Chapitre IV — Imitation à craindre
The Power of Example
Children are naturally inclined to imitate those around them, requiring careful guidance to distinguish between true virtue and the faults of others.
Children's ignorance—nothing has yet been stamped on their minds, and they have no habits—makes them pliable and inclined to imitate everything they see. That’s why it’s crucial to offer them only good models. You should only let people near them whose example is worth following. But since, for all the precautions you take, they can't help seeing a great deal that is irregular, you need early on to point out to them the absurdity of certain vicious and unreasonable people, whose reputation you need not spare. You must show them how despised a person is—and how deserving of that contempt—how miserable they become when they give themselves over to their passions and never cultivate their reason.1 In this way you can form their taste and make them sensitive to true propriety, without teaching them to mock.2 You shouldn’t even hold back from warning them in general about certain faults, even if you fear that doing so will open their eyes to the weaknesses of people they ought to respect. Besides the fact that you shouldn't hope—and it isn't right—to keep them ignorant of the true rules on these matters, the surest way to hold them to their duty is to convince them that they must put up with the faults of others; that they shouldn't judge them lightly; that faults often look greater than they actually are; that they are offset by valuable qualities; and that, since nothing on earth is perfect, we should admire what has the least imperfection. Finally, though such lessons should be saved for extreme cases, you still need to give them the true principles and keep them from imitating all the evil they see before them.3
Guarding Against Ridicule
Children must be protected from the habit of mocking others, as such theatrical behavior corrupts their character and manners.
You also have to keep them from mimicking ridiculous people; for these mocking, theatrical manners have something base about them and run contrary to decent feeling: there is reason to fear that children will pick them up, because the heat of their imagination and the flexibility of their bodies, joined to their playful spirits, easily make them take on every kind of form to act out whatever ridiculous things they see.
Turning Imitation Toward Good
While the instinct to imitate can lead to harm, it is also a God-given capacity that can be harnessed to form children through the silent witness of virtuous lives.
This tendency children have to imitate others causes endless harm when they're left with people who lack virtue and barely restrain themselves in the children's presence. But by this same bent God has put in children the capacity to yield easily to everything shown them for their good. Often, you don't even need to speak to them; you only need to let them see in others what you want them to do.
Read the original Latin
L’ignorance des enfants, dans le cerveau desquels rien n’est encore imprimé, et qui n’ont aucune habitude, les rend souples et enclins à imiter tout ce qu’ils voient. C’est pourquoi il est capital de ne leur offrir que de bons modèles. Il ne faut laisser approcher d’eux que des gens dont les exemples soient utiles à suivre : mais comme il n’est pas possible qu’ils ne voient, malgré les précautions qu’on prend, beaucoup de choses irrégulières, il faut leur faire remarquer de bonne heure l’impertinence de certaines personnes vicieuses et déraisonnables, sur la réputation desquelles il n’y a rien à ménager : il faut leur montrer combien on est méprisé et digne de l’être, combien on est misérable, quand on s’abandonne à ses passions, et qu’on ne cultive point sa raison. On peut ainsi, sans les accoutumer à la moquerie, leur former le goût, et les rendre sensibles aux vraies bienséances. Il ne faut pas même s’abstenir de les prévenir en général sur certains défauts, quoiqu’on puisse craindre de leur ouvrir par là les yeux sur les faiblesses des gens qu’ils doivent respecter ; car, outre qu’on ne doit pas espérer et qu’il n’est point juste de les entretenir dans l’ignorance des véritables règles là-dessus, d’ailleurs le plus sûr moyen de les tenir dans leur devoir est de leur persuader qu’il faut supporter les défauts d’autrui, qu’on ne doit pas même en juger légèrement, qu’ils paraissent souvent plus grands qu’ils ne sont, qu’ils sont réparés par des qualités avantageuses, et que, rien n’étant parfait sur la terre, on doit admirer ce qui a le moins d’imperfection ; enfin, quoiqu’il faille réserver de telles instructions pour l’extrémité, il faut pourtant leur donner les vrais principes, et les préserver d’imiter tout le mal qu’ils ont devant les yeux.
Il faut aussi les empêcher de contrefaire les gens ridicules ; car ces manières moqueuses et comédiennes ont quelque chose de bas et de contraire aux sentiments honnêtes : il est à craindre que les enfants ne les prennent, parce que la chaleur de leur imagination et la souplesse de leur corps, jointes à leur enjouement, leur font aisément prendre toutes sortes de formes pour représenter ce qu’ils voient de ridicule.
Cette pente à imiter, qui est dans les enfants produit des maux infinis quand on les livre à des gens sans vertu qui ne se contraignent guère devant eux. Mais Dieu a mis, par cette pente, dans les enfants de quoi se plier facilement à tout ce qu’on leur montre pour le bien. Souvent, sans leur parler, on n’aurait qu’à leur faire voir en autrui ce qu’on voudrait qu’ils fissent.
Notes
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