The child's thoughts and feelings being spontaneously drawn into harmony with the thoughts and feelings of those around him whom he loves, leads, of course, to a reproduction of their actions, and the prevalence and universality of the effect shows how constant and how powerful is the cause.

So the great secret of success for a mother, in the formation of the character of her children, is to make her children respect and love her, and then simply to _be_ herself what she wishes them to be.
And to make them respect and love her, is to control them by a firm government where control is required, and to indulge them almost without limit where indulgence will do no harm.
_Special Application of the Principle_.
But besides this general effect of the principle of sympathy in aiding parents in forming the minds and hearts of their children, there are a great many cases in which a father or mother who understands the secret of its wonderful and almost magic power can avail themselves of it to produce special effects.

One or two examples will show more clearly what I mean.
William's aunt Maria came to pay his mother a visit in the village where William's mother lived.

On the same day she went to take a walk with William--who is about nine years old--to see the village.

As they went along together upon the sidewalk, they came to two small boys who were trying to fly a kite.