Author's Note 24
A child should never be allowed to play
with grown-up people as if they were his inferiors, nor even as if
they were only his equals. If he ventured to strike any one in
earnest, were it only the footman, were it the hangman himself, let
the sufferer return his blows with interest, so that he will not
want to do it again. I have seen silly women inciting children to
rebellion, encouraging them to hit people, allowing themselves to be
beaten, and laughing at the harmless blows, never thinking that
those blows were in intention the blows of a murderer, and that the
child who desires to hit people now will desire to kill them when be
is grown up.