ect
little angel, winsome and smiling, happy and satisfied, presenting an
entirely different picture from the little culprit so recently
incarcerated as a punishment for his unseemly conduct.

But let me repeat that while such methods of discipline often work
like magic on normal children, they must be repeated again and again
in the case of one who is nervous in order to establish new
association groups in the brain and to form new habit grooves in his
developing nervous system.

RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY

There are just two things the nervous child must grow up to respect;
one is authority and the other is the rights and privileges of his
associates. The nervous child needs early to learn to reach a
conclusion and to render a decision--to render a decision without
equivocation--to move forward in obedience to that decision without
quibbling and without question; that is the thing the nervous man and
woman must learn in connection with the later conquest of their own
nerves; and a foundation for such a mastery of one's unruly nerves is
best laid early in life--by teaching the child prompt and
unquestioning obedience to parental commands. At the same time,
endeavor so to raise the child that it acquires the faculty of quickly
and agreeably adapting itself to its environment, at the same time
cheerfully recognizing the rights of its fellows.

It is a crime against the nervous child to allow it to hesitate, to
debate, or to falter about any matter that pertains to the execution
of parental commands. Let your rule be--speak once, then spank. Never
for a moment countenance anything resembling dilatoriness or
procrastination, let the child grow up to recognize these as its
greatest dangers, never to be tolerated for one moment.

FALSE SYMPATHY

We are aware that many good people in perusing this chapter will think
that some of the advice here given is both cruel and hard hearted; but
we can safely venture the opinion that those who have reared many
children, at least if they have had some nervous little ones, will be
able to discern the meaning and significance of most of our
suggestions. Sympathy is a beautiful and human trait and we want
nothing in this chapter in any way to interfere with that
characteristic sympathy of a parent for its offspring--the proverbial
"as a father pitieth his children"--nevertheless, there is a great
deal of sympathy that is utterly false, that is of the nature of a
disastrous compromi