Beginning, then, at home, as she always began, Charity said to Christian,
'Have you a family? Are you a married man?' 'I have a wife and four
small children,' answered Christian. 'And why did you not bring them
with you?' Then Christian wept and said, 'Oh, how willingly would I have
done so, but they were all of them utterly averse to my going on
pilgrimage.' 'But you should have talked to them and have shown them
their danger.' 'So I did,' he replied, 'but I seemed to them as one that
mocked.' Now, this of talking, and, especially, of talking about
religious things to children, is one of the most difficult things in the
world,--that is, to do it well. Some people have the happy knack of
talking to their own and to other people's children so as always to
interest and impress them. But such happy people are few. Most people
talk at their children whenever they begin to talk to them, and thus,
without knowing it, they nauseate their children with their conversation
altogether. To respect a little child, to stand in some awe of a little
child, to choose your topics, your opportunities, your neighbourhood,
your moods and his as well as all your words, and always to speak your
sincerest, simplest, most straightforward and absolutely wisest is
indispensable with a child.
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