Silly children grow into ordinary men.  I know no generalisation more certain than this.  It is the most difficult thing in the world to distinguish between genuine stupidity, and that apparent and deceitful stupidity which is the sign of a strong character.  At first sight it seems strange that the two extremes should have the same outward signs; and yet it may well be so, for at an age when man has as yet no true ideas, the whole difference between the genius and the rest consists in this:  the latter only take in false ideas, while the former, finding nothing but false ideas, receives no ideas at all.  In this he resembles the fool; the one is fit for nothing, the other finds nothing fit for him.  The only way of distinguishing between them depends upon chance, which may offer the genius some idea which he can understand, while the fool is always the same.  As a child, the young Cato was taken for an idiot by his parents; he was obstinate and silent, and that was all they perceived in him; it was only in Sulla’s ante-chamber that his uncle discovered what was in him.  Had he never found his way there, he might have passed for a fool till he reached the age of reason.  Had Caesar never lived, perhaps this same Cato, who discerned his fatal genius, and foretold his great schemes, would have passed for a dreamer all his days.  Those who judge children hastily are apt to be mistaken; they are often more childish than the child himself.  I knew a middle-aged man, [Footnote:  The Abbe de Condillac] whose friendship I esteemed an honour, who was reckoned a fool by his family.  All at once he made his name as a philosopher, and I have no doubt posterity will give him a high place among the greatest thinkers and the profoundest metaphysicians of his day.

Hold childhood in reverence, and do not be in any hurry to judge it for good or ill.  Leave exceptional cases to show themselves, let their qualities be tested and confirmed, before special methods are adopted.  Give nature time to work before you take over her business, lest you interfere with her dealings.  You assert that you know the value of time and are afraid to waste it.  You fail to perceive that it is a greater waste of time to use it ill than to do nothing, and that a child ill taught is further from virtue than a child who has learnt nothing at all.  You are afraid to see him spending his early years doing nothing.  What! is it nothing to be happy, nothing to run and jump all day?  He will never be so busy again all his life long.  Plato, in his Republic, which is considered so stern, teaches the children only through festivals, games, songs, and amusements.  It seems as if he had accomplished his purpose when he had taught them to be happy; and Seneca, speaking of the Roman lads in olden days, says, “They were always on their feet, they were never taught anything which kept them sitting.”  Were they any the worse for it in manhood?  Do not be afraid, therefore, of this so-called idleness.  What would you think of a man who refused to sleep lest he should waste part of his life?  You would say, “He is mad; he is not enjoying his life, he is robbing himself of part of it; to avoid sleep he is hastening his death.”  Remember that these two cases are alike, and that childhood is the sleep of reason.