"Never fear spoiling children by making them very happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow." Please explain this quote...

This is from Thomas Bray's 1872 book, The Education of the Feelings: A Moral System."He argues that most children are sensitive and eager, and when adults shut them down, they become irritated and prone to "bursts of passion." The problem is compounded when the adult punishes this, because the passion transforms into sulkiness. What works better, he says, is if the adult maintains good temper and sympathizes with the child's trouble. He suggests that...

This is from Thomas Bray's 1872 book, The Education of the Feelings: A Moral System." He argues that most children are sensitive and eager, and when adults shut them down, they become irritated and prone to "bursts of passion." The problem is compounded when the adult punishes this, because the passion transforms into sulkiness. What works better, he says, is if the adult maintains good temper and sympathizes with the child's trouble. He suggests that all of this can be avoided, however, if the child is simply kept happy, since "happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow." 

He tosses in the "never fear spoiling your children by making them too happy" comment because many parents of that time had precisely that fear (taken from a Proverb in the bible). He goes on to argue that punishing a child makes him unhappy and unhappiness in time produces the child's own "evil temper."