dertake to correct the child, and then perhaps when the
child is not in the least to blame. He lets a pitcher fall, or breaks a
plate, the parent flies into a passion, and begins to beat the unlucky
boy or girl. Perhaps no positive correction was deserved. Such a spirit
can never benefit a child. Some never think of reproving a real fault.
It is only when an accident occurs, or some unintentional mishap is
done, that the rod is ever used. To be sure there might be blame, but
nothing compared with some acts of deliberate and willful transgression,
when no correction is given.

Parents, your children cannot purchase at any price what you can give
them; I mean a subdued will. To effect this it is necessary to begin
when a child is very young. The earlier the better, if you can make
yourself understood. You need not fix upon any particular age when to
begin; let this depend on circumstances, and different children will
show their rebellion upon different points.

5. _Coming short of attaining the object when you make the
attempt--leaving discipline half completed._--When a child is corrected,
every reasonable object should be attained. No point should be evaded.
The parent should not stop until perfect and entire submission is
effected on every point of dispute. And first I would invite your
attention to instances by no means rare, where the child shows rebellion
on some particular point. At such a point he stops; you cannot move him.
He will do anything else but just the thing required. He may never have
showed a stubborn will before. You have now found a point where you
differ; there is a struggle between will and will; the stakes are set,
and one or the other must yield. There is no avoiding it; you cannot
turn to the right nor to the left; there is but one course for you. You
must go forward, or the ruin of your child is sealed. You have come to
an important crisis in the history of your child, and if you need motive
to influence you to act, you may delineate as upon a map his temporal
and eternal destiny--these mainly depend upon the issue of the present
struggle. If you succeed, your child is saved; if you fail, he is lost.
You may think perhaps your child will die before he will yield. We had
almost said he might as well die as not to yield. I have known several
parents who found themselves thus situated. Perhaps they possessed a
feeble hand, their strength began to fail, but it was no time to parley.
They summoned