too early grounded in the principles of the faith they will later be
called on to profess; and however incapable they may now be of
understanding the teaching that is being inculcated in the school, they
will realize its importance when their knowledge and experience
increase. But however plausible this may seem, practically it is not
what usually happens. The usual effect of constantly imparting to
children an instruction they are not yet ready to receive is to deaden
their sensibilities to the whole subject of religion.[169] The premature
familiarity with religious influences--putting aside the rare cases
where it leads to a morbid pre-occupation with religion--induces a
reaction of routine which becomes so habitual that it successfully
withstands the later influences which on more virgin soil would have
evoked vigorous and living response. So far from preparing the way for a
more genuine development of religious impulse later on, this precocious
scriptural instruction is just adequate to act as an inoculation against
deeper and more serious religious interests. The commonplace child in
later life accepts the religion it has been inured to so early as part
of the conventional routine of life. The more vigorous and original
child for the same reason shakes it off, perhaps for ever.

Luther, feeling the need to gain converts to Protestantism as early as
possible, was a strong advocate for the religious training of children,
and has doubtless had much influence in this matter on the Protestant
churches. "The study of religion, of the Bible and the Catechism," says
Fiedler, "of course comes first and foremost in his scheme of
instruction." He was also quite prepared to adapt it to the childish
mind. "Let children be taught," he writes, "that our dear Lord sits in
Heaven on a golden throne, that He has a long grey beard and a crown of
gold." But Luther quite failed to realize the inevitable psychological
reaction in later life against such fairy-tales.

At a later date, Rousseau, who, like Luther, was on the side of
religion, realized, as Luther failed to realize, the disastrous results
of attempting to teach it to children. In _La Nouvelle Heloise_,
Saint-Preux writes that Julie had explained to him how she sought to
surround her children with good influences without forcing any religious
instruction on them: "As to the Catechism, they don't so much as know
what it is." "What! Julie, your children don't learn their Catech