eye of their parents, but wherever they are, they may be accustomed to have due regard to themselves, and by this means to cause modesty and due respect for all men to take root in their hearts. Assuredly they act altogether without circumspection, nay, with extreme imprudence, who allow no one even to look upon their children with an unfavorable eye; if any one should counsel them, he becomes the advocate of their own children, even in their very presence. Otherwise their warm blood, even as it spirits up a horse, gives loose reins to licentiousness and haughtiness. Let there be, therefore, great caution.
11. Youth ought to be instructed with great care as to actual obedience, since it is afterwards to become the foundation of the greatest virtue, when children learn to restrain their own wills and obey the will of another. We do not permit a tender plant to grow spontaneously, but we bind it to a prop; that, so bound, it may the more readily raise its head and acquire strength. Hence it has been most truthfully said by Terence: “We are all the worse for excessive liberty.” As often, therefore, as father or mother, addressing a child, says: “Touch not that;—sit still;—put aside that knife;—put away this or that”—children should be accustomed to do at once what is commanded of them; and if any obstinacy appears in them, it may be easily subdued by rebuke or prudent chastisement.
12. We read that the Persians observe with the greatest diligence the training of children in “temperance and truthfulness,” and not without cause, since falsehood and hypocrisy render any person detestable both before God and man. “Lying,” says Plutarch, “is a slavish vice, and ought to be vehemently condemned by all men.” In respect of God, Scripture testifies that, “False lips are an abomination to Him.” Children ought therefore to be compelled, in case they commit any fault, humbly to confess it, and not obsti-
