"What an idea, mamma! as if you could wish me to do such things!"
"That is to say, then, that there are things which I have no right to wish for, nor, consequently, to order you to do. This certainly is a fine sort of authority. But can I help wishing? If I had not wished to teach you to read and write; if, when you were an infant, I had not wished to attend to your wants, or to get up at night when you cried, should I have had a right to do as I pleased?"
"But, mamma, you know very well that it would have done me harm if you had not."
"Oh! then I must not wish anything that can do you harm, I must only wish what will be for your good, and this you call following my own will?"
"But still, mamma, it is your will that I always obey; since it is you who command me."
"And when do I command you to do anything?"
"When you think it is right."
"And have I, then, the power of believing just as I please that a thing is right or wrong?"
"Certainly, mamma, nobody hinders you."