rect it. If one subject only has escaped the condemnation of
his master, then it may be to that study alone that he returns with
zest and enjoyment. Spendthrift sons are manufactured by those fathers
who many times a day proclaim that the boy has no notion of the value
of money.

And so with children! Parents must take it for granted that they will
display all the virtues they desire in them. They must trust to their
honour always to speak the truth, and always to do their best in work
or play whether they are with them or not. Again and again the
children will fail and their patience will be tried to the utmost.
They must explain how serious is the fault, and for the time being
their trust may have to be removed; but with the promise of amendment
it must again be fully restored and the lapse completely forgotten. If
the child feels he is not trusted he ceases to make any effort, and
lapse will succeed lapse with increasing frequency.

In efforts at moral training there is often too great an emphasis laid
upon negative virtues. It is wrong to do this: to do that is
forbidden. Children cannot progress by merely avoiding faults any more
than a man may claim to be an agreeable companion at table because he
does not eat peas with a knife or drink with his mouth full. There
must be a constant effort to achieve some positive good, to acquire
knowledge, to do service, to take thought for others, to discipline
self, and the parent will get the best result who is comparatively
blind to failure but quick to encourage effort and to appreciate
success. When the child knows well that he is doing wrong, exhortation
and expostulation are usually of little avail if repeated too often,
and serious talks should only take place at long intervals.

We know how effective the so-called "therapeutic conversation" may be
in helping some overwrought and nervously exhausted man or woman to
regain peace of mind and self-control. After an intimate conversation
with a medical man who knows how to draw from the patient a free
expression of the doubts, anxieties, and fears which are obsessing
him, many a patient feels as though he had awakened in that instant
from a nightmare, and passes from the consulting-room to find his
troubles become of little account. Not a few patients return to be
reassured once more, and derive new strength on each occasion. Yet
visits such as these must be infrequent or they will lose their power.
Now, just as the physi