Non-Imaging Microwave and

Millimetre-Wave Sensors for Concealed

Object Detection First Issued In
Paperback Edition Boris Y. Kapilevich
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/non-imaging-microwave-and-millimetre-wave-sensors
-for-concealed-object-detection-first-issued-in-paperback-edition-boris-y-kapilevich/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Microwave and millimetre-wave design for wireless

communications First Edition Chongcheawchamnan

https://textbookfull.com/product/microwave-and-millimetre-wave-
design-for-wireless-communications-first-edition-
chongcheawchamnan/

Defects and damage in composite materials and

structures First Issued In Paperback Edition Heslehurst

https://textbookfull.com/product/defects-and-damage-in-composite-
materials-and-structures-first-issued-in-paperback-edition-
heslehurst/

Aural Architecture in Byzantium Music Acoustics and

Ritual First Issued In Paperback Edition Routledge.

https://textbookfull.com/product/aural-architecture-in-byzantium-
music-acoustics-and-ritual-first-issued-in-paperback-edition-
routledge/

Multiband non-invasive microwave sensor : design and

analysis First Edition Iyer

https://textbookfull.com/product/multiband-non-invasive-
microwave-sensor-design-and-analysis-first-edition-iyer/
The Ashgate Research Companion to Media Geography First
Issued In Paperback. Edition Paul C. Adams

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-ashgate-research-companion-
to-media-geography-first-issued-in-paperback-edition-paul-c-
adams/

The gothic in contemporary literature and popular

culture pop goth First Issued In Paperback. Edition
Justin D. Edwards

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-gothic-in-contemporary-
literature-and-popular-culture-pop-goth-first-issued-in-
paperback-edition-justin-d-edwards/

The Routledge Companion to Eighteenth Century

Philosophy First Issued To Paperback Edition Garrett

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-companion-to-
eighteenth-century-philosophy-first-issued-to-paperback-edition-
garrett/

Portuguese Colonial Cities in the Early Modern World

First Issued In Paperback 2016. Edition Liam Matthew
Brockey

https://textbookfull.com/product/portuguese-colonial-cities-in-
the-early-modern-world-first-issued-in-paperback-2016-edition-
liam-matthew-brockey/

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of

Religion First Issued In Paperback Edition Graham
Robert Oppy

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-routledge-handbook-of-
contemporary-philosophy-of-religion-first-issued-in-paperback-
edition-graham-robert-oppy/
Non-Imaging Microwave
and Millimetre-Wave
Sensors for Concealed
Object Detection
Non-Imaging Microwave
and Millimetre-Wave
Sensors for Concealed
Object Detection
Boris Y. Kapilevich
A r i e l U n i v e r s i t y, A r i e l , I s r a e l

Stuart W. Harmer
M a n c h e s t e r M e t r o p o l i t a n U n i v e r s i t y, M a n c h e s t e r, U n i t e d K i n g d o m

Nicholas J. Bowring
M a n c h e s t e r M e t r o p o l i t a n U n i v e r s i t y, M a n c h e s t e r, U n i t e d K i n g d o m

Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

Version Date: 20140730

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4665-7714-5 (Hardback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information stor-
age or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copy-
right.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that pro-
vides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photo-
copy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents

Preface..................................................................................................................... vii
Acknowledgements................................................................................................xi
About the Authors............................................................................................... xiii

1. Introduction...................................................................................................... 1
References.......................................................................................................... 7

2. Background and Theory................................................................................ 9

2.1 RCS Concept and Basic Definitions..................................................... 9
2.2 Active versus Passive Modes of Operation Sensors........................ 13
2.3 Millimetre-­Wave Emission from a Planar Surface.......................... 16
2.4 Conclusion............................................................................................. 21
References........................................................................................................ 21

3. Active Millimetre-­Wave Sensor Using Direct Detection Approach.... 23

3.1 Direct Detection Radar Principles and Theory............................... 23
3.2 Polarimetric Signatures....................................................................... 33
3.3 MiRTLE Introduction.......................................................................... 36
3.3.1 MiRTLE Sensor Design.......................................................... 39
3.4 Radar Signal Classification Techniques and Results......................44
3.5 Handheld Version of Sensor............................................................... 52
3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................. 59
References........................................................................................................ 60

4. FMCW Sensors for Detecting Hidden Objects.......................................63

4.1 Linear FMCW Theory.........................................................................63
4.2 Basic Hardware Configurations......................................................... 66
4.2.1 FMCW Sensors with a Single Antenna............................... 66
4.2.2 FMCW Sensors with Separated Antennae.......................... 69
4.3 W-­Band Millimetre-­Wave Sensors.................................................... 71
4.3.1 Estimating System Performance........................................... 72
4.3.2 Data Acquisition and Signal Processing............................. 74
4.3.3 Range Experiments................................................................. 76
4.3.4 Target Identification................................................................77
4.4 Submillimetre-Wave Sensor at 330 GHz..........................................84
4.4.1 Schematic of the Sensor.........................................................85
4.4.2 System Characteristics and Performance............................ 86
4.4.2.1 Components Parameters at 330 GHZ................... 86
4.4.2.2 Performance Estimation......................................... 87

v
vi Contents

4.4.3 Remote Detection Experiments............................................ 87

4.4.4 Improving Sensitivity and Resolution................................. 88
4.5 Conclusion............................................................................................. 98
References...................................................................................................... 100

5. Active Microwave Sensors for Complex Natural Resonance-­

Based Object Detection.............................................................................. 103
5.1 Introduction and Theory.................................................................. 103
5.2 Simulations with Electromagnetic Solver Software..................... 106
5.3 Experimental Configuration, Signal Processing and Results...... 114
5.4 Conclusion........................................................................................... 124
References...................................................................................................... 124

6. Passive Millimetre-­Wave Sensors............................................................ 129

6.1 General Considerations..................................................................... 129
6.2 Superheterodyne Receivers of Passive Sensors............................. 133
6.3 Direct Detection Receivers as Passive Sensors.............................. 140
6.4 Sensors Based on Correlation Receivers......................................... 151
6.5 Sensors Based on Interference Effects............................................ 152
6.6 Modelling Results.............................................................................. 160
6.7 Conclusion........................................................................................... 163
References...................................................................................................... 163

7. The Role of Shielding Effects in Operating Non-Imaging Sensors.... 167

7.1 Basic Shielding Mechanisms............................................................ 167
7.2 Theoretical Models and Estimation Method................................. 169
7.2.1 Basic Existing Models.......................................................... 169
7.2.2 Estimation Method Employed............................................ 171
7.3 Well/Ill-Conditioning Analysis....................................................... 172
7.4 Experimental Setup and Results of Measurements: Coherent
Illumination........................................................................................ 174
7.5 Sensitivity and Error Analysis......................................................... 187
7.6 Characterization of Materials: Incoherent Illumination.............. 188
7.6.1 Introductory Notes............................................................... 188
7.6.2 Modelling Interference in the Presence of Noise............. 189
7.6.3 Experimental Verification of the Noise Averaging
Effect....................................................................................... 192
7.7 Conclusion........................................................................................... 199
References...................................................................................................... 200
Index...................................................................................................................... 203
Preface

The tragic events of September 11th and the growing global threat of terror-
ist attacks have driven research and development of effective countermea-
sures. According to analysis performed by the Homeland Security Research
Corporation (HSRC), Washington, DC, “… new and maturing sensor and
ICT technologies create new market niches and fresh business opportunities.
These shifts lead a $305 billion 2011 market to a $546 billion by 2022.” HSRC
analysts have forecasted that similar growth is likely for the sector of home-
land security focused on explosives trace detection (ETD).
Modern people-screening technologies and explosives trace detection
methods are based on a number of fundamental physical and chemical prin-
ciples, including:

• Ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS)

• Chemiluminescence (CL)
• Electron capture detectors (ECDs)
• Surface acoustic wave (SAW)
• X-ray backscattering
• Active microwave and millimetre-wave (mm-wave) imaging
• Passive microwave and mm-wave imaging
• Terahertz imaging
• Metal detection
• Liquid explosives screening
• Biometric people screening
• Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)–based electrochemical sensing
• Molecularly imprinted polymer sensing

That such a variety of detecting methods and principles have been inves-
tigated clearly demonstrates that developing effective anti-terror counter­
measures is a very difficult task. At present, there is no universal solution
to this problem, nor is there likely to be such a solution in the foreseeable
future. The current approach is to concentrate efforts on improving overall
performance of existing detecting systems in terms of higher detection prob-
ability and lower false alarm rate, resulting in a slow but steady improve-
ment in these technologies. Over the last decade the authors were involved
in the design and testing of various microwave and mm-wave devices and
systems aimed at improving the efficiency of detecting weapons and explo-
sives concealed upon the human body.

vii
viii Preface

One motivation of this book is to systemize the results obtained by the

research teams of the MM-Wave Laboratory of Ariel University (Israel) and
the Center for Sensing and Imaging in the School of Electrical Engineering at
Metropolitan University of Manchester (UK). We believe that such a system-
atic view will help specialists involved in the design of detection or screen-
ing systems to improve upon these devices. Another important reason for
writing this book comes from the understanding that mm-wave imaging
devices suffer from high complexity and very high cost, which prove to be
serious limitations to the wider uptake of these scanners. In typical screen-
ing scenarios, an exact knowledge of the shape of a concealed object is not
an essential requirement, so preliminary screening of a human body using
a non-imaging remote sensor may be sufficient for making a decision about
the presence (or absence) of concealments. The screening process can then
be accomplished less expensively in comparison with the application of
millimetre-wave imaging systems. Also, non-imaging detectors can be real-
ized as handheld, portable devices that can be employed without fixed-posi-
tion detection portals, giving far greater flexibility of use. It should also be
pointed out that non-imaging sensors don’t have the so-called ‘naked vision’
effect typical for mm-wave imagers and don’t violate human privacy.
Our discussion focuses on non-imaging mm-wave and microwave sensors
applied to remote detection of both metallic and dielectric objects concealed
on a human body in indoor and outdoor environments for homeland secu-
rity applications.
The book consists of seven chapters. The introduction (Chapter 1) describes
in general the concept of active and passive mm-wave sensing. Advantages
and drawbacks of both approaches are considered too.
Chapter 2 provides a brief background of theory and phenomenology for
mm-wave sensors and discusses these considerations for both passive and
active systems.
Chapter 3 describes some configurations of active mm-wave sensors.
Chapter 4 presents the basic realizations of mm-wave active sensors oper-
ating in frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) mode. Various
configurations of such sensors are considered and compared. Examples of
sensors in 94 and 330 GHz are given.
Chapter 5 describes the application of complex natural resonances to the
detection and identification of concealed objects with microwave frequency
radiation.
Chapter 6 examines different versions of passive mm-wave sensors based
on heterodyne and direct power receivers. A detection algorithm estimating
unimodality of the recorded search tracing has been suggested and tested.
It allows us to reach detection probabilities up to 95% and more. A portable
version of the passive sensor is described for indoor application at a distance
of up to 3 m.
Chapter 7 focuses on the role of shielding effects inherent to typi-
cal common materials such as textiles, leathers, cartons, etc. Additional
Preface ix

attenuation and interference caused by these materials in screening for

concealed objects may lead to degrading the overall performance of the
sensors, both active and passive. The knowledge of complex permittivi-
ties allows us to predict such effects. However, Rayleigh scattering must
also be taken into consideration since the surface roughness parameter is
comparable with wavelength. The modification of a free space method of
permittivity determination is described, and an angular invariance crite-
rion is formulated too.
We address the text to MS and PhD students, microwave and mm-wave
engineers, as well as specialists involved in the solution of a variety of prob-
lems associated with numerous homeland security applications. Hopefully,
readers will find in this book some learning examples and stimulus for their
own initiatives in this exciting field.

Boris Y. Kapilevich
Ariel University, MM-Wave Laboratory, Israel

Stuart W. Harmer
Manchester Metropolitan University, School of Electrical Engineering, UK

Nicholas J. Bowring
Manchester Metropolitan University, School of Electrical Engineering, UK

MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The Math Works, Inc. For product

information, please contact:

The Math Works, Inc.

3 Apple Hull Drive
Natick, MA
Tel: 508-647-7000
Fax: 508-647-7001
E-mail: info@mathworks.com
Web: http://www.mathworks.com
Acknowledgements

Professor Boris Kapilevich would like to thank the following colleagues

for their assistance and contributions in the process of preparing this book:
Professor Yosef Pinhasi, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Ariel University,
for providing favorable research environments and active support for many
studies performed in the MM-­Wave Laboratory; Danny Hardon, Director
of Homeland Securty Center, Ariel University, for coordinating efforts;
Professor A. Gover, Tel Aviv University; and Dr. Moshe Einat, member of the
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Ariel University, for
valuable discussions.
The following engineers and students made valuable contributions to
Chapters 4, 6 and 7: B. Litvak, A. Shulzinger, O. Shotman, B. Kostjakovsky,
M. Anisimov, R. Arusi and A. Etinger.
Dr. Stuart Harmer and Professor Nicholas Bowring acknowledge the con-
tribution made to Chapters 3 and 5 by members of the Centre for Sensing
and Imaging research group in the School of Science and Engineering at
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. In particular, they recognize
the significant work carried out by Dr. David Andrews, Dr. Nacer Rezgui,
Dr. Matthew Southgate, Dr. Sarah Smith and Dr. Shawn Cole. Without these
people, it would not have been possible to design, build and test various sys-
tems that are detailed in this book.

xi
About the Authors

Boris Y. Kapilevich was appointed head of the Applied Electromagnetic

Department at Siberia State University of Telecommunications and pro-
fessor of microwave engineering in 1988 (Novosibirsk, Russia). In 2003, he
joined the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Ariel
University (Israel) to lead the research activity in the area of millimeter-
wave (mm-wave) imaging and detection conducted by the RF/Microwave/
MM-Wave Laboratory, where he focused on the solution of homeland secu-
rity problems. He earned his PhD in 1970 from Novosibirsk State Technical
University (Russia) and Dr.Sc. (Tech.) in 1988 from Moscow Power Engineering
Institute (Russia), both in the area of microwave engineering.. Dr. Kapilevich
has published four books, dozens of technical articles in peer-reviewed edi-
tions and has made numerous presentations at national and international
professional forums, many in the field of mm-wave technology. He holds
15 patents in the area of microwaves and mm-wave devices. The “Concealed
Weapons Detector,” patented by Dr. Kapilevich and coauthors, won the
TechConnect World Innovation and Expo 2014 awards in Washington, DC.
He is a senior member of Institute of Electical and Electronics Engineers.

Stuart W. Harmer holds a BSc in physics and astrophysics and a PhD in

physics from the University of Sussex (UK). He is a fellow of the Institute of
Physics. From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Harmer held the position of research fellow
in photonics at Sussex University and later the position of senior research
fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He has worked in the industry
as a scientist for SELEX ES and was appointed reader in physics and engi-
neering science at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012. Dr. Harmer
has authored and coauthored more than 50 publications and is an inventor
on 20 patents.

Nicholas J. Bowring holds an MSc in experimental physics and a PhD in

atomic and molecular physics, earned from the University of Manchester
in 1985 and 1991, respectively. In 2007 he was made full professor of elec-
tronic engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University and is currently
head of the Centre for Sensing and Imaging. Professor Bowring has pub-
lished numerous journal papers and conference proceedings, is a named
inventor on more than 20 patents, and has worked on a diverse range of proj-
ects, including millimetre and microwave remote sensing radar and image
processing in the visible band for train rail inspection.

xiii
1
Introduction

The millimetre-­wave (mm-wave) band extends from 30 to 300 GHz. The

electromagnetic properties of clothing textiles (leathers, carton, etc.) at these
frequencies are such that millimetre-­wave radiation can pass through these
materials without high attenuation [1]. At shorter wavelengths, for example,
infrared radiation, attenuation is too great for penetration through cloth-
ing. In addition, because the wavelength of millimetre-­wave radiation
(10 mm–1 mm) is not too large, a highly directive antenna may be formed
without unacceptably large aperture dimensions, allowing sensors to be
realized which give reasonable spatial resolution yet are able to obtain infor-
mation about objects concealed upon the human body, under typical cloth-
ing. The only other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum where these
conditions of spatial resolution and low attenuation through clothing fabrics
are met are at very high frequencies (i.e. x-­ray) and in the submillimetre,
or terahertz, band. In the x-­ray region, the obvious safety issues associated
with exposing people to ionizing radiation prevent deployment; recent use
of low-­dose backscatter x-­ray machines for security screening of people in
airports has caused widespread controversy [2], and these devices have been
withdrawn from service. Such devices must also be active, since the thermal
grey body emission of x-­rays from objects at temperatures of ~300 K is far
too low for passive sensors to be practicable. There are no safety concerns
with passive systems, as they simply detect the thermal emission from the
body and that from the surroundings which reflect from the body. In the
submillimetre-­wave (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum the radia-
tion does not have sufficient photon energy to ionize atoms or molecules and
so is considered far safer than x-­rays. Clothing materials also have favour-
able transparency in the submillimetre-­wave band, although attenuation is
greater than is found in the millimetre-­wavelength region and attenuation
increases significantly with increasing frequency [3]. Passive and active sen-
sors can be built in the submillimetre-­wavelength region, but these devices
are currently not as mature as their millimetre-­wave counterparts, and they
require expensive and often experimental components.
Millimetre-­wave screening is currently realized, almost exclusively, by
sensors which form images. Both active and passive millimetre-­wave imag-
ing systems are commercially available for security screening applications
[4]. Imaging systems are a natural product, as human operators are able to
more easily interpret imagery than other information, such as temporal or
frequency domain waveforms. However, unlike in the visible and infrared

1
2 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

wavelength regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, formation of focal

plane arrays of receivers is currently prohibitively expensive and techno-
logically challenging, although alternative technologies may well allow the
realization of focal plane arrays in the near future [5]. Most commercially
available imaging systems use several receiver antennae, each with its low
noise amplifier and heterodyne mixer. Imaging is accomplished by spatially
sampling the field of view using mechanically movable reflective optics to
direct millimetre radiation emanating from different parts of the scene onto
an array of multiple receivers. Such configurations are expensive to build,
as the components are costly to produce. Active systems based on aperture
synthesis are a common sight in modern airport security lanes [6].
Millimetre-­wave imaging is a very well understood science and has
obvious applications: concealed object detection, especially in the security
space where people can be screened, at standoff ranges, for objects con-
cealed under clothing; and for aircraft landing systems, where dust/­sand
or smoke may prevent pilots from visualizing a landing site. The science
of millimetre-­wave imaging is based on spatially mapping the distribu-
tion of radiometric contrast in a scene. For passive imaging, this contrast is
a function of the temperature and emissivity distribution of the scene and
the reflectance distribution of the scene. However, in an outdoor environ-
ment, where the vastly different apparent temperature of the sky (very cold
relative to room temperature) illuminates the scene and contributes to the
contrast in the image formed, there is variability in image contrast depend-
ing on prevailing climatic conditions. Active millimetre-­wave imaging uses
artificially generated millimetre radiation to illuminate the scene, and here
the image so formed is dominated by the reflectance distribution, which is
sensitive to the orientation of reflecting surfaces and their diffusivity. Thus,
active and passive millimetre-­wave imaging modalities are complementary:
active overcoming the low-­intensity (and therefore low signal-­to-­noise) and
‘cold sky’ variability; and passive giving radiometric contrast, rather than
reflectance contrast, images, without specular reflections and ‘glinting’ that
affects the active modality.
A prerequisite of any image-­based screening system is the ability to
form an image in which there exists sufficient contrast between concealed
objects and the background medium of the human body that they can be
distinguished. This condition requires that the portion of the electromag-
netic spectrum utilized for image formation is not significantly attenuated
by clothing materials, and also that the objects to be resolved have physical
properties: emissivity and reflectance that are sufficiently different from that
of the human body to give a resolvable difference in contrast in the formed
image. Also important is that the imaging system has sufficient spatial res-
olution that the shape of the object can be resolved sufficiently well for a
decision on the nature of it, or even permitting an identification to be made—
allowing, for example, the user to be able to discriminate between a hand-
gun and a mobile phone. The only region of the electromagnetic spectrum
Introduction 3

Frequency Hz

108 109 1010 1011 1012 1013

Decreasing
Increasing Optimal spatial
attenuation region resolution

Radio waves Microwaves Millimetre- Submillimetre- Infrared

waves waves

Figure 1.1
Illustration of the trade-­off between attenuation in clothing and diffraction-­limited spa-
tial resolution over six decades of the electromagnetic spectrum; the optimal region where
clothing is nearly transparent but the far-­field diffraction limit is not so large as to prevent
resolution of concealed objects at standoff ranges of ~10 m is found in the millimetre- to sub­
millimetre-­wave region. (From Harmer, S. W. et al., IEEE Sensors Journal, 99, 2013, doi: 10.1109/
JSEN.2013.2273487.)

where these conditions are readily met is in that of the millimetre-­wave and
sub­millimetre-­wave regime (see Figure 1.1).
In this region, imaging systems with sufficiently high spatial resolution can
be achieved using the comparably small antenna sizes needed for a practi-
cal and deployable screening system. Within the shorter-­wavelength portion
of the millimetre-­wave band and within the longer-­wavelength part of the
submillimetre-wave band, images may be formed through typical clothing
fabrics with very little scattering or attenuation.
Most millimetre-­wave imaging systems periodically sample different
solid angles of the total field of view, building up the entire scene by scan-
ning and assembling these smaller angled samples, often in the pattern of
a raster scan. This can be done with a single receiving channel by scanning
the directional pattern of the receiving antenna, modified by the addition of
refractive or reflective quasi-­optical elements, across the two dimensions of
the scene, or by using multiple receiver channels and scanning spatially, thus
building up multiple image pixels at every scanning position. The opera-
tion of scanning can be made redundant if a sufficient number of receiver
channels are used, such that the required field of view can be met solely
by the total viewing angle obtained. This approach is identical in concept
to the focal plane arrays that are used to capture images in the optical and
infrared bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The disadvantages of such
systems in the mm-wave and submillimetre-wave band are many. For exam-
ple, there is the difficulty of positioning of a large number of receiver chan-
nels in the focal plane of the antenna with current dimensions of receiver
4 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

available. Problems also arise in constructing beam-­forming matrices, with

spatially overlapping beams, and of implementing highly directional anten-
nae. Furthermore, low imaging speeds and strict requirements imposed on
speed parameters by the mechanical scanning of the beam steering optics
limit mechanically scanned mm-wave imaging systems. The very high
total cost of the systems with multiple receivers, dominated by the number
of receiver channels required to achieve the required field of view, means
there is a high cost associated with deploying mm-wave imaging. Another
approach to provide low-­cost commercial millimetre-­wave imaging systems
relies on using a highly dispersive antenna, in which the dispersive proper-
ties are achieved by the use of a diffraction grating and dielectric waveguide.
In this design, images are formed by frequency scanning and rotation [7], [8].
These systems can form high-­frame-­rate images with a single millimetre-­
wave receiver, greatly reducing cost.
Joint use of active and passive sensors allows simultaneous formation of
images of the same field of view and considerably enhances information
obtainable from the scene; however, existing technical limitations prevent
implementation of such systems for practical devices. Such limiting fac-
tors include complexity, high cost, comparably small fields of view, and low
imaging speeds (frame rates).
Although millimetre-­wave imaging systems offer distinct advantages,
their large size, weight, and high cost are very significant limitations which
present a barrier to more widespread uptake of the technology [9]. Currently
only large businesses with stringent security requirements, for example,
airports, are able to procure significant numbers of millimetre-­wave imag-
ing sensors, although this may well change with falling component costs
and novel antenna designs which allow imaging millimetre-­wave sensors
to be realized at much reduced cost. One can envisage the installation of
millimetre-­wave security scanning at schools, colleges, sports events and
other locations where an enhanced security presence is considered to be
worthwhile. However, due to the lack of portability, millimetre-­wave imag-
ing systems will still have limited flexibility in such applications. Another
approach is to utilize the millimetre- and submillimetre-­wave bands with
single-­pixel, active, radar-­like sensors, which may be used to screen peo-
ple at distances from tens of centimetres to 100 metres [10]–[12]. Such sen-
sors do not require multiple, high-­sensitivity, passive receiver channels and
mechanically driven optics, making them less expensive and less cumber-
some than imaging sensors, but retain the ability to screen effectively under
clothing. High radar resolution sensors with polarimetric capability are
compact enough to be deployed as handheld, portable devices, providing
a simple yes/­no decision on threat level autonomously [10]. The interpreta-
tion of millimetre-­wave imagery is notoriously difficult and does not lend
itself well to autonomous artificial intelligence decision making; however,
the interpretation of scattered radar waveforms provides a quicker and reli-
able discriminatory approach [13]. There are several distinct advantages that
Introduction 5

millimetre-­wave radar sensors possess over their image forming analogues:

spatial resolution requirements for a radar system are less stringent because
imagery is not being used to identify concealed objects by their outlines;
instead, the waveform of the reflected radar pulse is analysed to provide
information. Consequently, standoff ranges are greater than those achievable
with an imaging system because there is no requirement for multiple pixels
to cover the object’s angular size. Instead, illumination of the entire object is
required so that all features of the object may contribute to the reflection of
the incident radar waveform [10]. Operational speeds of radar sensors can
be higher than for a millimetre-­wave imaging system, with capture rates
well above video rate possible. Radar systems are also mechanically simpler
than millimetre-­wave imaging cameras since there is no need for precision
scanning with mechanically moved mirror; the radar sensor is a point-­and-­
detect system. The radar system, if combined with video imagery to show
the position of the millimetre-­wave beam, allows simple manual aiming and
screening. Size and weight savings of a millimetre-­wave radar sensor over
an imaging system are considerable because of the reduced number of com-
ponents, optics, mechanical drives and power requirements allowing hand-
held sensors to be realized. Finally, the cost of a radar sensor is significantly
lower, as fewer expensive millimetre-­wave components are required and
expensive mechanically driven optical components are not required.
For realistic radar cross section (RCS) simulations of a human body
with concealed objects, information about the permittivity of human skin
and electromagtic properties of clothing and of the hidden object itself are
needed. Just as important are accurate topographic specifications of the body
and of the concealed object placed on the body. We have simulated the RCS
of a simplified configuration, shown in Figure 1.2a, using the Integral Solver
of CST Microwave Studio. The conductivity of the simulated equivalent of a
human body was σe = 0.95 S/­m and the real part of dielectric constant ε = 12.
The material of the simulated handgun was modelled as a perfect conductor.
We assume that the target is illuminated by plane wave travelling in a direc-
tion normal to the body. Figure 1.2b shows the RCS for a linearly polarized
E-­field aligned across the width of the simulated human body, without the
handgun, while Figure 1.2c was calculated with the handgun present. We
can see considereable differences in the far-­field RCS patterns for both situ-
ations. However, when a real antenna illuminates the target, the situation is
more complex: only a part of energy is backscattered by the concealed object,
while some is reflected by the human body. Depending on the distance to
the body, the beam width and position of the body, the contribution of both
scattered components is highly variable, leading to a great uncertainty of the
detection procedure.
The radar cross section of a person at W-­band frequencies has a very large
variation (>3 orders of magnitude) and can be anywhere from –30 to 4 dBsm
[14] depending on the position of the person. Similarly, a handgun can pres-
ent a very large RCS if the flat surfaces are perpendicular to the radar sensor,
6 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

0
0
30 [dPpm] 30
Phi = 90 –10 Phi = 270
Human body
60 –20 60
equivalent
–30

y 90 90

z x
120 120

Gun equivalent 150 150

180
(a) (b)
00
30 30
Phi = 90 [dPpm] Phi = 270
–10

60 –20 60

–30

90 90

120 120

150 150
180
(c)

Figure 1.2
Simulation RCS of the human body with and without a handgun: (a) configuration of the body
and handgun; (b) RCS pattern without a handgun; (c) RCS pattern with a handgun. The com-
plex nature of the RCS with angle is evident even for the highly simplified shapes modelled.
(From Kapilevich, B. and Einat, M., IEEE Sensor Journal, 10(11), 1746–1752, 2010. © 2010 by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE].)

or a very low RCS if they are tilted away from the sensor. Estimating the RCS
of a handgun by treating the object as a metallic cylinder (barrel) and a metal-
lic plate (handle) gives a maximum RCS as high as ~80 dBsm, but this could
drop to nearly zero for an unfavourable position. Thus, because of the very
wide variability in the RCS of the human body and of typical threat objects,
the detection of a weapon upon the whole body is a very difficult (if not impos-
sible) task if one illuminates the entire human body and uses the measured
RCS as the detection quantity. If the problem is constrained, for example, by
having the person being screened in a pre-­determined position (e.g. standing
Introduction 7

with arms by the sides and facing toward radar), then the variability in the
RCS of the person can be reduced, giving a better chance to detect concealed
objects by their effects on the RCS. The situation is made easier by measuring
the weak polarizing effect of the body and stronger polarizing effect of typi-
cal weapons. Even so, there is still too great a variation in RCS to make such
an approach a truly reliable and robust method for detection of concealed
threats, with the possible exception of suicide vests, where there may be con-
siderable amounts of metallic fragmentation, which will greatly increase the
RCS in a less aspect-­sensitive way than other concealed threat objects.
However, the problem of detection becomes practicably realizable when
a smaller beam is used, such that the beam size is commensurate with the
maximum dimension of objects to be detected. In this case the reflection of
the metal surface and scattering from edges always dominates the effect
of the patch of human skin which is obscured by the object, making detec-
tion by means of RCS a more robust technique. The RCS of the human torso,
when illuminated by a beam which is smaller than the width of the torso, is
considerably smaller and less variable than the RCS of the entire human
body. Thus, the presence or absence of a threat object within this beam
spot is far easier to reliably ascertain than is the case where the entire body
is illuminated. The probability of detection is improved by application of
polarimetric radar, and capability is further enhanced if a sufficient radar
resolution can be realized such that the depth of objects present in front of
the body can be also be estimated.

References
1. J. W. Lamb, Miscellaneous data on materials for millimetre and submillimetre
optics, International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, 17(12), 1997–2034,
1996.
2. M. M. Ahlers, TSA removing ‘virtual strip search’ body scanners, January 2013.
Available at http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/18/travel/tsa-­body-­scanners
(accessed 25 July 2013).
3. J. E. Bjarnason, T. L. J. Chan, A. W. M. Lee, M. A. Celis, and E. R. Brown,
Millimeter-­wave, terahertz, and mid-­infrared transmission through common
clothing, Applied Physics Letters, 85, 519–521, 2004.
4. M. C. Kemp, Millimetre wave and terahertz technology for the detection of
concealed threats: a review, in Proceedings of SPIE 6402, Optics and Photonics
for Counterterrorism and Crime Fighting II, 64020D, September 28, 2006.
doi:10.1117/12.692612.
5. A. Aharon, D. Rozban, N. S. Kopeika, and A. Abramovich, Heterodyne detec-
tion at 300 GHz using neon indicator lamp glow discharge detector, Applied
Optics, 52(17), 4077–4082 (2013). Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/
AO.52.004077.
8 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

6. L3 Security and Detection Systems. 2013. Available at http://www.sds.l-3com.

com/advancedimaging/provision.htm (accessed 1 June 2013).
7. S. D. Andrenko, P. N. Melezhik, S. A. Provalov, and Y. B. Sidorenko, A planar
millimeter wave antenna, in Sixth International Kharkov Symposium on Proceedings
of Physics and Engineering of Microwaves, Millimeter and Submillimeter Waves and
Workshop on Terahertz Technologies (MSMW ’07), vol. 2, 2007, p. 699. doi: 10.1109/
MSMW.2007.4294782.
8. S. A. Shilo and Yu. B. Sidorenko, Millimeter wave imaging system, in Sixth
International Kharkov Symposium on Proceedings of Physics and Engineering of
Microwaves, Millimeter and Submillimeter Waves and Workshop on Terahertz
Technologies (MSMW ’07), vol. 1, 2007.
9. J. J. Lynch, P. A. Macdonald, H. P. Moyer, and R. G. Nagele, Passive millimeter
wave imaging sensors for commercial markets, Applied Optics, 49(19), E7–E12
(2010). Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.49.0000E7.
10. D. A. Andrews, S. W. Harmer, N. J. Bowring, N. D. Rezgui, and M. J. Southgate,
Active millimeter wave sensor for standoff concealed threat detection, pre-
sented at IEEE Sensors 2013.
11. B. Kapilevich, Y. Pinhasi, R. Arusi, M. Anisimov, D. Hardon, B. Litvak, and
Y. Wool, 330 GHz FMCW image sensor for homeland security applications,
Journal of Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves, 31, 1370–1381, 2010.
12. R. J. Douglass, J. D. Gorman, and T. J. Burns, System and method for standoff
detection of human carried explosives, U.S. Patent 7,800,527, 2010.
13. S. W. Harmer, N. Bowring, D. Andrews, N. D. Rezgui, M. Southgate, and
S. Smith, A review of nonimaging stand-­off concealed threat detection with
millimeter-­wave radar, IEEE Microwave Magazine, 13, 160–167, 2012.
14. N. Yamada, Radar cross section for pedestrian in 76 GHz band, R&D Review of
Toyota CRDL, 39(4), 2005.
15. B. Kapilevich and M. Einat, Detecting hidden objects on human body using
active millimeter wave sensor, IEEE Sensor Journal, 10, 11, 1746–1752, 2010.
2
Background and Theory

2.1 RCS Concept and Basic Definitions

Key physical considerations for the operation of microwave and millimetre-­
wave sensors form the basis for understanding the sensitivity, efficacy and
limitations of such sensors in realistic environments. In the following chap-
ters some basic concepts that relate to the physical operation of microwave-
and millimetre-­wave sensors are outlined.
Active sensors partially or entirely illuminate the person being screened
with microwave- or millimetre-­wave radiation. The amount of radiation that
is reflected or scattered from the body and any items concealed thereon is
determined by the radar cross section (RCS) of these objects. The RCS of eas-
ily concealed weapons, such as handguns and knives, depends strongly on
the orientation of the object with respect to the transmitter and receiver as
well as the frequency band of the illuminating radiation. The RCS is defined
by the physical area required to intercept the transmitted intensity at the tar-
get, such that if the total intercepted power were isotropically scattered, the
intensity measured at the receiver is produced. This statement clearly con-
tains the possibility that the physical cross-­sectional area the object presents
to the incident radiation may not be equal to the RCS; in fact, this is generally
true [1].
Mathematically the RCS can be formalized by considering the scenario
depicted in Figure 2.1. An object or group of objects is located a distance
R1 from a transmitter that can transmit signals in two orthogonal states
(Horizontal polarized and Vertical polarized). A receiver is located at a
range R2 from the object and is capable of receiving Horizontal polarized
and Vertical polarized radiation scattered from the object(s). We assume
that the beam width of the transmitted radiation is large enough that the
beam entirely encompasses the object(s) and also that the intensity across
the object(s) is constant. In this case the power that the object(s) intercept is

Pt , polGt , pol
Pi , pol = Aobj (2.1)
4πR12

9
10 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

R1

Transmitter
Object(s)

R2

Receiver

Figure 2.1
Scattering of radiation from a bistatic radar; the transmitter and receiver are not co-­located,
unlike in the monostatic case.

where the gain of the transmitter for polarization state pol (pol = H or V)
is Gt , pol ; the transmitted power is Pt , pol , and the cross sectional area of the
object(s), in the direction of illumination, is Aobj . This intercepted power is
scattered, in a generally anisotropic manner, and the receiver intercepts a
portion of the scattered power. There is also the possibility of out-­of-­plane
scattering. That is, the incident-­polarized wave is partially scattered into the
orthogonal polarization state. The effect of out-­of-­plane scattering is accom-
modated by defining the gain of the scattering object as Gobj , polR , polT . Here
polR is the received polarization state and polT is the transmitted polariza-
tion state.
Using this notation, the scattered power received in the Horizontal and
Vertical polarization states is

Pi , H Gobj , H , H Pi ,VGobj , H ,V
Pr , H = Arec + Arec
4πR22 4πR22
and
Pi , H Gobj ,V , H Pi ,VGobj ,V ,V
Pr ,V = Arec + Arec (2.2)
4πR2 2
4πR22

where Arec is the area of the receiver aperture.

Using Equations 2.1 and 2.2 the results are succinctly expressed as a matrix
equation:

 Pr , H  Aobj Arec  Gobj , H , H Gobj , H ,V   Pt , H Gt , H 

 Pr ,V  = 16π 2 R 2 R 2  Gibj ,V , H Gobj ,V ,V   Pt ,VGt ,V 
(2.3)
1 2

From the definition of the RCS the quantity AobjGobj , polR , polT is equivalent to the
RCS of the object, which we write as σ polR , polT.
Background and Theory 11

Usually the gains of the transmitter for both polarization states are very
similar, so that Equation 2.3 simplifies to

Arec σPt
Pr = (2.4)
16π 2 R12 R22

where

 Pr , H   σ H ,H σ H ,V   Pt , H 
Pr =   ;σ=  and Pt = 
 Pr ,V   σV ,H σ V ,V   Pt ,V 

Equation 2.4 is a polarimetric generalization of the radar equation. For the

sensors considered in Chapter 3, the condition that R1 is sufficiently large that
the radar beam is larger than the illuminated object (a person) is not accu-
rate. In the case of the described radar devices, the beam is small enough that
it is commensurate with the size of typical concealed weapons (~20–30 cm);
this condition is optimum, as it allows estimation of the RCS of the weapon
without the effect of body and background clutter dominating the measure-
ment. Under these conditions, the majority of power incident on the person
is scattered and the gain of the transmitter is only important in determin-
ing the maximum range at which the system can operate. Modification of
the radar equation is straightforward since all transmitted power is incident
upon the person. For a person with no concealed object,

Arec RbodyGbody Pt
Pr = (2.5)
4πR22

rbody is the fraction of the incident power reflected from the body (the
reflectance) and Gbody is the gain of the body (a measure of the spatial distri-
bution of the reflected power).
If the person has a highly reflective concealed object within the region
illuminated by the beam, then Equation 2.5 becomes

Arec Pt   Aobj  Aobj 

Pr ≈ 2 1−  rbodyG body + Gobj  (2.6)
4πR2   Abeam  Abeam 

Here Aobj is the area of the concealed object, Abeam is the area of the radar
beam, and Gobj is the gain of the concealed object. A comparison of Equations
2.5 and 2.6 shows that maximum contrast between cases when an object is
present and when objects are absent is obtained when Abeam ≈ Aobj .
12 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

2
3

Figure 2.2
The radar equation (Equation 2.4) is valid for a beam indicated by circle 1; the person is sig-
nificantly smaller than the beam, and the gain may be considered constant over the person.
Circle 3 illustrates a beam which is entirely located upon the person, while circle 2 represents
an intermediate case.

When the beam overlaps the body but is not sufficiently large that
Equation 2.4 applies (see Figure 2.2), then an intermediate expression is
required. In this scenario, the beam width is larger than both the body and
the object, yet not so large that the gain is constant across the body. Assuming
a Gaussian gain, then in the region indicated by circle 2 in Figure 2.2, the
power received for a person without a concealed object is

PG
t body Rbody Arec   Abody  
Pr ≈  1 − exp  − A   (2.7)
4πR22 beam

where Abeam = (φR1)2 and φ is the angular beam width. The maximum gain
(on axis) is G 0 = 4π/φ.
In general, the RCS is strongly dependent upon the orientation of the object
[2] (see Figure 2.3). The RCS plays an important role in active millimetre-­wave
sensors, determining the ability to discriminate concealed objects against
the background body by their different scattering characteristics. The active
sensors described in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 operate by transmitting an electro-
magnetic signal and receiving the scattered reflection from various objects
present within the radar beam. As such, the RCS plays an important part in
describing different objects concealed upon the human body and the ease or
difficulty with which detection of these concealments can be accomplished.
Background and Theory 13

90 1
120 60 3 GHz

150 0.5 30
RCS–dBcm2

180 0

210 330

240 300
270
Rotation Angle (Degrees)

Figure 2.3
The calculated RCS for a handgun as a function of angle of illumination. The incident plane
wave propagates from the 90° point toward the 270° point and has frequency 3 GHz. The RCS
can be seen as quite a complicated function of angle with very rapid variation over small angu-
lar changes.

2.2 Active versus Passive Modes of Operation Sensors

The concept of RCS is important for understanding the physical nature of
scattering of electromagnetic signals and their analysis for the purpose of
object detection. These sensors are active devices and require an external
source of radiation for illuminating the person who may be carrying a con-
cealed object; passive sensors do not require an artificial source for illumina-
tion. The natural, thermal, radiation of the body and surroundings is used
for the detection of concealed materials.
Active and passive sensors have inherent advantages and disadvantages
relating to their effectiveness and use in different operational environments.
Passive detectors rely on analysis of the thermal radiation emitted, reflected
or blocked by concealed objects. Since the emitted power is very low (a receiver
pointing at a blackbody at 37°C would only receive ~7 pW of radiant power
per GHz of bandwidth), highly sensitive receivers are required in passive sen-
sors. Such a receiver should be wide band in order to collect and integrate the
very weak emitted signals. Therefore, the front-­end circuitry of passive sensors
needs to be low loss and operate over a wide frequency band. Low-­noise and
very high-­gain wide band low-­noise amplifiers (LNAs) are also required for
effective amplification of the passive millimetre-­wave signals.
Active detectors require a transmitter for illuminating the person being
screened, and so they do not necessarily require a sensitive receiver if the
14 Non-Imaging Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Sensors

source of illumination is significantly greater than the thermal background

levels. Active sensors suffer from multiple reflections of the illuminating
radiation, which may drastically degrade detection probability and increase
false alarm rate.
The choice of operating frequency is a critical issue for both passive and
active sensors. Indeed, mm-waves can penetrate to a reasonable depth
through various materials (far better than infrared radiation), and have mm-
wavelengths, resulting in basic resolution at the millimetre scale (better than
for microwaves which have wavelengths of >1 cm). However, microwave
receivers are more sensitive and demonstrate better noise performance than
mm-­wave receivers. Sensors operating in the THz band (submillimetre) have
better resolution in comparison with their mm-wave counterparts, but they
suffer from low sensitivity. As a result, THz detecting systems can operate at
short distances, typically less than 1 m.
Typically, active sensors operate with coherent signals being a source of
interference between several scattering layers composed of clothing, the
body’s skin and any concealed objects. Passive sensors are free from this effect;
the noisy nature of the thermal emission signal permits considerable suppres-
sion of interference effects [3]. As a result, passive sensors can provide a higher
detection probability and lower false alarm in comparable scenarios.
The effects of the environment are different for active and passive sensors.
Active sensors produce returns regardless of operation in indoor or outdoor
scenarios. Passive sensors are more sensitive to environmental conditions. The
reason is that the passive sensor needs some thermal contrast between a back-
ground (human body, for example) and a hidden object to detect. If the differ-
ence in temperature between background and a hidden object is small enough
that it is near the noise level of the sensor, then the performance of the sensor
is nullified. This fact dictates positioning of a hidden object in front of a ther-
mally emitting background. A more detailed analysis of this effect is given in
Chapter 6. If a passive sensor operates in the presence of specific sources of
incoherent radiation such as luminescent lamps (indoor environment) or solar
emission (outdoor environment), the receiver of the passive sensor is unable to
distinguish these scattering components from thermal radiation of the human
body. This effect may increase false alarm rate in passive sensors.
Any practical realization of an active sensor assumes that Tx and Rx chan-
nels are inherent parts of the whole system. Isolation between both chan-
nels should be maximized to avoid degrading overall system performance.
It is quite problematic to achieve good isolation if the active sensor uses the
single antenna for Tx and Rx channels. The parasitic leakage between both
channels is a factor in reducing the range of sensor operation (see Chapter 4
for more details) and creating an effect of parasitic return.
In order to illustrate this effect, a simulation and experiment were done
using the artificial pendulum shown in Figure 2.4. It was assembled from a
metal plate of the dimensions 10 × 15 cm and is free to oscillate in the direc-
tion of the arrow. The plate is positioned in front of a metal foil fixed on the
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
the acquirement of knowledge; he sought to prepare the vase rather
than to fill it.” In the hands of Froebel the figure gains in boldness
and beauty; it is no longer a mere vase to be shaped under the
potter’s fingers; but a flower, say, a perfect rose, to be delicately and
consciously and methodically moulded, petal by petal, curve and
curl; for the perfume and living glory of the flower, why these will
come; do you your part and mould the several petals; wait, too, upon
sunshine and shower, give space and place for your blossom to
expand. And so we go to work with a touch to “imagination” here,
and to “judgment” there; now, to the “perceptive faculties,” now, to
the “conceptive;” in this, aiming at the moral, and in this, at the
intellectual nature of the child; touching into being, petal by petal, the
flower of a perfect life under the genial influences of sunny looks and
happy moods. This reading of the meaning of education and of the
work of the educator is very fascinating, and it calls forth singular
zeal and self-devotion on the part of those gardeners whose plants
are the children. Perhaps, indeed, this of the Kindergarten is the one
vital conception of education we have had hitherto.
But in these days of revolutionary thought, when all along the line
—in geology and anthropology, chemistry, philology, and biology—
science is changing front, it is necessary that we should reconsider
our conception of Education. We are taught, for example, that
“heredity” is by no means the simple and direct transmission, from
parent, or remote ancestor, to child of power and proclivity, virtue
and defect; and we breathe freer, because we had begun to suspect
that if this were so, it would mean to most of us an inheritance of
exaggerated defects: imbecility, insanity, congenital disease—are
they utterly removed from any one of us? So of education, we begin
to ask, Is its work so purely formative as we thought? Is it directly
formative at all? How much is there in this pleasing and easy
doctrine, that the drawing forth and strengthening and directing of
the several “faculties” is education? Parents are very jealous over
the individuality of their children; they mistrust the tendency to
develop all on the same plan; and this instinctive jealousy is right;
for, supposing that education really did consist in systematised
efforts to draw out every power that is in us, why, we should all
develop on the same lines, be as like as “two peas,” and (should we
not?) die of weariness of one another! Some of us have an uneasy
sense that things are tending towards this deadly sameness. But,
indeed, the fear is groundless. We may believe that the personality,
the individuality, of each of us, is too dear to God, and too necessary
to a complete humanity, to be left at the mercy of empirics. We are
absolutely safe, and the tenderest child is fortified against a
battering-ram of educational forces.
The problem of education is more complex than it seems at first
sight, and well for us and the world that it is so. “Education is a life;”
you may stunt and starve and kill, or you may cherish and sustain;
but the beating of the heart, the movement of the lungs, and the
development of the faculties (are there any “faculties”?) are only
indirectly our care. The poverty of our thought on the subject of
education is shown by the fact that we have no word which at all
implies the sustaining of a life: education (e, out, and ducere, to lead,
to draw) is very inadequate; it covers no more than those occasional
gymnastics of the mind which correspond with those by which the
limbs are trained: training (trahere) is almost synonymous, and upon
these two words rests the misconception that the development and
the exercise of the “faculties” is the object of education (we must
needs use the word for want of a better). Our homely Saxon
“bringing up” is nearer the truth, perhaps because of its very
vagueness; any way, “up” implies an aim, and “bringing” an effort.
The happy phrase of Mr. Matthew Arnold—“Education is an
atmosphere, a discipline, a life”—is perhaps the most complete and
adequate definition of education we possess. It is a great thing to
have said it; and our wiser posterity may see in that “profound and
exquisite remark” the fruition of a lifetime of critical effort. Observe
how it covers the question from the three conceivable points of view.
Subjectively, in the child, education is a life; objectively, as affecting
the child, education is a discipline; relatively, if we may introduce a
third term, as regards the environment of the child, education is an
atmosphere.
We shall examine each of these postulates later; at present we
shall attempt no more than to clear the ground a little, with a view to
the subject of this paper, “Parents as Inspirers”—not “modellers,” but
“inspirers.”
It is only as we recognise our limitations that our work becomes
effective: when we see definitely what we are to do, what we can do,
and what we cannot do, we set to work with confidence and courage;
we have an end in view, and we make our way intelligently towards
that end, and a way to an end is method. It rests with parents not
only to give their children birth into the life of intelligence and moral
power, but to sustain the higher life which they have borne. Now that
life, which we call education, receives only one kind of sustenance; it
grows upon ideas. You may go through years of so-called
“education” without getting a single vital idea; and that is why many a
well-fed body carries about a feeble, starved intelligence; and no
society for the prevention of cruelty to children cries shame on the
parents. Only the other day we heard of a girl of fifteen who had
spent two years at a school without taking part in a single lesson,
and this by the express desire of her mother, who wished all her time
and all her pains to be given to “fancy needlework.” This, no doubt, is
a survival (not of the fittest), but it is possible to pass even the
Universities’ Local Examinations with credit, without ever having
experienced that vital stir which marks the inception of an idea; and,
if we have succeeded in escaping this disturbing influence, why we
have “finished our education” when we leave school; we shut up our
books and our minds, and remain pigmies in the dark forest of our
own dim world of thought and feeling.
What is an idea? A live thing of the mind, according to the older
philosophers, from Plato to Bacon, from Bacon to Coleridge. We say
of an idea that it strikes us, impresses us, seizes us, takes
possession of us, rules us; and our common speech is, as usual,
truer to fact than the conscious thought which it expresses. We do
not in the least exaggerate in ascribing this sort of action and power
to an idea. We form an ideal—a, so to speak, embodied idea—and
our ideal exercises the very strongest formative influence upon us.
Why do you devote yourself to this pursuit, that cause? “Because
twenty years ago such and such an idea struck me,” is the sort of
history which might be given of every purposeful life—every life
devoted to the working out of an idea. Now is it not marvellous that,
recognising as we do the potency of an idea, both the word and the
conception it covers enter so little into our thought of education?
Coleridge brings the conception of an “idea” within the sphere of
the scientific thought of to-day; not as that thought is expressed in
Psychology—a term which he himself launched upon the world with
an apology for it as an insolens verbum,[1] but in that science of the
correlation and interaction of mind and brain, which is at present
rather clumsily expressed in such terms as “mental physiology” and
“psycho-physiology.”
In his method he gives us the following illustration of the rise and
progress of an idea:—
“We can recall no incident of human history that impresses the
imagination more deeply than the moment when Columbus, on an
unknown ocean, first perceived that startling fact, the change of the
magnetic needle. How many such instances occur in history, when
the ideas of nature (presented to chosen minds by a Higher Power
than Nature herself) suddenly unfold, as it were, in prophetic
succession, systematic views destined to produce the most
important revolutions in the state of man! The clear spirit of
Columbus was doubtless eminently methodical. He saw distinctly
that great leading idea which authorised the poor pilot to become a
‘promiser of kingdoms.’”
Notice the genesis of such ideas—“presented to chosen minds by
a Higher Power than Nature;” notice how accurately this history of an
idea fits in with what we know of the history of great inventions and
discoveries, with that of the ideas which rule our own lives; and how
well does it correspond with that key to the origin of “practical” ideas
which we find elsewhere:—
“Doth the plowman plow continually to ... open and break the
clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth
he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in
the wheat in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the
spelt in the border thereof? For his God doth instruct him aright, and
doth teach him....
 “Bread corn is ground; for he will not ever be threshing it.... This
also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in
counsel and excellent in wisdom.”[2]
Ideas may invest as an atmosphere, rather than strike as a
weapon. “The idea may exist in a clear, distinct definite form, as that
of a circle in the mind of a geometrician; or it may be a mere instinct,
a vague appetency towards something, ... like the impulse which fills
the young poet’s eyes with tears, he knows not why.” To excite this
“appetency towards something”—towards things lovely, honest, and
of good report, is the earliest and most important ministry of the
educator. How shall these indefinite ideas which manifest
themselves in appetency be imparted? They are not to be given of
set purpose, nor taken at set times. They are held in that thought-
environment which surrounds the child as an atmosphere, which he
breathes as his breath of life; and this atmosphere in which the child
inspires his unconscious ideas of right living emanates from his
parents. Every look of gentleness and tone of reverence, every word
of kindness and act of help, passes into the thought-environment,
the very atmosphere which the child breathes; he does not think of
these things, may never think of them, but all his life long they excite
that “vague appetency towards something” out of which most of his
actions spring. Oh! the wonderful and dreadful presence of the little
child in the midst.
That he should take direction and inspiration from all the casual
life about him, should make our poor words and ways the starting-
point from which, and in the direction of which, he develops—this is
a thought which makes the most of us hold our breath. There is no
way of escape for parents; they must needs be as “inspirers” to their
children, because about them hangs, as its atmosphere about a
planet, the thought-environment of the child, from which he derives
those enduring ideas which express themselves as a life-long
“appetency” towards things sordid or things lovely, things earthly or
divine.
Let us now hear Coleridge on the subject of those definite ideas
which are not inhaled as air, but conveyed as meat to the mind:—[3]
 “From the first, or initiative idea, as from a seed, successive ideas
germinate.”
“Events and images, the lively and spirit-stirring machinery of the
external world, are like light, and air, and moisture to the seed of the
mind, which would else rot and perish.”
“The paths in which we may pursue a methodical course are
manifold, and at the head of each stands its peculiar and guiding
idea.”
“Those ideas are as regularly subordinate in dignity as the paths
to which they point are various and eccentric in direction. The world
has suffered much, in modern times, from a subversion of the natural
and necessary order of Science ... from summoning reason and faith
to the bar of that limited physical experience to which, by the true
laws of method, they owe no obedience.”
“Progress follows the path of the idea from which it sets out;
requiring, however, a constant wakefulness of mind to keep it within
the due limits of its course. Hence the orbits of thought, so to speak,
must differ among themselves as the initiative ideas differ.”
Have we not here the corollary to, and the explanation of, that law
of unconscious cerebration which results in our “ways of thinking,”
which shapes our character, rules our destiny? Thoughtful minds
consider that the new light which biology is throwing upon the laws of
mind is bringing to the front once more the Platonic doctrine, that “An
idea is a distinguishable power, self-affirmed, and seen in its unity
with the Eternal Essence.”
The whole subject is profound, but as practical as it is profound.
We absolutely must disabuse our minds of the theory that the
functions of education are, in the main, gymnastic. In the early years
of the child’s life it makes, perhaps, little apparent difference whether
his parents start with the notion that to educate is to fill a receptacle,
inscribe a tablet, mould plastic matter, or nourish a life; but in the end
we shall find that only those ideas which have fed his life are taken
into the being of the child; all the rest is thrown away, or worse, is
like sawdust in the system, an impediment and an injury to the vital
processes.
This is, perhaps, how the educational formula should run:
Education is a life; that life is sustained on ideas; ideas are of
spiritual origin; but,
“God has made us so,”
that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another. The duty
of parents is to sustain a child’s inner life with ideas as they sustain
his body with food. The child is an eclectic; he may choose this or
that; therefore, in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening
withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper,
whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
The child has affinities with evil as well as with good; therefore,
hedge him about from any chance lodgment of evil suggestion.
The initial idea begets subsequent ideas; therefore, take care that
children get right primary ideas on the great relations and duties of
life.
Every study, every line of thought, has its “guiding idea;” therefore
the study of a child makes for living education, as it is quickened by
the guiding idea “which stands at the head.”
In a word, our much boasted “infallible reason”—is it not the
involuntary thought which follows the initial idea upon necessary
logical lines? Given, the starting idea, and the conclusion may be
predicated almost to a certainty. We get into the way of thinking such
and such manner of thoughts, and of coming to such and such
conclusions, ever further and further removed from the starting-point,
but on the same lines. There is structural adaptation in the brain
tissue to the manner of thoughts we think—a plan and a way for
them to run in. Thus we see how the destiny of a life is shaped in the
nursery, by the reverent naming of the Divine Name; by the light
scoff at holy things; by the thought of duty the little child gets who is
made to finish conscientiously his little task; by the hardness of heart
that comes to the child who hears the faults or sorrows of others
spoken of lightly.
 FOOTNOTES:
[1] “We beg pardon for the use of this insolens verbum, but it is
one of which our language stands in great need.”—S. T.
Coleridge.
[2] Isaiah xxviii.
[3] Method—S. T. Coleridge.
 CHAPTER V

PARENTS AS INSPIRERS

Part III
It is probable that parents as a class feel more than ever before the
responsibility of their prophetic office. It is as revealers of God to
their children that parents touch their highest limitations; perhaps it is
only as they succeed in this part of their work that they fulfil the
Divine intention in giving them children to bring up—in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
How to fortify the children against the doubts of which the air is
full, is an anxious question. Three courses are open—to teach as we
of an older generation have been taught, and to let them bide their
time and their chance; to attempt to deal with the doubts and
difficulties which have turned up, or are likely to turn up; or, to give
children such hold upon vital truth, and, at the same time, such an
outlook upon current thought, that they shall be landed on the safe
side of the controversies of their day, open to truth, in however new a
light presented, and safeguarded against mortal error.
The first course is unfair to the young: when the attack comes,
they find themselves at a disadvantage; they have nothing to reply;
their pride is in arms; they jump to the conclusion that there is no
defence possible of that which they have received as truth; had there
been, would they not have been instructed to make it? They resent
being made out in the wrong, being on the weaker side—so it seems
to them,—being behind their times; and they go over without a
struggle to the side of the most aggressive thinkers of their day.
 Let us suppose that, on the other hand, they have been fortified
with “Christian Evidences,” defended by bulwarks of sound dogmatic
teaching. Religion without definite dogmatic teaching degenerates
into sentiment, but dogma, as dogma, offers no defence against the
assaults of unbelief. As for “evidences,” the rôle of the Christian
apologist is open to the imputation conveyed in the keen proverb, qui
s’excuse, s’accuse; the truth by which we live must needs be self-
evidenced, admitting of neither proof nor disproof. Children should
be taught Bible history with every elucidation which modern research
makes possible. But they should not be taught to think of the
inscriptions on the Assyrian monuments, for example, as proofs of
the truth of the Bible records, but rather as illustrations, though they
are, and cannot but be subsidiary proofs.
Let us look at the third course; and first, as regards the outlook
upon current thought. Contemporary opinion is the fetish of the
young mind. Young people are eager to know what to think on all the
serious questions of religion and life. They ask what is the opinion of
this and that leading thinker of their day. They by no means confine
themselves to such leaders of thought as their parents have elected
to follow; on the contrary, the “other side” of every question is the
attractive side for them, and they do not choose to be behind the
foremost in the race of thought.
Now, that their young people should thus take to the water need
not come upon parents as a surprise. The whole training from
babyhood upward should be in view of this plunge. When the time
comes, there is nothing to be done; openly, it may be, secretly if the
home rule is rigid, the young folk think their own thoughts; that is,
they follow the leader they have elected; for they are truly modest
and humble at heart, and do not yet venture to think for themselves;
only they have transferred their allegiance. Nor is this transfer of
allegiance to be resented by parents; we all claim this kind of
“suffrage” in our turn when we feel ourselves included in larger
interests than those of the family.
But there is much to be done beforehand, though nothing when
the time comes. The notion that any contemporary authority is
infallible may be steadily undermined from infancy onwards, though
at some sacrifice of ease and glory to the parents. “I don’t know”
must take the place of the vague wise-sounding answer, the random
shot which children’s pertinacious questionings too often provoke.
And “I don’t know” should be followed by the effort to know, the
research necessary to find out. Even then, the possibility of error in a
“printed book” must occasionally be faced. The results of this kind of
training in the way of mental balance and repose are invaluable.
Another safeguard is in the attitude of reservation, shall we say?
which it may be well to preserve towards “Science.” It is well that the
enthusiasm of children should be kindled, that they should see how
glorious it is to devote a lifetime to patient research, how great to find
out a single secret of nature, a key to many riddles. The heroes of
science should be their heroes; the great names, especially of those
who are amongst us, should be household words. But here, again,
nice discrimination should be exercised; two points should be kept
well to the front—the absolute silence of the oracle on all ultimate
questions of origin and life, and the fact that, all along the line,
scientific truth comes in like the tide, with steady advance, but with
ebb and flow of every wavelet of truth; so much so, that, at the
present moment, the teaching of the last twenty years is discredited
in at least half a dozen departments of science. Indeed, it would
seem to be the part of wisdom to wait half a century before fitting the
discovery of to-day into the general scheme of things. And this, not
because the latest discovery is not absolutely true, but because we
are not yet able so to adjust it—according to the “science of the
proportion of things”—that it shall be relatively true.
But all this is surely beyond children? By no means; every walk
should quicken their enthusiasm for the things of nature, and their
reverence for the priests of that temple; but occasion should be
taken to mark the progressive advances of science, and the fact that
the teaching of to-day may be the error of to-morrow, because new
light may lead to new conclusions even from the facts already
known. “Until quite lately, geologists thought ... they now think ... but
they may find reason to think otherwise in the future.” To perceive
that knowledge is progressive, and that the next “find” may always
alter the bearings of what went before; that we are waiting, and may
have very long to wait, for the last word; that science also is
“revelation,” though we are not yet able fully to interpret what we
know; and that ‘science’ herself contains the promise of great
impetus to the spiritual life—to perceive these things is to be able to
rejoice in all truth and to wait for final certainty.
In another way we may endeavour to secure for the children that
stability of mind which comes of self-knowledge. It is well that they
should know so early, that they will seem to themselves always to
have known, some of the laws of thought which govern their own
minds. Let them know that, once an idea takes possession of them,
it will pursue, so to speak, its own course, will establish its own place
in the very substance of the brain, will draw its own train of ideas
after it. One of the most fertile sources of youthful infidelity is the fact
that thoughtful boys and girls are infinitely surprised when they come
to notice the course of their own thoughts. They read a book or listen
to talk with a tendency to what is to them “free-thought.” And then,
the “fearful joy” of finding that their own thoughts begin with the
thought they have heard, and go on and on to new and startling
conclusions on the same lines! The mental stir of all this gives a
delightful sense of power, and a sense of inevitableness and
certainty too; for they do not intend or try to think this or that. It
comes of itself; their reason, they believe, is acting independently of
them, and how can they help assuming that what comes to them of
itself, with an air of absolute certainty, must of necessity be right?
But what if from childhood they had been warned, “Take care of
your thoughts, and the rest will take care of itself; let a thought in,
and it will stay; will come again to-morrow and the next day, will
make a place for itself in your brain, and will bring many other
thoughts like itself. Your business is to look at the thoughts as they
come, to keep out the wrong thoughts, and let in the right. See that
ye enter not into temptation.” This sort of teaching is not so hard to
understand as the rules for the English nominative, and is of
infinitively more profit in the conduct of life. It is a great safeguard to
know that your “reason” is capable of proving any theory you allow
yourself to entertain.
 We have touched here only on the negative side of the parent’s
work as prophet, inspirer. There are perhaps few parents to whom
the innocence of the babe in its mother’s arms does not appeal with
pathetic force. “Open me the gates of righteousness, that I may go in
unto them,” is the voice of the little unworldly child; and a wish,
anyway, that he may be kept unspotted from the world is breathed in
every kiss of his mother, in the light of his father’s eyes. But how
ready we are to conclude that children cannot be expected to
understand spiritual things. Our own grasp of the things of the Spirit
is all too lax, and how can we expect that the child’s feeble
intelligence can apprehend the highest mysteries of our being? But
here we are altogether wrong. It is with the advance of years that a
materialistic temper settles upon us. But the children live in the light
of the morning-land. The spirit-world has no mysteries for them; that
parable and travesty of the spirit-world, the fairy-world, where all
things are possible, is it not their favourite dwelling-place? And fairy
tales are so dear to children because their spirits fret against the
hard and narrow limitations of time and place and substance; they
cannot breathe freely in a material world. Think what the vision of
God should be to the little child already peering wistfully through the
bars of his prison-house. Not a far-off God, a cold abstraction, but a
warm, breathing, spiritual Presence about his path and about his bed
—a Presence in which he recognises protection and tenderness in
darkness and danger, towards which he rushes as the timid child to
hide his face in his mother’s skirts.
A friend tells me the following story of her girlhood. It so
happened that extra lessons detained her at school until dark every
day during the winter. She was extremely timid, but, with the
unconscious reserve of youth, never thought of mentioning her fear
of “something.” Her way home lay by a river-side, a solitary path
under trees—big trees, with masses of shadow. The black shadows,
in which “something” might lie hid—the swsh-sh, swsh-sh of the
river, which might be whisperings or the rustle of garments—filled
her night by night with unabated terror. She fled along that river-side
path with beating heart; but, quick as flying steps and beating heart,
these words beat in her brain, over, and over, and over, the whole
length of the way, evening by evening, winter after winter: “Thou art
my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt
compass me about with songs of deliverance.” Years after, when the
woman might be supposed to have outgrown girlish terrors, she
found herself again walking alone in the early darkness of a winter’s
evening under trees by the swsh-sh of another river. The old terror
returned, and with it the old words came to her, and kept time the
whole length of the way with her hasty steps. Such a place to hide
him in should be the thought of God to every child.
Their keen sensitiveness to spiritual influences is not due to
ignorance on the part of the children. It is we, not they, who are in
error. The whole tendency of modern biological thought is to confirm
the teaching of the Bible: the ideas which quicken come from above;
the mind of the little child is an open field, surely “good ground,”
where, morning by morning, the sower goes forth to sow, and the
seed is the Word. All our teaching of children should be given
reverently, with the humble sense that we are invited in this matter to
co-operate with the Holy Spirit; but it should be given dutifully and
diligently, with the awful sense that our co-operation would appear to
be made a condition of the Divine action; that the Saviour of the
world pleads with us to “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,”
as if we had the power to hinder, as we know that we have.
This thought of the Saviour of the world implies another
conception which we sometimes leave out of sight in dealing with
children. Young faces are not always sunny and lovely; even the
brightest children in the happiest circumstances have their clouded
hours. We rightly put the cloud down to some little disorder, or to the
weather, but these are the secondary causes which reveal a deep-
seated discontent. Children have a sense of sin acute in proportion
to their sensitiveness. We are in danger of trusting too much to a
rose-water treatment; we do not take children seriously enough;
brought face to face with a child, we find he is a very real person, but
in our educational theories we take him as “something between a
wax doll and an angel.” He sins; he is guilty of greediness,
falsehood, malice, cruelty, a hundred faults that would be hateful in a
grown-up person; we say he will know better by-and-by. He will
never know better; he is keenly aware of his own odiousness. How
many of us would say about our childhood, if we told the whole truth,
“Oh, I was an odious little thing!” and that, not because we recollect
our faults, but because we recollect our childish estimate of
ourselves. Many a bright and merry child is odious in his own eyes;
and the “peace, peace, where there is no peace,” of fond parents
and friends is little comfort. It is well that we “ask for the old paths,
where is the good way;” it is not well that, in the name of the old
paths, we lead our children into blind alleys, nor that we let them
follow the new into bewildering mazes.
 CHAPTER VI

PARENTS AS INSPIRERS

Part IV
“One of the little boys gazing upon the terrible desolation of the scene, so unlike
in its savage and inhuman aspects anything he had ever seen at home, nestled
close to his mother, and asked with bated breath, ‘Mither, is there a God here?’”—
John Burroughs.
The last chapter introduced the thought of parents in their highest
function—as revealers of God to their children. To bring the human
race, family by family, child by child, out of the savage and inhuman
desolation where He is not, into the light and warmth and comfort of
the presence of God, is, no doubt, the chief thing we have to do in
the world. And this individual work with each child, being the most
momentous work in the world, is put into the hands of the wisest,
most loving, disciplined, and divinely instructed of human beings. Be
ye perfect as your Father is perfect, is the perfection of parenthood,
perhaps to be attained only in its fulness through parenthood. There
are mistaken parents, ignorant parents, a few indifferent parents,
even, as one in a thousand, callous parents; but the good that is
done upon the earth is done, under God, by parents, whether directly
or indirectly.
Parents, who recognise that their great work is to be done by the
instrumentality of the ideas they are able to introduce into the minds
of their children, will take anxious thought as to those ideas of God
which are most fitting for children, and as to how those ideas may
best be conveyed. Let us consider an idea which is just now causing
some stir in people’s thoughts.
 “We read some of the Old Testament history as ‘history of the
Jews,’ and Job and Isaiah and the Psalms as poetry—and I am glad
to say he is very fond of them; and parts of the Gospels in Greek, as
the life and character of a hero. It is the greatest mistake to impose
them upon children as authoritative and divine all at once. It at once
diminishes their interest: we ought to work slowly up through the
human side.”[4]
Here is a theory which commends itself to many persons because
it is “so reasonable.” But it goes upon the assumption that we are
ruled by Reason, an infallible entity, which is certain, give it fair play,
to bring us to just conclusions. Now the exercise of that function of
the mind which we call reasoning—we must decline to speak of “the
Reason”—does indeed bring us to inevitable conclusions; the
process is definite, the result convincing; but whether that result be
right or wrong depends altogether upon the initial idea which, when
we wish to discredit it, we call a prejudice; when we wish to exalt, we
call an intuition, even an inspiration. It would be idle to illustrate this
position; the whole history of Error is the history of the logical
outcome of what we happily call misconceptions. The history of
Persecution is the tale of how the inevitable conclusions arrived at by
reasoning pass themselves off for truth. The Event of Calvary was
due to no hasty mad outburst of popular feeling. It was a triumph of
reasoning: the inevitable issue of more than one logical sequence;
the Crucifixion was not criminal, but altogether laudable, if that is
right which is reasonable. And this is why the hearts of religious
Jews were hardened and their understanding darkened; they were
truly doing what was right in their own eyes. It is a marvellous thing
to perceive the thoughts within us driving us forward to an inevitable
conclusion, even against our will. How can that conclusion which
presents itself to us in spite of ourselves fail to be right?
Let us place ourselves for one instant in the position of the logical
and conscientious Jew. “‘Jehovah’ is a name of awe,
unapproachable in thought or act except in ways Himself has
specified. To attempt unlawful approach is to blaspheme. As
Jehovah is infinitely great, presumptuous offence is infinitely
heinous, is criminal, is the last crime as committed against Him who
is the First. The blasphemer is worthy of death. This man makes
himself equal with God, the unapproachable. He is a blasphemer,
arrogant as Beelzebub. He is doubly worthy of death. To the people
of the Jews is committed in trust the honoured Name; upon them it is
incumbent to exterminate the blasphemer. The man must die.” Here
is the secret of the virulent hatred which dogged the steps of the
blameless Life. These men were following the dictates of reason,
and knew, so they would say, that they were doing right. Here we
have the invincible ignorance which the Light of the world failed to
illumine; and He,
“Who knows us as we are,
Yet loves us better than He knows,”

offers for them the true plea, “They know not what they do.” The
steps of the argument are incontrovertible; the error lies in the initial
idea,—such conception of Jehovah as made the conception of Christ
inadmissible, impossible. Thus reasoned the Jew upon whom his
religion had the first claim. The patriotic Jew, to whom religion itself
was subservient to the hopes of his nation, arrived by quite another
chain of spontaneous arguments at the same inevitable conclusion:
—“The Jews are the chosen people. The first duty of a Jew is
towards his nation. These are critical times. A great hope is before
us, but we are in the grip of the Romans; they may crush out the
national life before our hope is realised. Nothing must be done to
alarm their suspicions. This Man? By all accounts He is harmless,
perhaps righteous. But He stirs up the people. It is rumoured that
they call Him King of the Jews. He must not be permitted to ruin the
hopes of the nation. He must die. It is expedient that one man die for
the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” Thus the
consummate crime that has been done upon the earth was done
probably without any consciousness of criminality; on the contrary,
with the acquittal of that spurious moral sense which supports with
its approval all reasonable action. The Crucifixion was the logical
and necessary outcome of ideas imbibed from their cradles by the
persecuting Jews. So of every persecution; none is born of the
occasion and the hour, but comes out of the habit of thought of a
lifetime.
 It is the primal impulse to these habits of thought which children
must owe to their parents; and, as a man’s thought and action
Godward is—
“The very pulse of the machine,”
the introduction of such primal ideas as shall impel the soul to God is
the first duty and the highest privilege of parents. Whatever sin of
unbelief a man is guilty of, are his parents wholly without blame? Let
us consider what is commonly done in the nursery in this respect. No
sooner can the little being lisp than he is taught to kneel up in his
mother’s lap, and say “God bless ...” and then follows a list of the
near and dear, and “God bless ... and make him a good boy, for
Jesus’ sake. Amen.” It is very touching and beautiful. I once peeped
in at an open cottage door in a moorland village, and saw a little
child in its nightgown kneeling in its mother’s lap and saying its
evening prayer. The spot has ever since remained to me a sort of
shrine. There is no sight more touching and tender. By-and-by, so
soon as he can speak the words,
“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,”
is added to the little one’s prayer, and later, “Our Father.” Nothing
could be more suitable and more beautiful than these morning and
evening approaches to God, the little children brought to Him by their
mothers. And most of us can “think back” to the hallowing influence
of these early prayers. But might not more be done? How many
times a day does a mother lift up her heart to God as she goes in
and out amongst her children, and they never know! “To-day I talked
to them” (a boy and girl of four and five) “about Rebekah at the well.
They were very much interested, especially about Eliezer praying in
his heart and the answer coming at once. They said, ‘How did he
pray?’ I said, ‘I often pray in my heart when you know nothing about
it. Sometimes you begin to show a naughty spirit, and I pray for you
in my heart, and almost directly I find the good Spirit comes, and
your faces show my prayer is answered.’ O. stroked my hand and
said, ‘Dear mother, I shall think of that!’ Boy looked thoughtful, but
didn’t speak; but when they were in bed I knelt down to pray for them
before leaving them, and when I got up, Boy said, ‘Mother, God filled
my heart with goodness while you prayed for us; and, mother, I will
try to-morrow.’” Is it possible that the mother could, when alone with
her children, occasionally hold this communing out loud, so that the
children might grow up in the sense of the presence of God? It would
probably be difficult for many mothers to break down the barrier of
spiritual reserve in the presence of even their own children. But
could it be done, would it not lead to glad and natural living in the
recognised presence of God?
A mother who remembered a little penny scent-bottle as an early
joy of her own, took three such small bottles home to her three little
girls. They got them next morning at the family breakfast and
enjoyed them all through the meal. Before it ended the mother was
called away, and little M. was sitting rather solitary with her scent-
bottle and the remains of her breakfast. And out of the pure well of
the little girl’s heart came this, intended for nobody’s ear, “Dear
mother, you are too good!” Think of the joy of the mother who should
overhear her little child murmuring over the first primrose of the year,
“Dear God, you are too good!” Children are so imitative, that if they
hear their parents speak out continually their joys and fears, their
thanks and wishes, they too will have many things to say.
Another point in this connection: the little German child hears and
speaks many times a day of der liebe Gott; to be sure he addresses
Him as “Du,” but du is part of his everyday speech; the circle of the
very dear and intimate is hedged in by the magic du. So with the little
French child, whose thought and word are ever of le bon Dieu; he
also says Tu, but that is how he speaks to those most endeared to
him. But the little English child is thrust out in the cold by an archaic
mode of address, reverent in the ears of us older people, but
forbidding, we may be sure, to the child. Then, for the Lord’s Prayer,
what a boon would be a truly reverent translation of it into the
English of to-day. To us, who have learned to spell it out, the present
form is dear, almost sacred; but we must not forget that it is after all
only a translation; and is, perhaps, the most archaic piece of English
in modern use: “which art,”[5] commonly rendered “chart,” means
nothing for a child. “Hallowed” is the speech of a strange tongue to
him—not much more to us; “trespasses” is a semi-legal term, never