January 6,
1853.—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 recognize 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's Journal
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