16 MORE POT-POURRI 



of course, be an exception in a family, but that merely 

 means that he is more deficient in common-sense than 

 his brothers, and should be gradually strengthened by 

 some method fitted to his peculiar case. It is a delight- 

 ful feeling of comfort to me to think that, whatever I 

 suggest, nobody need follow it unless it seems to them 

 good ; but I wrote nothing without deliberate thought and 

 practical experience. 



As a rule the book seemed to please the old and the 

 young, rather than the middle-aged. Occasionally, how- 

 ever, some few parents wrote appreciating my hints about 

 the modern danger of children growing up more and more 

 apart from their parents. In our grandmothers' days 

 this only happened among what have been called the 

 ' upper ten thousand.' Now it pervades all classes, down 

 to the labourer who has to send his children to the infant 

 and Board school. Not that schools of any sort are neces- 

 sarily bad in themselves, but it is a new position which has 

 to be faced with courage and thoughtful ness by the parents. 



A young mother wrote full of faith in her own excellent 

 principles of how to bring up children, and how easy she 

 had found it to gain an influence on their lives. This 

 cocksureness, natural and even wholesome in the young, 

 often brings about a good deal of disappointment. You 

 may make a soil ever so good, and you may plant ever so 

 good a seed, but even then there can be no security as to 

 results. The very child who is most impressionable and 

 easy to form in youth is also most affected by others 

 as time goes on. The result of a powerful influence 

 which we cannot even trace is what often makes children, 

 as they grow up, almost unrecognisable to their parents. 

 The forming of character, however, is totally different from 

 moulding the impressionable clay, and, like casting bread 

 upon the waters, it may return to us after many days. 



Here are some pathetic groans from an intensely 



