Morning shows the day

The truth of the saying that the child is father of the man will hardly be questioned by anyone who has observed life carefully. The qualities shown by a child are often indications of what the child is going to be when he grows up to be a man. What the child is indicates what the man will be. All the qualities: physical, mental and spiritual which will be found in the grown-up man may be found in germ in the child. As Milton says:

“The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day.”

The habits and traits of a man are often only the developments of the habits and traits he had when he was a child. Look at a child carefully, and you can foretell into what kind of a man or woman that child is going to develop. “As the twig is bent, so the tree will grow” says an old proverb. Even in the case of a tree it is possible for us to tell beforehand how the tree will grow. If the young plant is strong and straight we can say that it will develop into a strong and straight tree. Children born and brought up in families which have some strongly marked moral weaknesses nearly always grow up with those moral weaknesses in them. On the other hand, children brought up in homes where the influences are healthy, nearly always grow up into men and women of strong character.

•    What do you think is the topic of the paragraph?   


•    What is the main idea of the given paragraph?   


•    What does the writer mean when he talks about the healthy influences in making the character of a child strong?