Whipping is, however, coming more and more into disrepute; and before long, no wise parent will practise it, or allow his child to attend a school where it is practised. To attain the difficult habit of being both mild and firm, of studying in all things the permanent good of the child, rather than present convenience to self, requires a humble and self-denying spirit. The moral atmosphere which emanates from a parent’s habitual state of mind greatly affects the children. If they are quiet, gentle, and refined, it will be reflected in the habits and manners of the family. If they are rough, impatient, or noisy, the children will be little bedlamites, however much good advice they may give, in opposition to their own example.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the spiritual atmosphere of home; of the thousand little things done and said without calculation of results; of the daily and hourly emanations from our own characters. It has been beautifully said,
‘Education does not commence with the alphabet. It begins with a mother’s look—with a father’s nod of approbation, or a sigh of reproof—with a sister’s gentle pressure of the hand, or a brother’s noble act of forbearance—with handfuls of flowers in green and daisy meadows—with birds’ nests admired but not touched—with creeping ants and almost imperceptible emmets—with humming bees and glass bee-hives—with pleasant walks in shady lanes—and with thoughts directed, in sweet and kindly words, to nature, to beauty, to acts of benevolence, to deeds of all virtue, and to the source of all good, to God himself.’
Is not our Heavenly Father kind to entrust to our care these little innocent souls, that we ourselves may enter his kingdom, by the prayerful effort to keep them forever near their guardian angels?
PUBLISHED BY C. S. FRANCIS & CO., NEW-YORK.
Writings of L. Maria Child.
PHILOTHEA: A GRECIAN ROMANCE.
A New and Beautiful Edition, Revised and Corrected.