One way of solving this great riddle in human life and conduct--this
incessant doing by mankind of that which they know they ought not to
do, and neglecting to do that which they know ought to be done--may be
found in the fact that so few are trained to regard, in every thing,
the sacred rights of conscience. They are referred to other and more
questionable standards of authority.

If you do so and so, you will never be a lady, says a mother who wishes
to dissuade her young daughter from doing something to which she is
inclined. If you behave so, every body will laugh at you, says another.
If you do not obey me, I shall punish you, says a third. If you don't
do that, I shall tell mother, says a young brother or sister. If you do
not do it, father will give you no sugar toys, when he comes home, the
child is again told. If you don't mind me, the bears will come and eat
you up, says the petulant nurse or maid-servant. Thus, in one way or
another, and at one time or another, every motive--love, fear,
selfishness, pleasure, &c.--is appealed to in the education of the
young, except that which should be _chiefly_ appealed to--viz.,
self-approbation, or the approbation of conscience.

This is not all. There is with many of these people no settled rule as
to which sort of actions are to be the subjects of praise or of blame.
A thing which must not be done to-day, on penalty of the loss of the
forthcoming sugar toys, is connived at, perhaps with a kiss, to-morrow.
All in the child's mind is confusion; she knows not what to do, were
she as docile and as obedient as an angel of light. There is a long
series of actions, words, thoughts and feelings, connected with right
and wrong, of which nothing is ever said, except to forbid them, by
stern and absolute authority. That one is good, and another bad, except
according to the whim or fancy of the parent or teacher, the child