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forces, so must parents support this special brain, intellectual affinity 

 of a child, for a certain occupation in life, by the most complete and 

 studied education in other branches, so that in every way its strong- 

 est point is well supported by collateral education. Such a child is 

 well fitted to fight the battle for existence when the years to begin 

 it come on. Many and many a gifted child has been made a good- 

 for-nothing man, " a rolling stone," from the ignorance or stubborn- 

 ness of parents who had not sense enough to know their duty, but 

 believed in the doctrine, which has cursed more men than it has 

 ever blessed, that the child must bend to the will of the parents. 

 A one-sided education is a poor thing. It too frequently leaves the 

 unfortunate man deeply buried in the " slough of despond." This 

 most earnest study of the developing characteristics of a child is the 

 imperative duty of parents. The child is not the property of the 

 parents, to be used either as a toy, an ornament, or a means to per- 

 sonal gratification. It is not an object belonging to parents to be 

 bent to their wills. On the contrary, it is a trust received from 

 Nature to be sacredly guarded. It is an individual whose develop- 

 ing will is to be respected as its peadiar and inherent right, but 

 which is also to be studied, directed, and the lesson of self-control 

 gradually taught it, so that it may be fitted for the work of life. 

 Morals are not " gifts from God " ; they are the results of experience. 

 The comprehension of right can only develop with the intellect, and 

 the broader the latter is developed, the more sharply defined its action, 

 the more exact will be the child's idea of right. Right and wrong 

 are at first in no way moral sentiments to the child. They are at 

 first founded in a degree of fear or love of parents ; and the child's 

 opposing actions, looked upon by parents too frequently as the re- 

 sults of ill-will, are but the gradually developing will, individuality 

 of the child, coming into collision with the wills, it should be with 

 the matured judgment, of the parents. The gradual development 

 of this will in a proper direction is the highest duty of parents. It 

 is not to be controlled by them, but directed. The child is to learn 

 that the will of its parents — which is its first idea of moral law — is 

 to be followed with trust, not fear. He is to learn that it saves him 

 from many evil consequences, until, by the development of his own 

 intellect, he becomes gradually able to distinguish between a right 

 and a wrong peculiar to himself, and the relation of his own organ- 

 ism to his surroundings, as well as the relation of each part to the 

 other parts of which it is made up. The right and wrong of an in- 

 telligent and developing understanding gradually takes the place of 

 a conflict between — to the child — non-comprehended forces and the 



