Superstition and the want of piety go together; and the combination is not peculiar to the Italians, nor to the Roman Catholic faith.
29.
In speaking of the education of his son, he deprecates the learning by rote of hymns. “To a happy child, hymns deploring the misery of human life are without meaning.” (And worse.) “So likewise to a good child are those expressing self-accusation and contrition.” (He might have added, and self-applause.)
I am quite sure, from my own experience of children who have been allowed to learn penitential psalms and hymns, that they think of wickedness as a sort of thing which gives them self-importance.
30.
“Only what the mind takes in willingly can it assimilate with itself, and make its own, part of its life.”
A truism of the greatest value in education; but who thinks of it when cramming children’s minds with all sorts of distasteful heterogeneous things?
31.
“When reflection has become too one-sided and too domineering over a deeply feeling heart, it is apt to lead us into errors in our treatment of others.”
And all that follows—very wise! for the want of this reflection leaves us stranded and wrecked through feeling and perception merely.