Leaving Children to Themselves

William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair or, A Novel without a Hero (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, n.d.; 1847-1848), p. 51:

If people would but leave children to themselves; if teachers would cease to bully them; if parents would not insist upon directing their thoughts, and dominating their feelings—those feelings and thoughts which are a mystery to all (for how much do you and I know of each other, of our children, of our fathers, of our neighbour? and how far more beautiful and sacred are the thoughts of the poor lad or girl whom you govern likely to be, than those of the dull and world-corrupted person who rules him?)—if, I say, parents and masters would leave their children alone a little more—small harm would accrue, although a less quantity of as in praesenti might be acquired.