Abbott, Jacob, 1803-1879 / 2008-09-24 00:00:00

Such recollections, it is true, can not avail to
remove her grief--perhaps not even to diminish its intensity; but they will
greatly assuage the bitterness of it, and wholly take away its _sting_.


CHAPTER IV.

GENTLE PUNISHMENT OF DISOBEDIENCE.
Children have no natural instinct of obedience to their parents, though
they have other instincts by means of which the habit of obedience, as an
acquisition, can easily be formed.
The true state of the case is well illustrated by what we observe among the
lower animals. The hen can call her chickens when she has food for them, or
when any danger threatens, and they come to her. They come, however, simply
under the impulse of a desire for food or fear of danger, not from any
instinctive desire to conform their action to their mother's will; or, in
other words, with no idea of submission to parental authority. It is so,
substantially, with many other animals whose habits in respect to the
relation between parents and offspring come under human observation. The
colt and the calf follow and keep near the mother, not from any instinct of
desire to conform their conduct to her will, but solely from love of
food, or fear of danger.
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