The principle is, that the appliance must be an appropriate one--that is, one indicated by a wise consideration of the circumstances of the case, and of the natural characteristics of the infantile mind.
_Power of Sympathy_.
5.

In respect to religious influence over the minds of children, as in all other departments of early training, the tendency to sympathetic action between the heart of the child and the parent is the great source of the parental influence and power.

The principle, "Make a young person love you, and then simply _be_ in his presence what you wish him to be," is the secret of success.
The tendency of young children to become what they see those around them whom they love are, seems to be altogether the most universally acting and the most powerful of the influences on which the formation of the character depends; and yet it is remarkable that we have no really appropriate name for it.

We call it sometimes sympathy; but the word sympathy is associated more frequently in our minds with the idea of compassionate participation in the sufferings of those we love.

Sometimes we term it a spirit of imitation, but that phrase implies rather a conscious effort to _act_ like those whom we love, than that involuntary tendency to _become_ like them, which is the real character of the principle in question.