sprinkling on of water has in the extinguishing of burning coals. Indeed, one can scarcely imagine anything more congenial to the formation of desperate and malignant resolutions, than to be forcibly snatched up—as some of us can remember to have been—thrust, struggling, into a dark and unoccupied room, and there locked up, and left; so that, scream as we would (and few, under such circumstances, would not do their best), the sound of our distress was beyond the reach of any human ear.
Happily for the human race, however, these times are past, and the too severe application of direct and unsparing punishment is not the fashion of the present day. I say happily for the human race, because it is not possible for the most unbounded indulgence, as a system, to produce consequences so lamentable in their general effects, as a system of harshness and severity practised upon the tender and susceptible nature of youth. To those kind and gentle mothers who consider mere authority as too stern an instrument to work with in the training of their children, we must then in justice grant, that theirs is the lesser evil of the two.
Where this evil on the, mother's part arises from excessive tenderness, and unwillingness to give pain, it will perhaps be a little startling to hear it asserted, that if she set herself to devise a plan for ensuring the future misery of her child, next in degree of efficacy, though widely different in nature, to that which has already been alluded to, she could not find one more effectual than that of neglecting to instil into its mind the necessity of implicit obedience. Once convinced of this necessity, which it easily may be, by never being allowed to call in question the authority of those under whose care it is placed, the child grows up without the least idea that the rule of obedience is a hardship, or in fact without any idea of obedience at all; for it submits habitually to rightful authority, just as we submit every day to those circumstances over which we have no control. In this manner the habit of submitting the natural will is imperceptibly acquired, a world of fruitless and painful contention is avoided, and the child really enjoys the advantage of being constantly under the direction of wisdom, forethought, and experience, superior to its own.
