Such was the mother whose image is ever present to many when the word Home is named. Like a benediction, women like this one grace homes and make them altars about which twine the heart- strings of their children ; make them temples filled with the sweet perfume of love, innocence and peace; and the heritage of such a home is the rarest blessing a man or woman ever possesses, or can ever Imagine on earth. DUTY OF PAl\Et(rS TO mM^\ "To thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man." [O the fifth commandment, it has always seemed to ine, there should have been a codicil, reading: "Parents, be just to your children in the least as in the greatest thing." Were those who are parents rightly fitted for their duty, it would be needless to present the claims of children, but in a country where parentage is assumed with an in- difference that can only be the result of ignorance, no subject requires so much consideration as this. Children oftentimes spend their early years in the endurance of wrongs that increase as they grow older, and which intensify their feelings against life, and their future in it. The reason that there is so much hope among children is because there is so little present satisfaction. They are martyrs to a greater variety of disappointed hopes than any class of the community, and their sufferings are as real to them as are the troubles of older people, and are as often of as much consequence. I never saw a child put off with unjust threats and told only half truths, if not absolute falsehoods, for the trivial reason, perhaps, that its parents might be rid of its presence, that I did not say in my inmost soul, "I wonder that men and women are as decent as they are, considering their bringing up." Fathers and mothers tyrannize over their children in ways they scarcely realize, because they are absolute rulers. There is no appeal from their judgments, and the child is compelled to abide by decisions that may be absolutely unjust. The cruelty of injustice is not its present suffering, but the sting it leaves behind, the scar that (357) 358 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. certainly time does not efface, and perhaps not even eternity. There is no feehng so absolutely perennial, so wholly unforgetable as that of injustice from a father or mother. The wrongs of others may be forgiven and forgotten, but the memory of a wrong received at the hands of parents is not wiped out in any child's breast until old age dulls memory and oblivion sets recollection free. The manifold sins that injustice begets in the young should be earnestly considered by parents. First of all is deceit, for a child quickly resorts to it, and relies upon it if a defence against its supe- riors is required. The shame of telling a falsehood is less keenly felt, because the truth would not make the same impression, and so the little being who should be jealously guarded is thrown off and put on the defensive, and the spirit of evil is fostered where the chastity of truth should be inculcated.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Such was the mother whose image is ever present to many when the word Home is named. Like a benediction, women like this one grace homes and make them altars about which twine the heartstrings of their children ; make them temples filled with the sweet perfume of love, innocence and peace; and the heritage of such a home is the rarest blessing a man or woman ever possesses, or can ever Imagine on earth. DUTY OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN. "To thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man." [O the fifth commandment, it has always seemed to ine, there should have been a codicil, reading: "Parents, be just to your children in the least as in the greatest thing." Were those who are parents rightly fitted for their duty, it would be needless to present the claims of children, but in a country where parentage is assumed with an indifference that can only be the result of ignorance, no subject requires so much consideration as this. Children oftentimes spend their early years in the endurance of wrongs that increase as they grow older, and which intensify their feelings against life, and their future in it. The reason that there is so much hope among children is because there is so little present satisfaction. They are martyrs to a greater variety of disappointed hopes than any class of the community, and their sufferings are as real to them as are the troubles of older people, and are as often of as much consequence. I never saw a child put off with unjust threats and told only half truths, if not absolute falsehoods, for the trivial reason, perhaps, that its parents might be rid of its presence, that I did not say in my inmost soul, "I wonder that men and women are as decent as they are, considering their bringing up." Fathers and mothers tyrannize over their children in ways they scarcely realize, because they are absolute rulers. There is no appeal from their judgments, and the child is compelled to abide by decisions that may be absolutely unjust. The cruelty of injustice is not its present suffering, but the sting it leaves behind, the scar that (357) 358 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. certainly time does not efface, and perhaps not even eternity. There is no feeling so absolutely perennial, so wholly unforgetable as that of injustice from a father or mother. The wrongs of others may be forgiven and forgotten, but the memory of a wrong received at the hands of parents is not wiped out in any child's breast until old age dulls memory and oblivion sets recollection free. The manifold sins that injustice begets in the young should be earnestly considered by parents. First of all is deceit, for a child quickly resorts to it, and relies upon it if a defence against its superiors is required. The shame of telling a falsehood is less keenly felt, because the truth would not make the same impression, and so the little being who should be jealously guarded is thrown off and put on the defensive, and the spirit of evil is fostered where the chastity of truth should be inculcated.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home