The slightest touch tells on the clay when it is soft and moist, and can
produce just the effect which is desired; but when the clay is too dry it
will not yield, and often it breaks and crumbles beneath the unskilful
hand. How perfect the analogy between these two results, and the two
atmospheres which one often sees in the space of one half-hour in the
management of the same child! One person can win from it instantly a
gentle obedience: that person's smile is a reward, that person's
displeasure is a grief it cannot bear, that person's opinions have utmost
weight with it, that person's presence is a controlling and subduing
influence. Another, alas! the mother, produces such an opposite effect
that it is hard to believe the child can be the same child. Her simplest
command is met by antagonism or sullen compliance; her pleasure and
displeasure are plainly of no account to the child, and its great desire
is to get out of her presence.
What shape will she make of that child's soul? She does not wet the clay.
She does not stop to consider before each command whether it be wholly
just, whether it be the best time to make it, and whether she can explain
its necessity.
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