Inseparable from this intellectual training of your
children is the development of their moral nature, and it is
in directing them in respect to the great choice between
good and evil, that your chief work, as Christians and as
parents, most certainly lies. It may not always be possible
for you to give them all that their physical welfare de-
mands, your own ignorance may not improbably stand in
the way of their .obtaining the intellectual advantages
which their growing minds require; but it is only your
own sin and folly that need prevent you from bringing up
your children to be virtuous men and women. It is from
you that they must learn the beauty of goodness and the
hatefulness of sin, and it is your teaching during the years
when your influence is superior to every other, that will
influence them all their lives through. It is no light thins:
to teach a child to be honest, truthful, pure, patient, indus-
trious, careful ; but perhaps the most difficult part of the
work lies in the preparation for it ; that is, in making
yourselves what you wish your children to be. As you
cannot teach children that which you do not yourselves
know, so, also,wyou will find it impossible to make them
ON HABITS AND MANNERS. 133
that which you, yourselves, are not, and the virtues which you
desire for your children you must first practice, or all your
endeavors will go for nothing. I shall reserve for another
chapter that which I want to/ay to you in "regard to the
moral training of your children, asking you, however,to
think a little in the meantime for yourselves about this
important subject,
CHAPTER XIX.
MORAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN.
The moral training of children ought, and if it is to be
successful, must, begin with the earliest development of
their intellectual faculties. As soon as they are conscious
of their own will, they should also become conscious of the
existence of other and stronger wills ; and the parents
should endeavor so to regulate their conduct toward their
children, as to make them, as early in life as possible, recog-
nize the fact that the wills, which of necessity are so
frequently opposed to theirs, are not only strong but wise.
That is, you should be so careful, so judicious and so unself-
ish, in governing your children that they may quickJy learn
to trust you, and to feel, even in moments of anger and
impatience, that you are their best friend. Most of you, I
think, must have formed in your own minds some idea of
134 ON HABITS AND MANNERS.
what you would like your children to be, arid it is a good
thing to keep constantly before yourselves the standard
to which your children are to attain, either abstractly,
or in the person of some individual whose character you
admire. If you love your children with the ordinary love
of humanity, one of your deepest, if not your deepest inter-
est in life, will lie in watching and guiding their develop-
ment, and in preparing them, as far as you can, for the
future; and I hope I am right in believing that among the
parents who read this, there is not one who is not honestly
desirous of seeing his children grow up to be good men and
women.
Page 60
Presented as published in 1888. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Inseparable from this intellectual training of your children is the development of their moral nature, and it is in directing them in respect to the great choice between good and evil, that your chief work, as Christians and as parents, most certainly lies. It may not always be possible for you to give them all that their physical welfare demands, your own ignorance may not improbably stand in the way of their .obtaining the intellectual advantages which their growing minds require; but it is only your own sin and folly that need prevent you from bringing up your children to be virtuous men and women. It is from you that they must learn the beauty of goodness and the hatefulness of sin, and it is your teaching during the years when your influence is superior to every other, that will influence them all their lives through. It is no light thing to teach a child to be honest, truthful, pure, patient, industrious, careful ; but perhaps the most difficult part of the work lies in the preparation for it ; that is, in making yourselves what you wish your children to be. As you cannot teach children that which you do not yourselves know, so, also, you will find it impossible to make them
that which you, yourselves, are not, and the virtues which you desire for your children you must first practice, or all your endeavors will go for nothing. I shall reserve for another chapter that which I want to say to you in regard to the moral training of your children, asking you, however,to think a little in the meantime for yourselves about this important subject,
CHAPTER XIX.
MORAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN.
The moral training of children ought, and if it is to be successful, must, begin with the earliest development of their intellectual faculties. As soon as they are conscious of their own will, they should also become conscious of the existence of other and stronger wills ; and the parents should endeavor so to regulate their conduct toward their children, as to make them, as early in life as possible, recognize the fact that the wills, which of necessity are so frequently opposed to theirs, are not only strong but wise. That is, you should be so careful, so judicious and so unselfish, in governing your children that they may quickJy learn to trust you, and to feel, even in moments of anger and impatience, that you are their best friend. Most of you, I think, must have formed in your own minds some idea of
what you would like your children to be, arid it is a good thing to keep constantly before yourselves the standard to which your children are to attain, either abstractly, or in the person of some individual whose character you admire. If you love your children with the ordinary love of humanity, one of your deepest, if not your deepest interest in life, will lie in watching and guiding their development, and in preparing them, as far as you can, for the future; and I hope I am right in believing that among the parents who read this, there is not one who is not honestly desirous of seeing his children grow up to be good men and women.