246 MORE POT-POURRI 



admire and notice and love, she would have been more 

 sensibly employed in fitting it for its future life than in 

 trying to explain and expound Deism or Christianity at so 

 early an age. 



I knew, years ago, two conscientious young parents, 

 both equally religious, who stayed away themselves from 

 going to church, which they loved, in order, as they said, 

 to break the temper of their little daughter, aged two and 

 a half. As I said before, temper which is inborn and 

 hereditary should never be fought, but always treated 

 with love, gentleness, and tenderness, as an illness. 

 Temper cannot be conquered except from within. To 

 help the child to help itself, that is the only method. I 

 do not really believe that punishment ever does any good 

 to old or young, though self-mortification helps many 

 natures. Prisons rank with mad-houses ; they exist to 

 protect the public, not to benefit the individuals who 

 suffer punishment. The only way with children is 

 gradually to get them to see what most helps themselves. 

 I admit that to understand the way children's minds work 

 is a humiliatingly difficult task, and one cannot be too 

 careful not to shock their feelings by either laughing at 

 them or letting them see any contempt for their most 

 natural ignorance. There is a well-known story of a 

 little girl who, having been naughty, was told to ask 

 forgiveness of the Almighty in her evening prayers. 

 The next morning, when questioned as to whether she 

 had done so, she quietly answered : ' Oh yes, but Dod 

 said : " Don't mention it, Miss B " ' ! 



In a letter on some remark about children in my first 

 book a most kind and able woman wrote to me as follows : 

 ' The only point on which I do not quite agree with you 

 is where you say you cannot judge of a child's character 

 before twelve. When I look back to my early childhood 

 I can see how exactly I and my brothers and sisters were 



