which can and must be
broken by persistent opposition, is based upon this tendency of the
child. It is an entire misconception of the situation: Strength of
will and fixity of purpose are among the last powers which the human
mind develops. In little children they are conspicuously absent. What
appears to us as a fixed and persistent desire to perform a definite
action in spite of all we can say or do, is often no more than the
desire to produce the familiar tones of reproof, to traverse again the
familiar ground, to attract attention and to find himself again the
centre of the picture. If no one pays any attention and no one
reproves, he soon gives up the attempt. If too much is made of any one
action of the child, a strong impression is made on his mind and he
cannot choose but return to it again and again.

This little drama of the fireplace may teach us a great deal in the
management of children. The wise mother and nurse will find a hundred
devices to catch the child's attention and lure him away from the
danger zone without the incident making any impression on his mind at
all, and will not call attention to it by repeated reproofs or
warnings which will certainly lead him straight back to the spot.

In matters of greater moment the same impulse to oppose the will of
those around him is seen. In considering the point of the child's
susceptibility to suggestion, we have mentioned the refusal of sleep
and the refusal of food. In both it is possible to detect the
influence of this pronounced force of opposition. As the child lies
sobbing or screaming in bed, every new approach to him, every fresh
attempt at pacification, renews the force of his opposition in a
crescendo of sound. But it is in his refusal of food that the child is
apt to find his chief opportunity. Meal-times degenerate into a
struggle. There at least he can show his complete mastery of the
situation. No one can swallow his food for him, and he knows it. He
can clench his teeth and shake his head and obstinately refuse every
morsel offered. He can hold food in his mouth for half an hour at a
time and remain deaf to all the appeals of his helpless nurse. If she
tries force, he quells the attempt by a storm of crying. If she
declines upon entreaty and coaxing, he will not be persuaded. It is
the little scene of the fireplace over again. The attempts at force or
the attempts at persuasion, by making much of it, have concentrated
the attention of the c