222 THE COMMON IDEAL. 



its fragrance and the odor of its thought. These, with the simple 

 utterance of the name, let into the heart, as through an open win- 

 dow, the light of beauty and the atmosphere of purity, and it is 

 these that render a home, whether real or fancied, "the dearest. spot 

 on earth" to every man. 



THE COMMON IDEAL. 



The influence of this most wonderful and sacred of all institu- 

 tions is, in its nature, purely centripetal, or attractive; it is the 

 gravitating force which restrains humanity from wide and lawless 

 wandering, and it operates in two directions; it .pulls forward and 

 it drags backward; it incites to build, and it acts to restrain. Its 

 antitype is in the heart of every good man and woman. It is an 

 ideal picture, which all feel that they must somehow place upon the 

 canvas of their lives ; an imaginative structure, which they must 

 build at the cost of all their earthly possessions, or life itself will be 

 destitute of meaningand of end. To this, they are naturally and 

 irresistibly drawn. This is the meaning of labor, of enterprise, of 

 thought, and of all the passionate attachments of the heart. The 

 visions of the youth, and the dreams of the maiden have this com- 

 mon interpretation. The apparently mysterious forces of sexual, 

 kindred and social attachments and aversions find here their clear 

 solution, and draw hence all their spring and energy. Love and 

 hate, friendship and dislike, coldness and indifference, the realities 

 of time, and even the visions of eternity, are inspired by this pas- 

 sionate longing for home. It is just because this longing is so sel- 

 dom satisfied, this vision so rarely realized ; because the actual 

 experience of home has disappointed by its imperfectness and 

 pained by its discords; it is because of this that men and women, 

 despairing of their ideals in this world, have looked to realize them 

 in another and better, and so come to think that the disappoint- 

 ments of earth may be atoned for by the fruitions of heaven. It is 

 thus seen that the design of all theology, and even of all religion, is 

 the realization of this common desire for a perfect home, hell itself 

 being but the everlasting limbo to which the revengeful heart con- 

 signs the enemies and disturbers of its domestic peace. 



ITS RESTRAINING INFLUENCES. 



Imperfect, however, as is the home of earth, and far as it com- 

 monly falls short of realizing the ideal of youth and maturity, yet, 

 once built, according to man's best, it throws around him an indis- 

 soluble chain. To maintain it in being and add to its attractions, 

 becomes now the one purpose of his life and labor. For this, he 

 toils by day and watches by night. In the field, the shop, the office, 

 the laboratory, the library, the forum everywhere the worker 

 works for home. Allured to the paths of adventure, vice or crime, 

 he is held back by the tie of home. Driven to despair by want or 



