218 Family Life of the Middle Glass. 



ought to contain within itself no small share of the elements 

 of happiness and growth ; and with anything like proper 

 education and cultivation, it would be difficult to find three or 

 four people, even of the same parentage, without a wholesome 

 diversity of character and tastes. If the various members of a 

 family have their own occupations and pursuits, some from the 

 necessities of business, others from the promptings of choice, 

 and each does his own work well, the meeting together will 

 neither be tame nor tiresome, nor will the only bond that keeps 

 them together be a notion of duty, or a mere instinct of affection. 

 There can be no greater contrast than exists between two 

 sections or orders of middle-class families — the larger one, in 

 which there are no particular tastes or pursuits of a high 

 character ; and the smaller one, in which they exist in 

 force. To the smaller category, public events, and social 

 movements, scientific discoveries, the labours of art, the appear- 

 ance of noteworthy books, supplies daily food of an intellec- 

 tual and exciting kind, upon which each comments with 

 earnestness and intelligence. In the larger class, the mental 

 food is scarce or bad, the mental appetite languid, and the 

 digestion weak. The women, as the weaker vessels (and 

 brought up to be so), accept the situation as they find it, while 

 the young men too often seek in dissipation for an excitement 

 which domestic emptiness does not afford. 



" ■ Winds blow and waters roll, 



Strength to the brave." 



So says Wordsworth. And if our middle-class families can sum- 

 mon up courage enough to assail the evils we have pointed out, 

 they will find abundant help from the cultivated minds within 

 their own ranks. Let us endeavour to sketch a few of the 

 changes to be desired. In the first place, every member of a 

 family ought to be able to read aloud either prose or verse 

 sufficiently well for the performance to be intelligible and 

 pleasurable, while in many instances a considerable degree of 

 artistic skill should be attained. This demands practice in 

 acquiring power over the voice, accurate and critical knowledge 

 of the thing to be read, and such aid as can be obtained through 

 hearing really good (not clap-trap) professional performers. 

 Each family ought to be able, with certainty of response, to 

 address one or more of its members, and invite him or her to 



"Lend to the rhyme of the poet 

 The beauty of thy voice." 



It is exceedingly difficult for any one to appreciate the 

 blank verse of iShakspeare, with its wonderfully-varied rhythm, 

 or the grand, though less flexible, verse of Milton, without 

 hearing it well read ; and the same remark may be made of 

 the finest prose passages, such as those which abound in Bacon, 



