se you make
him; he hangs up his new trousers and goes back into his detestable
girl's-frock because he will be punished if he does not, and it is
intolerable.

It is of no use to say that this is their discipline, and is all
necessary to their welfare. It is a repulsive condition of life in
which such degrading SURVEILLANCE is necessary. You may affirm that an
absolute despotism is the only government fit for Dahomey, and I may
not disallow it; but when you go on and say that Dahomey is the
happiest country in the world, why--I refer you to Dogberry. Now the
parents of a child are, from the nature of the case, absolute despots.
They may be wise, and gentle, and doting despots, and the chain may be
satin-smooth and golden-strong; but if it be of rusty iron, parting
every now and then and letting the poor prisoner violently loose, and
again suddenly caught hold of, bringing him up with a jerk, galling his
tender limbs and irretrievably ruining his temper,--it is all the same;
there is no help for it. And really to look around the world and see
the people that are its fathers and mothers is appalling,--the
narrow-minded, prejudiced, ignorant, ill-tempered, fretful, peevish,
passionate, careworn, harassed men and women. Even we grown people,
independent of them and capable of self-defence, have as much as we can
do to keep the peace. Where is there a city, or a town, or a village,
in which are no bickerings, no jealousies, no angers, no petty or
swollen spites? Then fancy yourself, instead of the neighbor and
occasional visitor of these poor human beings, their children, subject
to their absolute control, with no power of protest against their
folly, no refuge from their injustice, but living on through thick and
thin right under their guns.

"Oh!" but you say, "this is a very one-sided view. You leave out
entirely the natural tenderness that comes in to temper the matter.
Without that, a child's situation would of course be intolerable; but
the love that is born with him makes all things smooth."

No, it does not make all things smooth. It does wonders, to be sure,
but it does not make cross people pleasant, nor violent people calm,
nor fretful people easy, nor obstinate people reasonable, nor foolish
people wise,--that is, it may do so spasmodically, but it does not hold
them to it and keep them at it. A great deal of beautiful moonshine is
written about the sanctities of home and the sacraments of marriage