One
must resolutely try to submit oneself to favourable conditions,
fertilising influences. And much more must one do that in the case
of those for whom one is responsible. In the case of my own two
children, for instance, my one desire is to surround them with the
best influences I can. Even there one makes mistakes, no doubt,
because one cannot test the expansive power of their qualities; but
one can observe the conditions under which they seem to develop
best, and apply them. To lavish love and tenderness on some
children serves to concentrate their thoughts upon themselves, and
makes them expect to find all difficulties smoothed away; on other
more generous natures, it produces a glow of responsive gratitude
and affection, a desire to fulfil the hopes formed of them by those
who love them. The most difficult cases of all are the cases of
temperaments without loyal affection, but with much natural charm.
Those are the people who get what is called 'spoilt,' because it is
so much easier to believe in the existence of qualities which are
superficially displayed than in qualities which lie too deep for
facile expression. One comes across cases of children of intense
emotional natures, and very little power of expressing their
feelings, or of showing their affection.
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