In a cold and selfish world, without guardians, without a home, without parental restraint and tenderness, each young child would go into the common herd, to grow up selfish, unhappy, unloving and unloved.
Instead of this, God ordains that parents shall have a home of their own, where they can
have their children to themselves, to train them up in love and peace and plenty. And one main support of this blessed institution of family and home is, those domestics who are hired to do the chief labours of the family. Just take away from this country all the cooks, chambermaids, waiters, washers, and house cleaners, and what would be the result? The fathers could not leave their business to do the family work, the mothers would not have strength to do it, and the family state would be broken up. And thus unnumbered miseries and crime would come in floods upon the land.
The position and the work of a domestic, then, are among the most useful, the most important and the most honourable. They have a power given them to do good and to save from evil, not surpassed by that of any other class in the community. Let any one select the class of persons that could be dispensed with last of all, and it would be found that lawyers, merchants, doctors, and ministers would all be given up, before every family would agree to give up all aid from cooks,
washers, nurses and every kind of hired service in the family.
But, in addition to the power thus given to domestics in sustaining the family state, they have another most important position of usefulness. This relates to the power they exercise in forming the characters of young children. The period of life from infancy to twelve years old, is the time in which the foundations of future character are laid. During this time, children are in the society of domestics almost as much as they are with their parents, and in many cases, they talk with those hired to take care of them much more than they do with their parents. Children are creatures of imitation and sympathy, and they soon learn to think, and feel and act like those around them. Of course domestics are constantly exerting a powerful influence in forming the opinions, tastes, habits, and character of children, more so, probably, than any other class in the community. To estimate this power properly, we must remember that the happiness of children depends almost entirely on the character they form. If they learn to control their appetites,
to be honest, truthful, benevolent, and industrious, they will be useful and happy in future life. If they do not learn to control their appetites, if they learn to be deceitful, dishonest, selfish and irritable, they certainly will be unhappy and unprosperous. And our whole nation is to be made up of children, whose happiness and prosperity will depend, to a great degree, on the influences exerted over them by domestics in early life. And the next generation is to depend, for happiness and prosperity, on the manner in which the present generation is trained. And the next after that, depends in like manner, on the one before it, so that the influence which domestics exert on one generation of children is to go down to generation after generation, for hundreds of years.
And yet, this is not half of the mighty power, which is given to domestics to use, either for good or for evil. All these children, who from generation to generation are thus influenced in character, by domestics who take care of them, are to live forever, and their happiness for endless ages, is to depend on the character
which they form in this life! Oh eternity! eternity! who can estimate the power of those who are doing so much, in forming the character of beings who can never, never die!
Another particular in which domestics have great power is, the influence they exert in making home pleasant to husbands and sons. In a family where most of the work is done regularly and well, by domestics, the mother has time to take good care of her children, and her mind is cheerful and free from excessive cares. In this case, the husband and sons find a comfortable and pleasant home, and are not tempted to resort to dangerous amusements abroad. But when every thing is going wrong in the kitchen and nursery, the wife and mother is perplexed and harassed, and often is low-spirited or irritable. The father and sons, when they come home, find the house in disorder, their food ill cooked and served, their linen out of order, their beds uncomfortable, the housekeeper gloomy, the children unregulated, and every thing seems to drive them off to look for a more cheerful and comfortable resort. Many and many a