What I have said about children applies equally to ourselves. I started out by saying that not one parent in a thousand knows his child's character. I conclude by saying that not one man or woman in a thousand knows his or her own character. We go through life cherishing an unreal conception of ourselves which is often inspired by vanity.
I am well aware that it is difficult to know oneself, but there are helps in this direction also. We can look over our own past record, we can honestly examine how we have acted in the leading crises of our lives, we can summon our own characteristic traits before our minds--the things that we like to dwell upon, and the things which we would gladly blot out of our memories if we could--and by comparing this trait with that, we may discover the springs by which we have been moved. It is difficult to attain self-knowledge, but it is imperative that we should try to attain it. The aim of our existence is to improve our characters, and clearly we cannot improve them unless we know them.
I have undertaken to grapple with a most difficult subject, but I shall have accomplished the purpose which I had in mind if I have awakened in you a deeper desire to ask yourselves, first, "What is the character of my child?" and, second, "What is my own character?" The most serious business of our lives is to try to find the answers to these two questions.
2. HOW ONE REAL MOTHER LIVES WITH HER CHILDREN
4. THE ROOTS OF DISPOSITION AND CHARACTER
7. THE EDUCATION OF THE BABY UNTIL IT IS ONE YEAR OLD
10. THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD DURING THE SECOND AND THIRD YEARS
11. THE MOTHER AS PLAYFELLOW (YEARS ONE, TWO, AND THREE)
17. THE RELIGIOUS NURTURE OF A LITTLE CHILD (YEARS FOUR AND FIVE)
19. ON TRUTH TELLING AND THE PROBLEM OF CHILDREN'S LIES
20. THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILDREN BETWEEN SIX AND TWELVE
30. "WHAT TO SAY" IN TELLING THE STORY OF LIFE'S RENEWAL