nailed upright to the studs. It had two rooms with a small porch in front. Later a lean-to was added behind for a kitchen and a porch which was used in the summertime. The house was heated with a pot-bellied iron stove. It stood on the farm which my father had inherited, about halfa mile south ofthe schoolhouse. Since my father preferred to work at the building trade, we had a tenant farmer, whose son, Charles Belva, was about my age. This family was ofBelgian origin and the name was originally Belvaux but...