The importance of strict domestic discipline is curiously
illustrated by a fact mentioned in Mrs. Schimmelpenninck's
Memoirs, to the following effect: that a lady who, with her
husband, had inspected most of the lunatic asylums of England and
the Continent, found the most numerous class of patients was
almost always composed of those who had been only children, and
whose wills had therefore rarely been thwarted or disciplined in
early life; whilst those who were members of large families, and
who had been trained in self-discipline, were far less frequent
victims to the malady.
Although the moral character depends in a great degree on
temperament and on physical health, as well as on domestic and
early training and the example of companions, it is also in the
power of each individual to regulate, to restrain, and to
discipline it by watchful and persevering self-control. A
competent teacher has said of the propensities and habits, that
they are as teachable as Latin and Greek, while they are much more
essential to happiness.
Dr. Johnson, though himself constitutionally prone to melancholy,
and afflicted by it as few have been from his earliest years, said
that "a man's being in a good or bad humour very much depends upon
his will." We may train ourselves in a habit of patience and
contentment on the one hand, or of grumbling and discontent on the
other.
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