The religion of a child

Self-government with  tenderness, —here you

have the condition of all authority over children.

The child must discover in us no passion, no weakness
of which he can make use ; he must
feel himself powerless to deceive or to
trouble us ; then he will recognise in us his
natural superiors, and he will attach a special
value to our kindness, because he will
respect it. The child who can rouse in us
anger, or impatience, or excitement, feels
himself stronger than we, and a child only
respects strength. The mother should consider
herself as her child's sun, a changeless
and ever radiant world, whither the
small restless creature, quick at tears and
laughter, light, fickle, passionate, full of
storms, may come for fresh stores of light,
warmth, and electricity, of calm and of
courage. The mother represents goodness,
providence, law ; that is to say, the divinity,
under that form of it which is accessible
to childhood. If she is herself passionate
she will inculcate on her child a capricious
and despotic God, or even several discordant
gods. The religion of a child depends
on what its mother and its father are, and
not on what they say. The inner and unconscious
ideal which guides their life is

precisely what touches the child ; their
words, their remonstrances, their punishments,
their bursts of feeling even, are for
him merely thunder and comedy ; what
they worship— this it is which his instinct
divines and reflects.
The child sees what we are, behind what
we wish to be. Hence his reputation as a
physiognomist. He extends his power as
far as he can with each of us ; he is the
most subtle of diplomatists. Unconsciously
he passes under the influence of each person
about him, and reflects it while transforming
it after his own nature. He is a
magnifying mirror. This is why the first
principle of education is : train yourself;
and the first rule to follow if you wish to
possess yourself of a child's will is : master
your own.

Amiel