vigorous and original child for the same reason shakes it off, perhaps for ever.
Luther, feeling the need to gain converts to Protestantism as early as possible, was a strong advocate for the religious training of children, and has doubtless had much influence in this matter on the Protestant churches.
"The study of religion, of the Bible and the Catechism," says Fiedler, "of course comes first and foremost in his scheme of instruction."
He was also quite prepared to adapt it to the childish mind.
"Let children be taught," he writes, "that our dear Lord sits in Heaven on a golden throne, that He has a long grey beard and a crown of gold."
But Luther quite failed to realize the inevitable psychological reaction in later life against such fairy-tales.
At a later date, Rousseau, who, like Luther, was on the side of religion, realized, as Luther failed to realize, the disastrous results of attempting to teach it to children. In La Nouvelle Héloïse , Saint-Preux writes that Julie had explained to him how she sought to surround her children with good influences without forcing any religious instruction on them: "As to the Catechism, they don't so much as know what it is." "What! Julie, your children don't learn their Catechism?" "No, my friend, my children don't learn their Catechism."