o cure him will not arise from your mistaken care rather
than from nature itself! Unhappy foresight, which renders a creature
actually miserable, in the hope, well or ill founded, of one day making
him happy! If these vulgar reasoners confound license with liberty,
and mistake a spoiled child for a child who is made happy, let us teach
them to distinguish the two.

To avoid being misled, let us remember what really accords with our
present abilities. Humanity has its place in the general order of
things; childhood has its place in the order of human life. Mankind
must be considered in the individual man, and childhood in the
individual child. To assign each his place, and to establish him in
it--to direct human passions as human nature will permit--is all we can
do for his welfare. The rest depends on outside influences not under
our control.

Neither Slaves nor Tyrants.

He alone has his own way who, to compass it, does not need the arm of
another to lengthen his own. Consequently freedom, and not authority,
is the greatest good. A man who desires only what he can do for
himself is really free to do whatever he pleases. From this axiom, if
it be applied to the case of childhood, all the rules of education will
follow.

A wise man understands how to remain in his own place; but a child, who
does not know his, cannot preserve it. As matters stand, there are a
thousand ways of leaving it. Those who govern him are to keep him in
it, and this is not an easy task. He ought to be neither an animal nor
a man, but a child. He should feel his weakness, and yet not suffer
from it. He should depend, not obey; he should demand, not command.
He is subject to others only by reason of his needs, and because others
see better than he what is useful to him, what will contribute to his
well-being or will impair it. No one, not even his father, has a right
to command a child to do what is of no use to him whatever.

Accustom the child to depend only on circumstances, and as his
education goes on, you will follow the order of nature. Never oppose
to his imprudent wishes anything but physical obstacles, or punishments
which arise from the actions themselves, and which he will remember
when the occasion comes. It is enough to prevent his doing harm,
without forbidding it. With him only experience, or want of power,
should take the place of law. Do not give him anything because he asks
for it, but because he needs i