54 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



your son governs you; so let him use his power sparingly, since, 

 simple as he is, he can do more than all the Greeks together." 



The ancient household in Hellas and Italy was held together by 

 authority, obedience, and domestic worship. The hearth was the 

 altar — the Vesta — with its holy fire. The Aryan house father never 

 died, but lived on in his male successor and in the family hearth 

 worship to his memory. The Lares and Penates devotion was a 

 crude religion, but veritable. The hearth was the family center, the 

 house spirits were the guardians of the hearth. Everywhere primi- 

 tive religion seemed to be domestic. It is related that the Russian 

 peasant, in changing his house, raked the fire from the old stove into 

 a jar and carried it to his new home, where its arrival was greeted 

 with the remarkable salutation, " Welcome, grandfather ! " If the 

 fire for any reason could not be taken, a fire shovel or poker was sub- 

 stituted. In the brownie, hobgoblin, and Robin Goodfellow of the 

 British Isles it is easy to trace the belief in ancient house spirits. In 

 the Orkney Islands, hardly more than a century ago, there was in 

 every family a brownie who was so helpful in corn-thrashing and 

 house-cleaning, and withal so fond of milk, that " when the people 

 churned, they sprinkled a little of the churning in every corner of 

 the house for Brownie." I suppose this appeasing perquisite for 

 spirit drudgery was but a forerunner of the modern servant's " tip," 

 an abbreviated form of " to insure promptness." 



As we come to the Christian era, the old family idea begins to 

 wane. Christ emphasized the family, but also the relative impor- 

 tance of the individual in the family, and the immense importance 

 of little children and childlikeness. From the fact that the founder 

 of Christianity was born and lived in a family, there arose a new 

 conception of fatherhood and motherhood. From the fact that John 

 the Baptist was the cousin of Christ, and James, the author, his 

 brother or near relation, and the Bethany family his close friends, the 

 bond of brotherhood, blood relationship, and friendship has increased 

 significance. That the Christ had a long family pedigree with royal 

 blood in it is of interest; but it is more interesting to know that the 

 carpenter's son, in a poor family (immediate) with meager surround- 

 ings, became a great man followed by crowds of the common people, 

 in spite of a prevailing unbelief in his Messiahship. It is of supreme 

 account to any family that this Jewish boy, growing tall and learned 

 and in favor with God, was not disagreeable to men and was subject to 

 his parents in all matters, except in the sphere of conscience, where 

 even parents may not enter unbidden. 



It is doubtful if Paul had wife or children, yet he seemed to know 

 a great deal about other people's children and family life, at such 

 great centers as Ephesus and Corinth. His lengthy commandatory 



