796 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J.: 
There comes a time in the early life of most children when, 
through their dawning consciousness of their power of voli- 
tion, they begin to realise that they are free agents; this 
excites what is known as the phenomenon of contrary sug- 
gestion. Punch has hit off this stage of development in his 
usual happy way, when he depicts a mother sending the 
nurse ‘to see what Master Tommy is doing, and tell him he 
mustn’t.”” At this particular stage Master Tommy not only 
refuses to do what is expected of him, but takes a keen 
delight in doing the very opposite. Offer to shake hands 
with him, and at once he looks you straight in the face, and 
puts his hand behind his back. Put his cap on, and he 
throws it on the floor, and not infrequently stamps on it. 
Put his food before him, and he promptly proceeds to 
spread it over the tablecloth. All this is often done without 
a trace of petulance, and arises simply from a desire to 
exercise the newly-discovered power of will. If treated 
wisely and patiently, and not taken too seriously, this stage 
will soon pass, and Tommy will realise one of the great 
lessons of life—that everyone is the happier for having to 
obey. The expulsive power of a new affection is the best 
antidote to this condition, and the more you can exercise in 
a right direction the natural restlessness and craving for 
exercise of the normal child, the more will you be strengthen- 
ing his will and his powers of self-control. But much must 
be left to the child himself, and the advice of Herbert 
Spencer on this pomt is worthy of the earnest consideration 
of all parents and teachers-—‘‘ Leave him wherever you can 
to the discipline of experience, and you will save him from 
that hothouse virtue which over-regulation produces in yield- 
ing natures, or that demoralising antagonism which it pro- 
duces in independent ones.’’ The same writer says, in a 
passage of particular value—‘ Do not regret the exhibition 
of considerable self-will on the part of yourchildren. . 
The independent English boy is father of the independent 
English man, and you cannot have the last without the 
first. German teachers say that they had rather manage 
a dozen German boys than one English one. Shall we wish 
that our boys had the manageabieness of the German ones, 
and with it the submissiveness and political serfdom of adult 
Germans? Or shall we not rather tolerate in our boys those 
feelings which make them free men, and modify our methods 
accordingly ?”’ 
The natural impulsiveness of a child makes the acquire- 
ment of self-control a slow process. The sudden and un- 
controllable outbursts of passion or emotion so common in 
