ll and authority with such a child, as she would be in a
physical wrestle with a six-foot man.

What then? Has Nature left her helpless for her duties? Not if she
understands her nature, and acts in the line of it. She has no power of
command, but she has power of persuasion. She can neither bend nor break
the boy's iron will, but she can melt it. She has tact to avoid the
conflict in which she would be worsted. She can charm, amuse, please,
and make willing; and her fine and subtile influences, weaving
themselves about him day after day, become more and more powerful. Let
her alone, and she will have her boy yet.

But now some bustling mother-in-law or other privileged expounder says
to her,--

"My dear, it's your solemn duty to break that boy's will. I broke my
boy's will short off. Keep your whip in sight, meet him at every turn,
fight him whenever he crosses you, never let him get one victory, and
finally his will will be wholly subdued."

Such advice is mischievous, because what it proposes is as utter an
impossibility to the woman's nature as for a cow to scratch up worms for
her calf, or a hen to suckle her chickens.

There are men and women of strong, resolute will who are gifted with the
power of governing the wills of others. Such persons can govern in this
way,--and their government, being in the line of their nature, acting
strongly, consistently, naturally, makes everything move harmoniously.
Let them be content with their own success, but let them not set up as
general education-doctors, or apply their experience to all possible
cases.

Again, there are others, and among some of the loveliest and purest
natures, who have no power of command. They have sufficient tenacity of
will as respects their own course, but have no compulsory power over the
wills of others. Many such women have been most successful mothers, when
they followed the line of their own natures, and did not undertake what
they never could do.

_Influence_ is a slower acting force than authority. It seems weaker,
but in the long run it often effects more. It always does better than
mere force and authority without its gentle modifying power.

If a mother is high-principled, religious, affectionate, if she never
uses craft or deception, if she governs her temper and sets a good
example, let her hold on in good hope, though she cannot produce the
discipline of a man-of-war in her noisy little flock, or make all move
as smoothly as so