the dirt, and then lie down in it themselves, and refuse to rise up, crying, “I will go home; I want to go into the fields; I will have a half-penny.”  The mother has answered, “Well, my dear, you shall have a half-penny, if you will stay at school.”  “No, I want to go and play with Billy or Tommy;” and the mother at length has taken the churl home again, and thus fed his vanity and nursed his pride, till he has completely mastered her, so that she has been glad to apply to the school again, and beg that I would take him in hand.

At another time a girl came with a pillow; she had insisted on having it for a doll; but, so far from contributing to her happiness, it had a contrary effect.  Nevertheless, the parent, for want of that firmness so necessary in the management of children, had allowed her to bring it to school, and on her journey she cried all the way, to the amusement of the lookers on.  When I remonstrated with the mother, she replied, “What could I do? she would not come without it” The child, however, gave it up to me without any trouble, and the over indulgent mother took it back with her.  Numerous have been the instances of a similar kind; and all far the want of firmness.

The master of an infant school, whenever opportunity occurs, should feel it incumbent upon him to urge the parents to make a due use of judicious parental authority.  This is the very foundation of all social order, rule, and government, and to relax it is to loosen the very keystone of society.  He ought also perpetually to inculcate obedience to their parents upon the children, as being one of their first and most important duties.  Some have objected to our schools, that they are calculated to loosen the ties and the authority between parent and child; but if these precepts are carefully attended to, the result will be precisely the reverse.  It is, however, necessary to state, in the three cases just noticed, that in each, the children had been previously conquered by me, and young as they were, they knew quite well that, although such conduct as they exhibited gained the end they had in view with the parent, similar conduct would not succeed with me.  It is little short of cruelty to let any child have its own way in such matters.  They will always try hard to get the tipper hand, not knowing but that such conduct adds to their own happiness.  When once conquered, and proof is afforded that it does not, then the children are always thankful for the discipline.  At all events, I have never found it otherwise.  Many, I may say numerous cases, have occurred of worse kinds than the above, such as children insisting on bringing something from home, as the bellows, tongs, poker, the mother’s bonnet, father’s hat, &c., as the condition of coming to school, which the simple parent has complied with rather than adopt the required firmness, which is essential in matters of this kind.  More infants know quite well the weak and the strong points of a parent’s character, they all are excellent judges on this subject.