than you do
yourself;" "You are not old enough to understand it now, but when you
grow up you will thank me for doing what I do;"--these, and like
assertions, are daily reiterated. Meanwhile the boy is daily suffering
positive penalties; and is hourly forbidden to do this, that, and the
other, which he wishes to do. By words he hears that his happiness is
the end in view; but from the accompanying deeds he habitually receives
more or less pain. Incompetent as he is to understand that future which
his mother has in view, or how this treatment conduces to the happiness
of that future, he judges by the results he feels; and finding such
results anything but pleasurable, he becomes sceptical respecting her
professions of friendship. And is it not folly to expect any other
issue? Must not the child reason from the evidence he has got? and does
not this evidence seem to warrant his conclusion? The mother would
reason in just the same way if similarly placed. If, among her
acquaintance, she found some one who was constantly thwarting her
wishes, uttering sharp reprimands, and occasionally inflicting actual
penalties on her, she would pay small attention to any professions of
anxiety for her welfare which accompanied these acts. Why, then, does
she suppose that her boy will do otherwise?

But now observe how different will be the results if the system we
contend for be consistently pursued--if the mother not only avoids
becoming the instrument of punishment, but plays the part of a friend,
by warning her boy of the punishments which Nature will inflict. Take a
case; and that it may illustrate the mode in which this policy is to be
early initiated, let it be one of the simplest cases. Suppose that,
prompted by the experimental spirit so conspicuous in children, whose
proceedings instinctively conform to the inductive method of
inquiry--suppose that so prompted, the boy is amusing himself by
lighting pieces of paper in the candle and watching them burn. A mother
of the ordinary unreflective stamp, will either, on the plea of keeping
him "out of mischief," or from fear that he will burn himself, command
him to desist; and in case of non-compliance will snatch the paper from
him. But, should he be fortunate enough to have a mother of some
rationality, who knows that this interest with which he is watching the
paper burn, results from a healthy inquisitiveness, and who has also the
wisdom to consider the results of interference, sh