te obedience. In other words, not only the act itself
must be the one required, but the motive must be right.

If I am led to do what my father or my mother requires, by mere dint of
coaxing, or by the expectation of cakes or pennies or promised
indulgence of any kind, if it is a bargain, in which I give so much
compliance for so much per contra of self-gratification, the compliance
rendered is not an act of obedience. As well might a man profess to obey
his neighbor, because he gives him a bag of oats for a bag of corn. A
great deal of what passes for obedience in families and schools, is mere
barter. Strip the matter of all glosses and disguises, and the naked
truth remains, that children are hired to do what the parent or the
teacher wants to have done. They do not obey, in any legitimate and
wholesome use of the word. They are quiet when they should be quiet,
they learn the lessons which they should learn, they abstain from
whatever things they should abstain from, because they have learned that
this is the only way to gain the indulgences which they desire. The
parent and the teacher use a motive adequate to secure the outward act,
but they do not secure obedience.

It is not obedience for a child to do a thing because his reason and
conscience tell him that the act in itself, without reference to his
parents' wishes, is right and proper. At least it is not filial
obedience. I may be obeying my conscience, but I am not obeying my
father. Many parents, who are above the weakness of bribing their
children, satisfy themselves by reasoning with them. Far be it from us
to say a word against any legitimate appeal to the reason and conscience
of a child. Children, at the proper age, should be taught to reason and
to judge for themselves, in regard to the right and wrong of actions,
just as they should learn to walk alone, and not be forever dependent
upon leading strings. Only, let it be understood that just so far as the
child acts on its own independent judgment, the act is not one of filial
obedience.

Obedience is doing a thing because another, having competent authority,
has enjoined it. The motive necessary to constitute any act an act of
obedience, is a reference to the will and authority of another. It is
submission of our will to the will of another. The child receives as
true what his parents say, and because they say it; so, he does as right
what they command, and because they command it. That fact is, and in