And let her be guarded, lest maternal fondness cause her to pass over developments of perverse will, hoping, and half supposing, that they may be something else, when her unbiased judgment would teach her better. It is very important to adapt the mode of treatment of each particular child to its peculiar temperament. Such treatment as might be favorable to one would ruin another. This parents generally acknowledge, yet for want of sufficient attention to the subject children suffer extremely. It requires careful study and discrimination, doubtless, yet it is a point of vital importance.
Great danger arises from children being left too much to themselves.
In an important sense the parents stand in the relation of God to the child. They will then be prepared to guard him from too strong temptations, and also to strengthen his virtuous principles, by suffering him to be tempted as much as he is able to bear. Fire is only added to the child's angry temper, and if, through fear of punishment, it appears to yield, yet it does not, and the heart is left fermenting with smothered passion. Love alone can win the heart to a cheerful obedience. If the parent give way to impatience, even in the heart, he cannot conceal it, for even an infant is a skilful interpreter of the language of the soul, in the expression of the face.