sister-in-law's children. It is true that their mother ought to be
taught better, and that, if she isn't, those innocent lambs are going
to suffer for it. Off at this distance, without the ties of kindred to
draw me too close for clear judgment, I see, though, that we have
to walk very cautiously here, for fear of doing more harm than good.
Better that those benighted women never heard the name of child-study,
than to hear it only to greet it with rebellion and hatred. Yet
to force any of our principles upon her attention when she is in a
hostile mood--or to _force_ them, indeed, in any mood--is to invite
just this attitude.

Most of us, by the time that we are sufficiently grown up to undertake
the study of child life, have outgrown the habit of plainly telling
our friends to their faces just what we think of their faults; yet
this is a safe and pleasant pastime beside that other of trying
to tell them how to bring up their children. You stand it from me,
because you have invited it, and perhaps still more because you never
see me, and the personal element enters only slightly and pleasantly
into our relationship. I sometimes think that students pour out their
hearts to me, much as we used to talk to our girl friends in the dark.
I'm very sure I should never dare to say to their faces what I write
so freely on the backs of their papers!

You see, the adult, too, has his love of freedom; and while he can
stand an indirect, impersonal preachment, which he may reject if he
likes without apology, he will not stand the insistence of a personal
appeal. I've let "Little Women" shame me into better conduct, when I
was a girl, at times when no direct speech from a living soul would
have brought me to anything but defiance--haven't you? We have to
apply our principles to the adult world about us, well as to the