APRIL 13
Trials are only blessings in disguise.
Letter, 24th July, 1780
Never, on any account, give a child anything it cries for. For it is a true observation (and you may make the experiment as often as you please), if you give a child what it cries for, you pay him for crying; and then he will certainly cry again. “But if I do not give it him when he cries, he will scream all day long.” If he does, it is your own fault; for it is in your power effectually to prevent it. For no mother need suffer a child to cry aloud after it is a year old. “Why, it is impossible to hinder it!” So many suppose; but it is an entire mistake. … My own mother had ten children, each of whom had spirit enough. Yet not one of them was ever heard to cry aloud, after it was a year old.
The Education of Children
