A child’s character is forming under a principle, not of choice, but of nurture. The spirit of the house is breathed into his nature, day by day. The anger and gentleness, the fretfulness and patience — the appetites, passions, and manners — all the variant moods of feeling exhibited round him, pass into him as impressions, and become seeds of character in him; not because the parents will it, but because it must be so, whether they will or not.