He is the spoilt boy at home, the only child. Nearly always he has his own way, although he is often deprived of little necessities and many innocuous superfluities through his parents’ lack of thought, or laziness.

He is adored, and never rebuked for interesting himself in affairs that do not concern him; indeed, all subjects, private and public, are discussed before him without reticence, and he is permitted, often encouraged, to take a disproportionate share in conversations that once would have been reserved until the younger generation were absent. His parents desire to keep him with them in and out of season, so that when friends pay visits he seems parasitic and entirely unattractive. Being so much in company with grown-ups, his early outlook on life is perverted, for a precocious child must of necessity be unbalanced, since he has neither the experience, the judgement, nor the reason required for a studied point of view; but he early discovers the way to inspire his parents with admiration; he has little else to do; and presently he is elevated to a pedestal which, he becomes aware, is sometimes pleasantly secure, but occasionally very precarious, and he is so hard put to it to retain his place that he welcomes the aid of lying when he is in difficulties and the aid of ‘showing off’ when he is quite at ease; for he is quick to sense the disappointment of his parents when he falls below the standard they have arbitrarily set him, and he is fearful to lose grown-ups’ privileges.