MOEAL ASPECTS OF HOME. 229 



all conditions. But too little attention is often paid to the true 

 ground upon which these qualifications should be based. Youth 

 should be taught in the lessons of the domestic hearth, both by 

 precept and example, that it is not only necessary and desirable 

 that honesty, integrity and industry are to be cultivated because 

 they are essential to material success, but in a better and higher 

 sense, because they bring even greater rewards in the moral duty of 

 performance, and the consciousness of its upright discharge which 

 is the true measure of self-respect. Character which is to be a 

 blessing to its possessor and to all its associations, should be early 

 grounded in what Burke describes as that "Chastity of honor 

 which feels a stain like a wound." This is the highest safeguard 

 of moral uprightness, and the surest shield against the temptations 

 of life. 



Sympathy There ought to be few higher pleasures in life 

 than the companionship of our children, whether it be in the prat- 

 tling innocence of childhood, the buoyant exuberance of expanding 

 youth, or the glowing anticipations of approaching maturity. The 

 parent who can find no congenial companionship in his child ; who 

 cannot enter into its feelings, pleasures and aspirations with ready 

 sympathy, may depend that he lacks something which is essential 

 to his best realization of domestic happiness. Too often this is the 

 result of the unhealthy habit of exclusive devotion to the absorbing 

 cares of business, which robs so many of our people of the full 

 enjoyments of the best rewards of life. Companionship, even cam- 

 araderie of parents and children is a mutual benefit as well as a 

 mutual pleasure. It is a healthy and wholesome relaxation to the 

 parent; it brings mental improvement and moral dignity to the 

 youth, and it is the easiest road to the establishment of that perfect 

 confidence, which should always characterize their mutual relations, 

 and is essential to their mutual welfare. 



Influence of Example Among the influences which sur- 

 round the home, none is more powerful in moulding the character 

 of children and so impressing every aspect of the domestic relations, 

 than the force of example in the various duties of life by the parent. 

 How can parents expect or hope that their children will grow up in 

 cleanliness of mind, manners and morals, no matter how assidu- 

 ously the principles of rectitude are taught, who dishonor by their 

 own practices the precepts they seek to impress upon the young? 

 The power of example is stronger than the force of preaching. The 

 very confidence and respect which children have by intuition for 

 parents, adds redoubled force co the strength of pernicious example. 

 You may teach a child that a habit is pernicious, but if you do not 

 apply that rule to your own conduct, he will follow your exam- 

 ple, and regard your advice as an abstract theory which it is not 

 necessary to practice. If you desire your son to grow up to honor- 

 able manhood, be punctiliously honorable with him, even in the 

 smallest things and from earliest childhood; see that your 



