APTER XIX. CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS

CHAPTER XX. THE USE OF MONEY

CHAPTER XXI. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

CHAPTER XXII. GRATITUDE IN CHILDREN

CHAPTER XXIII. RELIGIOUS TRAINING

CHAPTER XXIV. CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS

AUTHORITY

INDULGENCE

"IT IS NOT SAFE"

THE LESSON IN OBEDIENCE

ROUNDABOUT INSTRUCTION

AFRAID OF THE COW

THE INTENTION GOOD

THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY

STORY OF THE HORSE

"MOTHER, WHAT MAKES IT SNOW?"

THE RUNAWAY

THE FIRST INSTINCT

GENTLE MEASURES.

CHAPTER I.

THE THREE MODES OF MANAGEMENT.

It is not impossible that in the minds of some persons the idea of
employing gentle measures in the management and training of children may
seem to imply the abandonment of the principle of _authority_, as the
basis of the parental government, and the substitution of some weak and
inefficient system of artifice and manoeuvring in its place. To suppose
that the object of this work is to aid in effecting such a substitution as
that, is entirely to mistake its nature and design. The only government
of the parent over the child that is worthy of the name is one of
authority--complete, absolute, unquestioned _authority_. The object of this
work is, accordingly, not to show how the gentle methods which will be
brought to view can be employed as a substitute for such authority, but how
they can be made to aid in establishing and maintaining it.

_Three Methods_.

There are three different modes of management customarily employed
by parents as means of inducing their children to comply with their
requirements. They are,

1. Government by Manoeuvring and Artifice.

2. By Reason and Affection.

3. By Authority.

_Manoeuvring and Artifice_.

1. Many mothers manage their children by means of tricks and contrivances,
more or less adroit, designed to avoid direct issues with them, and to
beguile them, as it were, into compliance with their wishes. As, for
example, where a mother, recovering from sickness, is going out to take
the air with her husband for the first time, and--as she is still
feeble--wishes for a very quiet drive, and so concludes not to take little
Mary with her, as she usually does on such occasions; but knowing that if
Mary sees the chaise at the door, and discovers that her father and mother
are going in it, she will be very eager to go too, she adopts a system of
manoeuvres to conceal her design. She brings down her bonnet and shawl by
stealth, and befo