[5]
It is the nurse that
the child first hears, and her words that he will first
attempt to imitate. And we are by nature most
tenacious of childish impressions, just as the flavour
first absorbed by vessels when new persists, and the
colour imparted by dyes to the primitive whiteness
of wool is indelible. Further it is the worst
impressions that are most durable. For, while what
is good readily deteriorates, you will never turn vice
[p. 23]
into virtue. Do not therefore allow the boy to
become accustomed even in infancy to a style of
speech which he will subsequently have to unlearn.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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