THE STUDY OF CHILD-NATURE. 799 
abstract for his comprehension. To him a lie conveys no 
idea of shame; it is often merely the shortest way out of a 
difficulty ; and a great mistake is made by those who expect 
the same standard of morality from a child as from an 
adult. Try to explain to him the direct results of untruth- 
fulness—its cowardice; make him see how contemptible 
lying is, but do not attempt to arouse in him a precocious 
and therefore unhealthy sense of sin. “Insist on accuracy in 
the smallest details, and, slowly perhaps, but surely, the 
habit of truthfulness will become a second nature to him, 
and that perhaps long before he understands the morality of 
the question. Of course, the most you can do is to help or 
hinder the child; for the ultimate end must depend on him- 
self. He will have sooner or later to fight his own baitles. 
and win his own spurs. It is a noble and inspiring idea 
which Emerson has expressed—“ God gives every man the 
choice between truth and repose. Choose then one or the 
other; you can never have both.” We are told that the 
truth requires two people—one to speak, the other to hear ; 
and to the parent sensible of his great responsibilities the 
words of Carlyle will come home pregnant with the most 
serious thoughts—“ Il] stands it with me if I have spoken 
falsely ; thine also it was to hear truly. Farewell.” 
It may be that, in dealing with this subject. I shall be 
judged by married people to have trespassed on their special 
preserves; and to be showing great audacity in expressing 
an opinion on a subject of which, in the nature of things, I 
must be about as conspicuously ignorant as a Hindoo 
is of skating, or a Kaffir of wireless telegraphy. 
Charles Lamb, in one of his most delightful essays— 
“A Bachelor's Complaint on the Behaviour of 
Married People’’—pathetically calls attention to the 
same contemptuous treatment. As, however, I am 
convinced of the profound importance of the question to all 
teachers, I am willing, in the interests of my profession, to 
run the risk of being told that “fools rush in where angels 
fear to tread’’; and, with much trepidation, but in all 
earnestness, commend the subject to the thoughtful con- 
sideration of parents and teachers. 
