It must be granted that there are some unfortunate children in whom the moral sense remains absent and cannot be developed—­children who steal and lie, who seem destitute of natural affection, or who appear to delight in acts of cruelty.  These moral degenerates need not be considered here.  Serious errors of conduct, however, in children who are not degenerate or imbecile, frequently arise directly from faults of management and can be controlled by correcting these faults.  Suppose, for example, that a child is found to have taken money not his own.  The action of the parents faced with this difficulty and disappointment will determine to a great extent whether the incident is productive of permanent damage to the child’s character.  The peculiar circumstances of each case must be considered.  For example, the parent must bear in mind the relation in which children stand to all property.  The child possesses nothing of his own; everything belongs in reality to his father and mother, but of all things necessary for him he has the free and unquestioned use.  Unless his attention has been specially directed to the conception of ownership and the nature of theft, he may not have reasoned very closely on the matter at all.  Very probably he knows that it is wrong to take what is not given him, but he does not regard helping himself to some dainty from a cupboard as more than an act of disobedience to authority.  He may have imbibed no ideas which place the abstraction of money from a purse belonging to his parents on a different plane, and which have taught him to regard such an action as especially dishonourable and criminal.  Finally, a child who, undetected, has more than once taken money belonging to his father and mother, may pass without much thought to steal from a visitor or a servant.  To deal with such a case effectively, to ensure that it shall never happen again, requires much insight.  If the father, shocked beyond measure to find his son an incipient criminal, differing in his guilt in no way from boys who are sent to reformatories as bad characters, convinces the child that although he did not realise it, he has shown himself unworthy of any further trust, untold harm will be done.  Almost certainly the child will act in the future according to the suggestions which are thus implanted in his mind.  If the household eyes him askance as a thief, if confidence is withdrawn from him, he sees himself as others see him and will react to the suggestions by repeating the offence.  The seriousness of what he has done should be explained to him, and after due punishment he must be restored completely and ostentatiously to absolute trust.  Only by showing confidence in him can we hope to do away with the dangers of the whole incident.  To inculcate good habits and encourage good behaviour we must let the child build up his own reputation for these virtues.  It need not make him priggish or self-satisfied if parents let him understand that they take pride in