Some people to-day declare loudly against the influence of heredity and environment, saying the innate good of a child will conquer everything. It will under the right cultivation and conscious individual effort, after the child is old enough to realize and throw off the shackles of childhood mistraining. But it is is seldom done, because the mistakes have been woven into every fiber of his being—mental, moral, and physical. Throughout life the pains and pleasures of childhood are remembered with a keenness that makes it impossible for them to be otherwise than potent factors for good or evil in the character-building process.
A man, noted for his kindness to every one about him, once said to me: “A smile influenced me more than anything else for good … The one longing of my life was for love. One day a stranger met me in the street, a man who saw that I was an unhappy child. He held out his hand to me and smiled kindly. I never forgot it. It was the beginning of my effort to be kind to everybody. It made me whatever I am, and I can say truly that love does everything when we let it.”
Excerpted from ‘The Family Circle’ by Florence Peltier Perry and the Rev. Helen Van-Anderson, originally appearing in Mind, volume IX. Published by the Alliance Publishing Company, New York, October 1901.