ADVICE TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE. 203 



ADVICE TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE. 



BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 



On Obedience and Gratitude to Parents. "Children, obey your 

 parents, " used to be the injunction forced upon us in our childhood 

 days, but which in these times is falling into disregard. Children, 

 almost as soon as they reach a school age, begin to do things 

 contrary to the wishes of their parents and, unfortunately, too 

 many parents are negligent about teaching the young in early life the 

 value of obedience. The child, incapable of perceiving that the motive 

 of parental restraint is the child's future happiness and welfare, thinks 

 it is the suffering victim of the parent's power. 



But it must not be forgotten that from birth to death we are all sub- 

 ject to higher law, and almost all our evils and our suffering in life 

 come through disobedience. This entire nation, almost, suffers from 

 dyspepsia, because in early life they had failed to learn to obey the 

 laws of health in their eating and drinking. G-overnment is possible 

 only by having laws and by obedience to those laws. All success in busi- 

 ness is made possible only by having some in control and all the rest 

 obedient to the instructions given. Armies win battles only by the ab- 

 solute blind obedience of the soldier to his commander. In fact, the 

 necessity for obedience is apparent in every avenue and condition of life. 



Success Won Through Obedience. How absolutely necessary 

 it is, then, that the young should have it impressed upon their 

 minds, early, that obedience to rightful authority is their first and 

 most imperative duty. Their chances for success and happiness 

 in life depend very largely upon how well this lesson has 

 been learned. In order to know how to command you must first learn 

 to obey. The only true and natural place to learn this lesson is in the 

 home. By yielding strict obedience to their parents, who are rightly 

 set in authority over them, children learn to obey the laws of God, of 

 nature, of their country, of society, of business, and by so doing can 

 win success and happiness. 



Evil Consequences of Ingratitude. On the other hand, when 

 a child disobeys its parents and becomes ungrateful for what they 

 have done for him, it is not uncommon for the parent to disinherit such 

 a child. Who does not know of Mr. George M. Pullman, the founder 

 of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and his disobedient sons ? Had 

 it not been for others these ungrateful sons would have received com- 

 paratively nothing of their father's great wealth. And this is only one 

 instance among thousands where children lose fortunes as the result of 

 disobedience. 



No words of condemnation can be too strong to characterize the base 

 ingratitude shown by some children. After the parents have reared 

 them, sent them to school, cared for them in health and in sickness, 

 they turn about, and, forgetting all they owe, so shamefully treat thei* 

 parents as to hasten them to the grave in sorrow and grey hairs. 



