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character of the man. The twig whose curve the future tree 

 will so faithfully reproduce follows each breath of influence, 

 good or evil, as truly, as helplessly as the gossamer is helpless 

 in the summer wind. Keeping this in view, it is evident that 

 everything that is done for or to the child, from its birth onwards, 

 and most especially all things done by him, his play, his work, 

 his modes of thought, his impressions and activities of all kinds 

 should be examined and considered before everything purely as 

 factors of the future man. With this golden rule constantly in 

 mind from the first, an intelligent parent would need few 

 further hints as to details, and would easily and naturally keep 

 clear of the few pitfalls I have spoken of, besides many of the 

 others that lie all along the path of early training. 



I have said children are intensely capable of learning. A 

 healthy, bright, well-treated child, in a world all so new to him, 

 is intensely anxious to learn. He is in a state of continual 

 curiosity ; his natural appetite for 'information is difficult to 

 satisfy. Shall we deny him and say " O don't bother me, 

 children should be seen and not heard, " and send him shrinking 

 back from our hard, cold exterior, and so blunt his habit of 

 enquiry and dull his appetite for knowledge, an appetite which 

 we shall afterwards endeavour to revive at the point of the 

 schoolmaster's cane, or by the cajolery of rewards and punish- 

 ments, having no direct rational connexion with the object in 

 view ? 



I think a child's every question should be answered 

 faithfully and truly, no matter whether he understands 

 the answer or not — he understands more than one imagines. 

 But even if not, our answer is good for two other reasons : It 

 shows our friendliness and establishes love, and his effort to 

 understand is a mental gymnastic not to be despised. 



The utility of object lessons as introduced by Pestalozzi has 

 been much and deservedly lauded. Their difficulty lies first in 

 choosing suitable objects, and then in arousing the child's 

 attention to and interest in them. Both these difficulties 

 vanish when nature prompts the child himself to choose the 

 next object and implants the needed interest, and thus the 

 teacher's work is more than half accomplished. 



