Thursday, November 27, 2014


  "The time will come soon enough when your child's confidence in you will diminish. The growth of his own reason and the development of his powers will lead him with a sudden impulse to examine every thing. If he finds, as he certainly will find, the results of his reasoning different in some respects from those you have given him, far from being now inclined to receive your assertions as proofs, he will rather feel disinclined to any opinion you profess, and struggle to free himself from the net you have woven about him.

  The calm repose of his mind is broken, the placid lake, is become clouded, and reflects distorted and broken images of things: but don't be alarmed at the new workings of his thoughts, -- it is the angel of reason which descends and troubles the waters. To strive to influence by your authority would be useless now as it was favorable before. Lie by in silence, and wait for the result. Do not expect the mind of your son to resemble yours, as your figure is reflected by the image in the glass; he was formed, like you, to use his own judgment, and he claims the high privilege of his nature. His reason is mature; his mind must now form itself. Happy must you esteem yourself, if amidst all lesser differences of opinion, and the wreck of many of your favorite ideas, he still preserves those radical and primary truths which are essential to his happiness, and which different trains of thought and opposite modes of investigation will very often equally lead to."  Anna Laetitia Barbauld.

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