sible assimilate to those which you conceive would be called
forth from a parent of perfect nature.

Be sparing of commands. Command only when other means are inapplicable,
or have failed. "In frequent orders the parents' advantage is more
considered than the child's," says Richter. As in primitive societies a
breach of law is punished, not so much because it is intrinsically wrong
as because it is a disregard of the king's authority--a rebellion
against him; so in many families, the penalty visited on a transgressor
is prompted less by reprobation of the offence than by anger at the
disobedience. Listen to the ordinary speeches--"How _dare_ you disobey
me?" "I tell you I'll _make_ you do it, sir." "I'll soon teach you who
is _master_"--and then consider what the words, the tone, and the manner
imply. A determination to subjugate is far more conspicuous in them,
than anxiety for the child's welfare. For the time being the attitude of
mind differs but little from that of a despot bent on punishing a
recalcitrant subject. The right-feeling parent, however, like the
philanthropic legislator, will rejoice not in coercion, but in
dispensing with coercion. He will do without law wherever other modes of
regulating conduct can be successfully employed; and he will regret the
having recourse to law when law is necessary. As Richter remarks--"The
best rule in politics is said to be '_pas trop gouverner_:' it is also
true in education." And in spontaneous conformity with this maxim,
parents whose lust of dominion is restrained by a true sense of duty,
will aim to make their children control themselves as much as possible,
and will fall back upon absolutism only as a last resort.

But whenever you _do_ command, command with decision and consistency. If
the case is one which really cannot be otherwise dealt with, then issue
your fiat, and having issued it, never afterwards swerve from it.
Consider well what you are going to do; weigh all the consequences;
think whether you have adequate firmness of purpose; and then, if you
finally make the law, enforce obedience at whatever cost. Let your
penalties be like the penalties inflicted by inanimate
Nature--inevitable. The hot cinder burns a child the first time he
seizes it; it burns him the second time; it burns him the third time; it
burns him every time; and he very soon learns not to touch the hot
cinder. If you are equally consistent--if the consequences which you
tell your child w