The soil for a nursery should be rich, well dug, dressed with

well-decayed manure, free from weeds, and protected from cold winds.

Fruit-seeds should be planted in the autumn, an inch and a half or two

inches deep, in ridges four or five feet apart, pressing the earth

firmly over the seeds. While growing, they should be thinned out,

leaving the best ones a foot and a half apart. The soil should be

kept loose, soft, and free from weeds. They should be inoculated or

ingrafted when of the size of a pipe-stem; and in a year after this may

be transplanted to their permanent stand. Peach-trees sometimes bear

in two years from budding, and in four years from planting if well kept.

In a year after transplanting, take pains to train the head aright.

Straight upright branches produce _gourmands_, or twigs bearing only

leaves. The side branches, which are angular or curved, yield the most

fruit. For this reason, the limbs should be trained in curves, and

perpendicular twigs should be cut off if there be need of pruning.

The last of June is the time for this. Grass should never be allowed

to grow within four feet of a large tree, and the soil should be

kept loose to admit air to the roots. Trees in orchards should be

twenty-five feet apart. The soil _under_ the top soil has much to do

with the health of the trees. If it be what is called _hard-pan_, the

trees will deteriorate. Trees need to be manured and to have the soil

kept open and free from weeds.

_Filberts_ can be raised in any part of this country.

_Figs_ can be raised in the Middle, Western, and Southern States. For

this purpose, in the autumn loosen the roots on one side, and bend the

tree down to the earth on the other; then cover it with a mound of

straw, earth, and boards, and early in the spring raise it up and cover

the roots.

_Currants_ grow well in any but a wet soil. They are propagated by

cuttings. The old wood should be thinned in the fall and manure be put

on. They can be trained into small trees.

_Gooseberries_ are propagated by layers and cuttings. They are best

when kept from suckers and trained like trees. One-third of the old

wood should be removed every autumn.

_Raspberries_ do best when shaded during a part of the day. They are

propagated by layers, slips, and suckers. There is one kind which bears

monthly; but the varieties of this and all other fruits are now so

numerous that we can easily find those which are adapted to the special

circumstances of the case.

_Strawberries_ require a light soil and vegetable manure. They should

be transplanted in April or September, and be set eight inches apart,

in rows nine inches asunder, and in beds which are two feet wide, with

narrow alleys between them. A part of these plants are _non-bearers_.

These have large flowers with showy stamens and high black anthers.

The _bearers_ have short stamens, a great number of pistils, and the

flowers are every way less showy. In blossom-time, pull out all the

non-bearers. Some think it best to leave one non-bearer to every twelve

bearers, and others pull them all out. Many beds never produce any

fruit, because all the plants in them are non-bearers. Weeds should be

kept from the vines. When the vines are matted with young plants, the

best way is to dig over the beds in cross lines, so as to leave some of

the plants standing in little squares, while the rest are turned under

the soil. This should be done over a second time in the same year.

_To raise Grapes_, manure the soil, and keep it soft and free from

weeds. A gravelly or sandy soil and a south exposure are best.

Transplant the vines in the early spring, or better in the fall. Prune

them the first year, so as to have only two main branches, taking off

all other shoots as fast as they come. In November, cut off all of

these two branches except four eyes. The second year, in the spring,

loosen the earth around the roots, and allow only two branches to grow,

and every month take off all side shoots. When they are very strong,

preserve only a part, and cut off the rest in the fall. In November,

cut off all the two main stems except eight eyes. After the second

year, no more pruning is needed, except to reduce the side shoots, for

the purpose of increasing the fruit. All the pruning of grapes (except

nipping side shoots) must be done when the sap is not running, or

they will bleed to death. Train them on poles, or lattices, to expose

them to the air and sun. Cover tender vines in the autumn. Grapes are

propagated by cuttings, layers, and seeds. For cuttings, select in the

autumn well-ripened wood of the former year, and take five joints for

each. Bury them till April; then soak them for some hours, and set them

out _aslant_, so that all the eyes but one shall be covered.

Apples, grapes, and such like fruit can be preserved in their natural

state by packing them when dry and solid in dry sand or sawdust,

putting alternate layers of fruit and cotton, sawdust or sand. Some

sawdust gives a bad flavor to the fruit.

_Modes of preserving Fruit-Trees._—Heaps of ashes or tanner’s bark

around peach-trees prevent the attack of the worm. The _yellows_ is a

disease of peach-trees, which is spread by the pollen of the blossom.

When a tree begins to turn yellow, take it away with all its roots,

before it blossoms again, or it will infect other trees. Planting tansy

around the roots of fruit-trees is a sure protection against worms,

as it prevents the moth from depositing her egg. Equal quantities of

salt and saltpetre, put around the trunk of a peach-tree, half a pound

to a tree, improve the size and flavor of the fruit. Apply this about

the first of April; and if any trees have worms already in them, put

on half the quantity in addition in June. To young trees just set out,

apply one ounce in April, and another in June, close to the stem. Sandy

soil is best for peaches.

Apple-trees are preserved from insects by a wash of strong lye to the

body and limbs, which, if old, should be first scraped. Caterpillars

should be removed by cutting down their nests in a damp day. Boring a

hole in a tree infested with worms, and filling it with sulphur, will

often drive them off immediately.

The _fire-blight_ or _brûlure_ in pear-trees can be stopped by cutting

off all the blighted branches. It is supposed by some to be owing to an

excess of sap, which is remedied by diminishing the roots.

The _curculio_, which destroys plums and other stone-fruit, can be

checked only by gathering up all the fruit that falls, (which contains

their eggs,) and destroying it. The _canker-worm_ can be checked by

applying a bandage around the body of the tree, and every evening

smearing it with fresh tar.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SEWING, CUTTING, AND FITTING.

The customs of the American people are more conformed to those

principles of the Christian family state which demand protecting care

for the weaker members, than those of any other nation. Nowhere is this

fact more apparent than in the division of labor to the boys and girls

of one family. The outdoor work, all that is most disagreeable, and

the heaviest labor, is taken by the boys, while the indoor family-work

is reserved for the girls. Of this indoor labor a part is sedentary,

such as sewing, and a part is light labor, such as dish-washing,

cooking, sweeping, dusting, and general care of the house. The laundry

gives the hardest woman’s work; but this is not daily, nor so severe

as the outdoor employments of men, while it can be so divided among

several women, or be so regulated in various ways, as never to involve

excessive labor. Young women wash and iron, as a daily business, six

and eight hours a day, and yet continue healthful and cheerful. Such

is the distinctive construction of woman’s form, that labor with the

muscles of the arms and trunk, such as is demanded in washing and

ironing, is peculiarly favorable to the perfect development and support

of the most delicate and most important portion of her body.

But while the general arrangements of family labor have been conformed

to the true Christian principle, there have been certain extremes in

our customs which it is important to remedy. This is often exhibited

in houses when the members of a family assemble in an evening, and the

girls all have some useful employment of the hands, while the boys look

on and do nothing.

Again, at other times, we see broken locks, windows unglazed, and

furniture needing repair, all making necessary a kind of work women

could easily perform, and yet left neglected because the men do not

find time or are unskilled for the performance. In a country like ours,

the emergencies of the family state often demand the exchange of the

ordinary labor of men and women. Frequently, in newer settlements,

no servants can be found, while the wife and mother is confined by

sickness. In such emergencies, skill in performing woman’s work is

a great blessing to a man and his family. So the soldiers, sailors,

engineers, and all roving men need the skill of the needle that

preserves clothing from waste. In our late war, millions would have

been saved had all the soldiers been taught to sew in their boyhood.

In this view of the case, industrial schools, to teach both boys

and girls all the economic skill of the family state, are of great

importance, and a department for this purpose should be connected with

every school, especially the public schools, where most of the children

will earn their own livelihood and be exposed to many chances of a

roving life.

Attempts have been made to introduce sewing into public schools, and

usually with little or no success, from many combining difficulties.

One of them arises from the increased number of classes for this

purpose; which would be relieved by having boys taught to sew in the

same class with girls. Another difficulty has been the providing of

materials for sewing and the previous cutting and fitting needed, which

the parents refuse to supply. A method which meets these and other

difficulties, and which has been successfully tried in industrial

schools in England, will now be described.

Let a fund be provided by school officers, or by contribution, to

provide needles, thread, scissors, and thimbles of various sizes, and

place them in the care of the teacher. Let two half-days of the week be

devoted to this and other industrial employments, giving, as a reward

for success in careful, neat, and quick accomplishment of the duties,

the time left beyond that used in the task as holiday hours.

Let the first lesson be the use of scissors, in cutting straight slips

of newspaper, thus training the eye and fingers to expert measurement

and motion. Whoever excels in the performance of the allotted task

in less than the allotted time is to be rewarded with the time, thus

gained, for play.

Next, let the class cut broad strips of paper, and practice doubling

them in a _hem_, first narrow and then broad. This also cultivates the

eyes and trains the fingers.

Then give a lesson to teach the use of the thimble, using a needle

without thread, and paper slips to set the needle through.

Let the class now have pieces of cheap and thin unbleached cotton, and

cut off from it strips two inches wide, being directed to _cut by a

thread_, At first a thread may be drawn to guide the eye. Then, these

strips are to be cut into pieces five or six inches long, _turned down

and pinched_ to prepare for oversewing, and then put together and

_basted_ with a needle and thread, the teacher setting the example.

This last operation is intended to prepare two strips to be sewed

together by _oversewing_. In this operation _colored_ thread should be

used in order to make the stitches show more distinctly. Meantime, the

pupil is trained to make the stitches _equal in depth_, and also at

_equal distances_.

The teacher is to be provided with a blank book for each pupil, and

on the first page is to be inscribed, _Oversewing_. Beneath this word

is to be fastened a specimen of the stitch, as soon as the pupil has

attained the degree of excellence and accuracy required.

The next lesson is _Hemming_. To prepare for this, let the scholars

first cut, out of newspaper, pieces three inches square, and fold a hem

on each side till it is even and smooth.

Then the unbleached cotton is to be given to be cut and prepared in

the same way. Finally, the hemming-stitch is to be taught, and the

child be required to practice till the stitches are _equal_ in size and

_regular_ in both _slant_ and _distances_. When this is well executed,

the specimen is to be fastened to another page of the child’s book,

under the word _Hemming_. In the same way, the various stitches used

for running up seams, for felling, darning, whipping, buttonholing,

stitching, and gathering, should be taught on small pieces of white or

unbleached cotton, using colored thread.

The books in which are fastened the finished specimens of sewing should

be preserved by the teacher and exhibited at the school examinations,

as an encouragement to excellence. In England, the ladies of wealth

and rank take pains to establish and superintend, among the poor,

industrial schools in which are taught other domestic work as well

as sewing; and, as the consequence, their servants and dependents

are well trained for the duties of their station. It is hoped that

American ladies will make similar efforts for the children of the

poorer classes, and employ all their influence to promote industrial

training in our common schools; and also, to see that instruction in

these important matters be given to their own daughters, who may become

mistresses and directors of future homes, or who, in the constantly

changing fortunes of our land, may need to perform as well as to guide

the doing of these homely duties.

It is a mistake to suppose that sewing-machines lessen the importance

of hand-sewing. All the mending for a family, and much of the altering

of clothing and house furniture, must be done only by the hand. In

all poor families that own no machine, and in all cases where persons

travel, the whole sewing needed must be done by hand.

It is especially for the benefit of the poor who can not have machines,

that all the children of our common schools should be taught not only

to sew, but to mend and to cut and fit common garments. Hard-working

mothers can not teach this art, and the school-teacher is the proper

person to do it. Nor should this be added to the ordinary severe and

wearing labor of a teacher, but other less important branches should

give place to this. It is the constant complaint of all who are seeking

to help the destitute, that women are not trained properly to do any

kind of domestic work, and there is no way in which philanthropy can

be more wisely exerted than in urging the establishment of industrial

schools.

It is the hope of the writer that a day is coming when _all_ women

will be made truly independent, by being trained in early life to

employments by which they can secure a home and income for themselves,

if they do not marry or if they become widows. This is what is done

for daughters in European countries, and should be done in our own.

Institutions for training women to employments suitable for their sex

should be established and _endowed_, the same as agricultural and

other professional schools for men. When this is done, there will be

a _liberal profession_ for women of culture and refinement, securing

to widows and unmarried women such advantages as have hitherto been

enjoyed only by the more favored sex.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ACCIDENTS AND ANTIDOTES.

Children should be taught the following modes of saving life, health,

and limbs in cases of sudden emergency, before a medical adviser can be

summoned.

In case of a common cut, bind the lips of the wound together with

a rag, and put on nothing else. If it is large, lay narrow strips

of sticking-plaster obliquely across the wound. In some cases it is

needful to draw a needle and thread through the lips of the wound, and

tie the two sides together.

If an artery be cut, it must be tied as quickly as possible, or the

person will soon bleed to death. The blood from an artery is a brighter

red than that from the veins, and spirts out in jets at each beat of

the heart. Take hold of the end of the artery and tie it or hold it

tight till a surgeon comes. In this case, and in all cases of bad

wounds that bleed much, tie a tight bandage near and above the wound,

inserting a stick into the bandage and twisting as tight as can be

borne, to stop the immediate effusion of blood.

Bathe bad bruises in hot water. Arnica-water hastens a cure, but is

injurious and weakening to the parts when used too long and too freely.

A sprain is relieved from the first pains by hot fomentations, or

the application of very hot bandages, but entire rest is the chief

permanent remedy. The more the limb is used, especially at first, the

longer the time required for the small broken fibres to knit together.

The sprained leg should be kept in a horizontal position. When a leg is

broken, tie it to the other leg, to keep it still till a surgeon comes.

Tie a broken arm to a piece of thin wood, to keep it still till set.

In the case of bad burns that take off the skin, creosote-water is the

best remedy. If this is not at hand, wood-soot (not coal,) pounded,

sifted, and mixed with lard, is nearly as good, as such soot contains

creosote. When a dressing is put on, do not remove it till a skin is

formed under it. If nothing else is at hand for a bad burn, sprinkle

flour over the place where the skin is off, and then let it remain,

protected by a bandage. The chief aim is to keep the part without skin

from the air.

In case of drowning, the aim should be to clear the throat, mouth, and

nostrils, and then produce the natural action of the lungs in breathing

as soon as possible, at the same time removing wet clothes and applying

warmth and friction to the skin, especially the hands and feet, to

start the circulation. The best mode of cleansing the throat and mouth

of choking water is to lay the person on the face, and raise the head a

little, clearing the mouth and nostrils with the finger, and then apply

hartshorn or camphor to the nose. This is safer and surer than a common

mode of lifting the body by the feet, or rolling on a barrel to empty

out the water.

To start the action of the lungs, first lay the person on the face

and press the back along the spine to expel all air from the lungs.

Then turn the body nearly, but not quite over on to the back, thus

opening the chest so that the air will rush in if the mouth is kept

open. Then turn the body to the face again and expel the air, and then

again nearly over on to the back; and so continue for a long time.

Friction, dry and warm clothing, and warm applications, should be used

in connection with this process. This is a much better mode than using

bellows, which sometimes will close the opening to the windpipe. The

above is the mode recommended by Dr. Marshall Hall, and is approved by

the best medical authorities.

Certain articles are often kept in the house for cooking or medical

purposes, and sometimes by mistake are taken in quantities that are

poisonous.

_Soda_, _Saleratus_, _Potash_, or any other alkali, can be rendered

harmless in the stomach by vinegar, tomato-juice, or any other acid. If

sulphuric or oxalic acid are taken, pounded chalk in water is the best

antidote. If those are not at hand, strong soap-suds have been found

effective. Large quantities of tepid water should be drank after these

antidotes are taken, so as to produce vomiting.

_Lime_ or _baryta_ and its compounds demand a solution of glauber salts

or of sulphuric acid.

_Iodine_ or _Iodide of Potassium_ demands large draughts of wheat flour

or starch in water, and then vinegar and water. The stomach should then

be emptied by vomiting with as much tepid water as the stomach can hold.

_Prussic Acid_, a violent poison, is sometimes taken by children in

eating the pits of stone-fruits or bitter almonds which contain it.

The antidote is to empty the stomach by an emetic, and give water of

ammonia or chloric water. Affusions of cold water all over the body,

followed by warm hand friction, is often a remedy alone, but the above

should be added if at command. _Antimony_ and its compounds demand

drinks of oak bark, or gall-nuts, or very strong green tea.

_Arsenic_ demands oil or melted fat, with magnesia or lime water in

large quantities, till vomiting occurs.

_Corrosive Sublimate_, (often used to kill vermin,) and any other form

of mercury, requires milk or whites of eggs in large quantities. The

whites of twelve eggs in two quarts of water, given in the largest

possible draughts every three minutes till free vomiting occurs, is a

good remedy. Flour and water will answer, though not so surely as the

above. Warm water will help, if nothing else is in reach. The same

remedy answers when any form of copper, or tin, or zinc poison is

taken, and also for creosote.

_Lead_ and its compounds require a dilution of Epsom or Glauber salts,

or some strong acid drink, as lemon or tomatoes.

_Nitrate of Silver_ demands salt water drank till vomiting occurs.

_Phosphorus_ (sometimes taken by children from matches) needs magnesia

and copious drinks of gum Arabic, or gum-water of any sort.

_Alcohol_, in dangerous quantities, demands vomiting with warm water.

When one is violently sick from excessive use of _tobacco_, vomiting

is a relief, if it arise spontaneously. After that, or in case it

does not occur, the juice of a lemon and perfect rest, in a horizontal

position on the back, will relieve the nausea and faintness, generally

soothing the foolish and overwrought patient into a sleep.

_Opium_ demands a quick emetic. The best is a heaping table-spoonful of

powdered mustard, in a tumblerful of warm water; or powdered alum in

half-ounce doses and strong coffee alternately in warm water. Give acid

drinks after vomiting. If vomiting is not elicited thus, a stomach-pump

is demanded. Dash cold water on the head, apply friction, and use all

means to keep the person awake and in motion.

_Strychnia_ demands also quick emetics.

The stomach should be emptied always after taking any of these

antidotes, by a warm-water emetic.

In case of bleeding at the lungs, or stomach, or throat, give a

tea-spoonful of dry salt, and repeat it often. For bleeding at the

nose, put ice or pour cold water on the back of the neck, keeping the

head elevated.

If a person be struck with lightning, throw pailfuls of cold water on

the head and body, and apply mustard poultices on the stomach, with

friction of the whole body and inflation of the lungs, as in the case

of drowning. The same mode is to be used when persons are stupefied by

fumes of coal or bad air.

In thunder-storms, shut the doors and windows. The safest part of a

room is its centre; and when there is a feather-bed in the apartment,

that will be found the most secure resting-place.

A lightning-rod, if it be well pointed, and run deep into the earth,

is a certain protection to a circle around it whose diameter equals

the height of the rod above the highest chimney. But it protects _no

farther_ than this extent.

In case of fire, wrap about you a blanket, a shawl, a piece of carpet,

or any other woolen cloth, to serve as protection. Never read in bed,

lest you fall asleep, and the bed be set on fire. If your clothes get

on fire, never run, but lie down, and roll about till you can reach

a bed or carpet to wrap yourself in, and thus put out the fire. Keep

young children in woolen dresses, to save them from the risk of fire.

CHAPTER XXV.

ON THE RIGHT USE OF TIME AND PROPERTY.

It is probable that there is no one direction in which conscientious

persons suffer so much doubt and perplexity as on the right

apportionment of time and property. Clear views of duty on this subject

can be gained only by reference to certain facts and principles of mind

in connection with certain facts revealed by Jesus Christ.

It is a fact that whenever men notice any method which will _best_

secure any end aimed at, they call it _right_. And so the word _right_,

as men ordinarily use the term, signifies the method or rule for

securing an end designed.

It is also a fact that all rational minds are so made as intuitively to

feel or perceive that the end for which all things are made is, _not_

to produce enjoyment or happiness of any sort or degree, but to produce

the _best_ good for all concerned both as to quality and amount.

In proof of this, we find that when any plan or action is proposed,

and it is shown that on one alternative the _best_ good of both the

individual and society is secured, all rational minds decide that it

is wise and right, and that the opposite alternative is foolish and

wrong. There are endless diversities of opinion as to what _is_ for the

best good of individuals and society; but all agree that whatever is

for the _best_ good of all concerned is _right_. We therefore assume

that it is an intuitive principle or belief in all rational minds, that

_happiness-making on the best and largest scale is the end or purpose

for which all things are made_.

We also find ourselves placed in a system of physical, intellectual,

and social laws, by obedience to which happiness is gained, and that

by disobedience to them happiness is destroyed. At the same time, the

controlling principle of every mind is to gain happiness and escape

pain or loss of happiness. This being so, we may assume that to gain

the end for which we are made, or, in other words, _to act right_, we

must obey these laws.

Again, we find every rational mind so made that it may be controlled

by some leading desire of ruling purpose to which all other desires

and purposes are subordinate, and that it is the nature of this ruling

purpose which constitutes _moral character_. By moral character is

meant that which results from our own choice instead of that which

consists in qualities and propensities created by God. This ruling

purpose that controls the mind sometimes, by a figure of speech is

called the _heart_, which literally is the organ that controls the body.

Again, we find that in all ages and nations there are some men whose

ruling purpose and chief desire is to do right, and that these persons

are called the righteous or the virtuous men.

Again, we find that all decisions as to what is best and right are

regulated by the _dangers_ involved. If one course, with equal

advantages, is free from danger, and the opposite involves danger, all

men decide the former to be the right one. Thus, all questions of duty

as to any course of action are regulated by the dangers which threaten

ourselves or society. As an illustration of this fact, when the life

of our nation was imperiled, privations, risks, and even death, were

sometimes a duty, when in times of peace and prosperity such sacrifices

would not be right but highly sinful.

The general principle thus illustrated is, that the standard of right

and wrong in all practical affairs is regulated by the amount of danger

to be met in alternate courses, one of which must be chosen. And thus

it appears that every question of rectitude and duty is modified by

circumstances; so that what would be a sin in one case would be a

solemn duty in another.

Again, we find that the character of a righteous man is dependent on

experience and instruction. For a child is born in utter ignorance

of God’s laws, and of his obligation to obey them; and it is only by

the slow and gradual process of experience and training that he gains

this knowledge. Still more is he dependent on educators for motives to

excite to obedience. The great want of humanity is right instruction

as to the laws by which the best good of all is secured, and powerful

motives to induce obedience to these laws.

We are now prepared to notice the connection of these principles and

facts with the facts revealed by Jesus Christ. The great and central

fact thus made known is, that this life is only the beginning of an

eternal existence, involving liability to dreadful dangers after

death, and that, in estimating what is right and wise in character and

conduct, we are to take into account these dangers, as regulating all

questions of duty to ourselves and to our fellow-men. Of the nature

of these dangers, we are informed that those who become righteous in

this life will secure perpetuity of that character, and thus perfect

and endless happiness; but that some will so fail that they never

will attain this character, either in this life or the life to come,

and so will forever reap the consequences of perpetuate and voluntary

selfishness and sin. Still more momentous is the fact, that the number

who are to be saved depends upon the self-denying labors of Christ’s

followers, and that so dreadful are the hazards of the life to come,

that all consideration of earthly enjoyment should be made subordinate

to the great end of escape for ourselves and for our fellow-men, whom

we are to love and care for as we do for ourselves.

These facts and principles enable us clearly to comprehend the great

law of rectitude and happiness given by God through Moses, and then

more clearly explained and illustrated by Jesus Christ. All men are

conscious of that _instinctive love_ which we share in common with

the brutes. This consists in pleasurable emotions in view of certain

persons or things which afford us pleasure, attended by a desire to

please those who cause such enjoyment to ourselves, or to those we

love. Thus the mother, whether human or brute, feels instinctive love

to her offspring; and thus all men feel this instinctive love to those

who confer pleasure on themselves.

But Jesus Christ expressly discriminates, and explains that the great

law of love (which, he says, it is the chief end of “the law and

the prophets” to inculcate) is the _voluntary love_ which consists

in choosing to do right—that is, to make happiness on the best and

largest scale. For the law is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with

all thy heart, and thy neighbor _as thyself_.” Now self-love consists

not in pleasurable emotions in our own agreeable qualities, but in an

instinctive, an all-controlling desire to make self happy.

This is the principle of mind which gives its true meaning to the great

law of love, which in this aspect reads thus:

Thou shalt choose, for the chief end or controlling purpose, to make

happiness on the greatest scale by obeying God’s laws, and as the way

to make him and all his creatures happy in the highest degree. And for

this end you are to regard and treat the happiness of all in your reach

as equal in value to your own.

This exposition of the great law of love is verified repeatedly in the

New Testament: “This is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments.”

“He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth

me.”

“If a man love me, he will keep my words;”—“he that loveth me not,

keepeth not my sayings.”

“That the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave me

commandment, even so I do.”

We now are prepared to appreciate the new and most wonderful revelation

ever made to the human race, and one which the wisest heathen

philosophers never even conjectured.

Jesus Christ first revealed to mankind that our Creator is a loving

Father to the whole human race; and that such is the eternal nature of

things, that our highest possible happiness and escape from endless

evil can be accomplished only by self-denying sacrifice and suffering,

to save ourselves and others; and that our heavenly Father himself so

loves us as to encounter such suffering to save us. For whatever views

men form as to the divinity of Jesus Christ, or how his sufferings

avail to save from danger in the life to come, all will concede that he

teaches that God is represented as having made such a painful sacrifice

as a father suffers in seeing a dear and lovely and only son subjected

to long years of humiliation, of painful toils, and to a disgraceful

and torturing death. And whatever opinions men form as to the nature

and duration of future retributions, it is clear that Jesus Christ

teaches that so great are our dangers, that every consideration of

earthly enjoyment should be subordinate, and that our first interest

and aim should be to secure escape to ourselves and our fellow-men.

And here we should notice that most comforting doctrine revealed by

Jesus Christ, and that is, that our eternal welfare does not depend

on our judging correctly as to what _is_ for the best good of all

concerned, both for this life and the life to come. On the contrary, we

are assured that it is having our _heart_, or _chief desire_, set to

do right by obeying all God’s laws as fast as we learn what they are.

“Sin is the transgression of law,” and all men have sinned, and will

continue to sin, sometimes from ignorance, sometimes from the force of

temptation swaying from the prevailing desire and controlling purpose.

And so the righteous men of olden times, though they committed heinous

sins, were “men after God’s own heart,” because their “heart” was set

to obey him in all things. And thus their failures were pardoned, and

their eternal safety secured.

The same comforting assurance lessens the anxieties of those whose

chief aim and desire is to obey Jesus Christ under the new obligations

imposed by him. For the “_faith_” which saves our fellow-men both

before and after Christ, is not the mere intellectual conviction; for

the “devils thus believe and tremble.” It is rather that faith which

includes intellectual belief in his teachings, and the voluntary

conformity of purpose and action to that belief.

So the “_repentance_” required is not mere sorrow for wrong-doing,

but it consists in such sorrow as includes “ceasing to do evil, and

learning to do well.”

We now have the general principle which should regulate all

expenditures both of time and property. And whenever any number of

persons consistently and practically adopt this principle, they will

become “a peculiar people.”

The principle is this: The use of property and the use of time must be

so regulated as to accomplish _all in our power_, _to save as many

as possible_ from ignorance of God’s laws, and from disobedience to

them. It must, in many cases, be difficult to decide as to the most

successful way by which our time and property will avail to this end.

But that this should be the first and chief object in all our plans,

must be conceded by all who accept Jesus Christ as the only authorized

teacher of truth and duty. He is the only man who has died and returned

from the invisible world to tell us of our prospects there, and his

authority is established by the highest evidence of which we can

conceive. He is the only being authorized by God fully to explain his

laws, both as to our highest happiness while on earth and our future

eternal welfare. “There is no other name (or person) given under

Heaven” to do this but Jesus Christ.

Having thus gained the main general principle, we may notice some

rules to guide us as to the right apportionment of time and property.

In employing our time, we are to make suitable allowance for sleep,

for preparing and taking food, for securing the means of a livelihood,

for intellectual improvement, for exercise and amusement, for social

enjoyments, and for benevolent and religious duties. And it is the

_right apportionment_ of time to these various duties which constitutes

its true economy.

In deciding respecting the rectitude of our pursuits, we are bound to

aim at _the most_ practical good as the ultimate object. With every

duty of this life our benevolent Creator has connected some species

of enjoyment, to draw us to perform it. Thus the palate is gratified

by performing the duty of nourishing our bodies; the principle of

curiosity is gratified in pursuing useful knowledge; the desire of

approbation is gratified when we perform general social duties; and

every other duty has an alluring enjoyment connected with it. But

the great mistake of mankind has consisted in seeking the pleasures

connected with these duties as the sole aim, without reference to the

main end that should be held in view, and to which the enjoyment should

be made subservient. Thus, men gratify the palate without reference to

the question whether the body is properly nourished; and follow after

knowledge without inquiring whether it ministers to good or evil; and

seek amusements without reference to the great end to which they should

minister.

In gratifying the implanted desires of our nature, we are bound so to

restrain ourselves, by reason and conscience, as always to seek the

main objects of existence—the _highest_ good of ourselves and others;

and never to sacrifice this for the mere gratification of our desires.

We are to gratify appetite just so far as is consistent with health and

usefulness, and the desire for knowledge just so far as will enable us

to do most good by our influence and efforts, and no further. We are to

seek social intercourse to that extent which will best promote domestic

enjoyment and kindly feelings among neighbors and friends; and we are

to pursue exercise and amusement only so far as will best sustain the

vigor of body and mind.

The laws of the Supreme Ruler, when he became the civil as well as

the religious Head of the Jewish theocracy, furnish an example which

it would be well for all attentively to consider when forming plans

for the apportionment of time and property. To properly estimate this

example, it must be borne in mind that the main object of God was to

set an example of the _temporal_ rewards that follow obedience to the

laws of the Creator, and at the same time to prepare religious teachers

to extend the more enlarged views and duties resulting from the dangers

of the future life revealed by Jesus Christ.

Before Christ came, the Jews were not required to go forth to other

nations as teachers of religion, nor were the Jewish nation led to

obedience by motives of a life to come. To them God was revealed both

as a Father and a civil ruler, and obedience to laws relating solely to

this life was all that was required. So low were they in the scale of

civilization and mental development, that a system which confined them

to one spot as an agricultural people, and prevented their growing very

rich or having extensive commerce with other nations, was indispensable

to prevent their relapsing into the low idolatries and vices of the

nations around them, while temporal rewards and penalties were more

effective than those of a life to come. Such faith in God, his laws,

and those temporal rewards and penalties as secured habitual obedience,

were all that was required.

The proportion of time and property which every Jew was required to

devote to intellectual, benevolent, and religious purposes, was as

follows:

In regard to property, they were required to give one-tenth of all

their yearly income to support the Levites, the priests, and the

religious service. Next, they were required to give the first-fruits

of all their corn, wine, oil, and fruits, and the first-born of all

their cattle, for the Lord’s treasury, to be employed for the priests,

the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger. The first-born, also, of

their children, were the Lord’s, and were to be redeemed by a specified

sum paid into the sacred treasury. Besides this, they were required to

bring a free-will offering to God every time they went up to the three

great yearly festivals. In addition to this, regular yearly sacrifices

of cattle and fowls were required of each family, and occasional

sacrifices for certain sins or ceremonial impurities. In reaping their

fields, they were required to leave the corners unreaped for the poor;

not to glean their fields, olive-yards, or vineyards; and if a sheaf

was left by mistake, they were not to return for it but leave it for

the poor.

One-twelfth of the people were set apart, having no landed property, to

be priests and teachers; and the other tribes were required to support

them liberally.

In regard to the time taken from secular pursuits for the support of

education and religion, an equally liberal amount was demanded. In the

first place, one-seventh part of their time was taken for the weekly

Sabbath, when no kind of work was to be done. Then the whole nation

were required to meet at the appointed place three times a year, which,

including their journeys and stay there, occupied about eight weeks, or

another seventh part of their time. Then the Sabbatical year, when no

agricultural labor was to be done, took another seventh of their time

from their regular pursuits, as they were an agricultural people. This

was the amount of time and property demanded by God, simply to sustain

education, religion, and morality within the bounds of one nation.

It was promised to this nation, and fulfilled by constant miraculous

interpositions, that in this life obedience to God’s laws should secure

health, peace, prosperity, and long life; while for disobedience was

threatened war, pestilence, famine, and all temporal evils. These

promises were constantly verified; and in the day of Solomon, when this

nation was most obedient, the whole world was moved with wonder at its

wealth and prosperity. But up to this time, no attempt was made by God

to enlarge the obligations and motives by revelations as to the future

life.

But “when the fullness of time had come,” and the race of man was

prepared to receive higher responsibilities, Jesus Christ came and

“brought life and immortality to light” with a clearness never before

revealed, and new and heavy responsibilities consequent on the dangers

of the life to come. At the same time was revealed the fatherhood

of God, not to the Jews alone, but to the whole human race, and the

consequent brotherhood of man; and these revelations in many respects

changed the whole standard of duty and obligation.

Christ came as “God manifest in the flesh,” to set an example of

self-sacrificing love, in rescuing the whole family of man from the

dangers of the unseen world, and also to teach and train his disciples

through all time to follow his example. And those who conform the most

consistently to his teachings and example will aim at a standard of

labor and self-denial far beyond that demanded of the Jews.

It is not always that men understand the economy of Providence in that

unequal distribution of property which, even under the most perfect

form of government, will always exist. Many, looking at the present

state of things, imagine that the rich, if they acted in strict

conformity to the law of benevolence, would share all their property

with their suffering fellow-men. But such do not take into account

the inspired declaration that “a man’s life consisteth not in the

abundance of the things which he possesseth;” or, in other words, life

is made valuable not by great possessions, but by such a _character_

as prepares a man to enjoy what he holds. God perceives that human

character can be most improved by that kind of discipline which

exists when there is something valuable to be gained by industrious

efforts. This stimulus to industry could never exist in a community

where all are just alike, as it does in a state of society where

every man sees possessed by others enjoyments which he desires, and

may secure by effort and industry. So, in a community where all are

alike as to property, there would be no chance to gain that noblest

of all attainments, a habit of self-denying benevolence which toils

for the good of others, and takes from one’s own store to increase the

enjoyments of another.

Instead, then, of the stagnation, both of industry and of benevolence,

which would follow the universal and equable distribution of property,

some men, by superior advantages of birth, or intellect, or patronage,

come into possession of a great amount of capital. With these means

they are enabled, by study, reading, and travel, to secure expansion

of mind, and just views of the relative advantages of moral,

intellectual, and physical enjoyments. At the same time, Christianity

imposes obligations corresponding with the increase of advantages and

means. The rich are not at liberty to spend their treasures chiefly

for themselves. Their wealth is given by God, to be employed for the

best good of mankind; and their intellectual advantages are designed,

primarily, to enable them to judge correctly in employing their means

most wisely for the general good.

Now suppose a man of wealth inherits ten thousand acres of real estate;

it is not his duty to divide it among his poor neighbors and tenants.

If he took this course, it is probable that most of them would spend

all in thriftless waste and indolence, or in mere physical enjoyments.

Instead, then, of thus putting his capital out of his hands, he is

bound to retain and so to employ it as to raise his family and his

neighbors to such a state of virtue and intelligence that they can

secure far more, by their own efforts and industry, than he, by

dividing his capital, could bestow upon them.

In this view of the subject, it is manifest that the unequal

distribution of property is no evil. The great difficulty is, that so

large a portion of those who hold much capital, instead of using their

various advantages for the greatest good of those around them, employ

them chiefly for selfish indulgences—thus inflicting as much mischief

on themselves as results to others from their culpable neglect. A great

portion of the rich seem to be acting on the principle that the more

God bestows on them the less are they under obligation to practice any

self-denial in fulfilling his benevolent plan of raising our race to

intelligence and virtue, and thus to eternal happiness after death.

But there are cheering examples of the contrary spirit and prejudice,

some of which will be here recorded, to influence and encourage others.

A lady of great wealth, high position, and elegant culture, in one of

our large cities, hired and furnished a house adjacent to her own,

and, securing the aid of another benevolent and cultivated woman, took

twelve orphan girls of different ages, and educated them under their

joint care. Not only time and money were given, but love and labor,

just as if these were their own children; and as fast as one was

provided for, another was taken.

In another city, a young lady, with property of her own, hired a house,

and made it a home for homeless and unprotected women, who paid board

when they could earn it, and found a refuge when out of employment.

In another city, the wife of one of its richest merchants took two

young girls from the certain road to ruin among the vicious poor. She

boarded them with a respectable farmer, and sent them to school; and

every week went out, not only to supervise them, but to aid in training

them to habits of neatness, industry, and obedience, just as if they

were her own children.

Next she hired a large house near the most degraded part of the city,

furnished it neatly, and with all suitable conveniences to work, and

then rented to those among the most degraded whom she could bring to

conform to a few simple rules of decency, industry, and benevolence—one

of these rules being that they should pay her the rent every Saturday

night. To this motley gathering she became chief counselor and friend,

quieted their brawls, taught them to aid each other in trouble or

sickness, and strove to introduce among them that law of patient love

and kindness illustrated by her own example. The young girls in this

tenement she assembled every Saturday at her own house, taught them to

sing, heard them recite their Sunday-school lessons, to be sure these

were properly learned; taught them to make and mend their own clothing,

trimmed their bonnets, and took charge of their Sunday dress, that it

might always be in order.

Of course, such benevolence drew a stream of ignorance and misery to

her door; and so successful was her labor, that she hired a second

house, and managed it on the same plan. One hot day in August a friend

found her combing the head of a poor, ungainly, foreign girl. She had

persuaded a friend to take her from compassion, and she was returned

because her head was in such a state. Finding no one else to do it, the

lady herself bravely met the difficulty, and persevered in this daily

ministry till the evil was remedied, and the poor girl thus secured a

comfortable home and wages.

A young lady of wealth and position, with great musical culture and

taste, found among the poor two young girls with fine voices and great

musical talent. Gaining her parents' consent, the young lady took one

of them home, trained her in music, and saw that her school education

was secured; so that, when expensive masters and instruments were

needed, the girl herself earned the money required, as a governess in

a family of wealthy friends. Then she aided the sister; and, as the

result, one of them is married happily to a man of great wealth, and

the other is receiving a large income as a popular musical artist.

Another young girl, educated as a fine musician by her wealthy parents,

at the age of sixteen was afflicted with weak eyes and a heart

complaint. She strove to solace herself by benevolent ministries. By

teaching music to children of wealthy friends, she earned the means to

relieve and instruct the suffering, ignorant, and poor.

These examples may suffice to show that, even among the most wealthy,

abundant modes of self-denying benevolence may be found where there is

a heart to seek them.

There is no direction in which a true Christian economy of time and

money is more conspicuous than in the style of living adopted in the

family state.

Those who build stately mansions, and lay out extensive grounds, and

multiply the elegancies of life, to be enjoyed by themselves and a

select few, “have their reward” in the enjoyments that end in this

life. But those who, with equal means, adopt a style that enables them

largely to devote time and wealth to the eternal welfare of their

fellow-men, are laying up never-failing treasures in heaven, in the

everlasting virtue, gratitude, and happiness of those they have thus

saved and blessed.

By taking Christ as the example, by communion with him, and by daily

striving to imitate his character and conduct, we may form such a

temper of mind that “doing good” on that highest scale revealed by our

Lord will become the chief and highest source of enjoyment. And this

heavenly principle will grow stronger and stronger, until self-denial

loses the more painful part of its character; and then, to save men

from sin, and guide them to eternal happiness, will be so delightful

and absorbing a pursuit, that all exertions regarded as the means to

this end will be like the joyous efforts of men when they strive for a

prize or a crown with the full hope of success.

In this view of the subject, efforts and self-denial for the good of

others are to be regarded not merely as duties enjoined for the benefit

of others, but as the moral training indispensable to the formation of

that character on which depends our own happiness. This view exhibits

the full meaning of the Saviour’s declaration, “How hardly shall

they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” He had before

taught that the kingdom of heaven consisted not in such enjoyments as

the worldly seek, but in the temper of self-denying benevolence like

his own; and as the rich have far greater temptations to indolent

self-indulgence, they are far less likely to acquire this temper than

those who, by limited means, are inured to some degree of self-denial.

But on this point one important distinction needs to be made; and

that is, between the self-denial which has no other aim than mere

self-mortification, and that which is exercised to secure greater good

to ourselves and others. The first is the foundation of monasticism,

penances, and all other forms of asceticism; the latter only is that

which Christianity requires.

A second consideration, which may give definiteness to this subject,

is, that aiming at a perfect character for ourselves and for others

involves not the extermination of any principles of our nature, but

rather the regulating of them, according to the rules of reason

and religion; so that the lower propensities shall always be kept

subordinate to nobler principles. Thus we are not to aim at destroying

our appetites, or at needlessly denying them, but rather so to regulate

them that they shall best secure the objects for which they were

implanted. We are not to annihilate the love of praise and admiration,

but so to control it that the favor of God shall be regarded more

than the estimation of men. We are not to extirpate the principle

of curiosity, which leads us to acquire knowledge, but so to direct

it that all our acquisitions shall be useful, and not frivolous or

injurious. And thus with all the principles of the mind. God has

implanted no desires in our constitution which are evil and pernicious.

On the contrary, all our constitutional propensities, either of mind

or body, he designed we should gratify, whenever no evils would

thence result either to ourselves or others. Such passions as envy,

selfish ambition, contemptuous pride, revenge, and hatred, are to be

exterminated; for they are either excesses or excrescences, not created

by God, but rather the result of our own neglect to form habits of

benevolence and self-control.

A third consideration is that, though the means for sustaining life

and health are to be regarded as necessaries, without which no other

duties can be performed, yet a very large portion of the time spent by

most persons in easy circumstances for food, raiment, and dwellings,

is for mere _superfluities_; which are right when they do not involve

the sacrifice of higher interests, and wrong when they do. Life and

health can be sustained in the humblest dwellings, with the plainest

dress and the simplest food; and after taking from our means what is

necessary for life and health, the remainder is to be so divided that

the larger portion shall be given to supply the moral and intellectual

wants of ourselves and others.

There are many so dependent on parents or husbands, as to suffer

perplexity as to their own duty on this account. In reference to these

difficulties, the first remark is, that we are never under obligations

to do what is entirely out of our power; so that those persons who can

not regulate their expenses or their charities are under no sort of

obligation to do so. The second remark is, that, when a rule of duty is

discovered, if we can not fully attain to it, we are bound to _aim_ at

it, and to fulfill it just so far as we can. We have no right to throw

it aside because we shall find some difficult cases when we come to

apply it. The third remark is, that no person can tell how much can be

done till a faithful trial has been made. If a woman has never kept any

accounts, nor attempted to regulate her expenditures by the right rule,

nor used her influence with those that control her plans, to secure

this object, she has no right to say how much she can or can not do

till after a fair trial has been made.

Is it objected, How can we decide between superfluities and

necessities? It is replied, that we are not required to judge exactly

in all cases. Our duty is to use the means in our power to assist us

in forming a correct judgment; to seek the Divine aid in freeing our

minds from indolence and selfishness; and then to judge as well as we

can in our endeavors rightly to apportion and regulate our expenses.

Many persons seem to feel that they are bound to do better than they

know how. But God is not so hard a master; and after we have used all

proper means to learn the right way, if we then follow it according to

our ability, we do wrong to feel misgivings, or to blame ourselves, if

results come out differently from what seems desirable.

The results of our actions alone can never prove us deserving of blame.

For men are often so placed that, owing to lack of intellect or means,

it is impossible for them to decide correctly. To use all the means of

knowledge within our reach, to seek Divine guidance by prayer, and

then to judge with a candid and conscientious spirit, is all that God

requires; and when we have done this, and the event seems to come out

so as to seem unfortunate, we should never wish that we had decided

otherwise; for this would be the same as wishing that we had not

followed the dictates of judgment and conscience. As this is a world

designed for discipline and trial, what seem untoward events are never

to be construed as indications of the obliquity of our past decisions.

In making an examination on this subject, it is sometimes the case that

a woman will count among the _necessaries_ of life all the various

modes of adorning the person or house practiced in the circle in

which she moves; and after enumerating the many _duties_ which demand

attention, counting these as a part, she will come to the conclusion

that she has no time, and but little money, to devote to personal

improvement or to benevolent enterprises. This surely is not in

agreement with the requirements of the Saviour, who calls on us to seek

for others as well as ourselves, _first of all_, “the kingdom of God

and his righteousness.”

In order to act in accordance with the rule here presented, it is true

that many would be obliged to give up the idea of conforming to the

notions and customs of those with whom they associate, and compelled

to adopt the maxim, “Be not conformed to this world.” In many cases it

would involve an entire change in the style of living. And the writer

has the happiness of knowing more cases than one where persons who have

come to similar views on this subject have given up large and expensive

establishments, that they might keep a pure conscience, and regulate

their charities more according to the requirements of Christianity.

In deciding what particular objects shall receive our benefactions,

there are also general principles to guide us. The first is that

presented by our Saviour, when, after urging the great law of

benevolence, he was asked, “And who is my neighbor?” His reply, in the

parable of “the Good Samaritan,” teaches us that any human being whose

wants are brought to our knowledge is our neighbor. The wounded man

in that parable was not only a stranger, but he belonged to a foreign

nation, peculiarly hated; and he had no claim, except that his wants

were brought to the knowledge of the wayfaring man. From this we learn

that the destitute of all nations become our neighbors as soon as their

wants are brought to our knowledge.

Another general principle is this: that those who are most in need

must be relieved in preference to those who are less destitute. On

this principle it is that we think the followers of Christ should

give more to supply those who are suffering for want of the bread of

eternal life, than for those who are deprived of physical enjoyments.

And another reason for this preference is the fact that many who give

in charity have made such imperfect advances in civilization and

Christianity, that the intellectual and moral wants of our race make

but a feeble impression on the mind. Relate a pitiful tale of a family

reduced to live for weeks on potatoes only, and many a mind would awake

to deep sympathy, and stretch forth the hand of charity. But describe

cases where the immortal mind is pining in stupidity and ignorance, or

racked with the fever of baleful passions, and how small the number so

elevated in sentiment and so enlarged in their views as to appreciate

and sympathize in these far greater misfortunes! The intellectual and

moral wants of our fellow-men, therefore, should claim the first place

in Christian attention, both because they are most important, and

because they are most neglected; while it should not be forgotten, in

giving personal attention to the wants of the poor, that the relief of

immediate physical distress is often the easiest way of touching the

moral sensibilities of the destitute.

Another consideration to be borne in mind is, that in this country

there is much less real need of charity in supplying physical

necessities than is generally supposed by those who have not learned

the more excellent way. This land is so abundant in supplies, and labor

is in such demand, that every healthy person can earn a comfortable

support; and if all the poor were instantly made virtuous, it is

probable that there would be few physical wants which could not

readily be supplied by the immediate friends of each sufferer. The

sick, the aged, and the orphan would be the only objects of charity.

In this view of the case, the primary effort in relieving the poor

should be to furnish them the means of earning their own support, and

to supply them with those moral influences which are most effectual in

securing virtue and industry.

Another point to be attended to is the importance of maintaining a

system of _associated_ charities. There is no point in which the

economy of charity has more improved, than in the present mode of

combining many small contributions for sustaining enlarged and

systematic plans of charity. If all the half-dollars which are now

contributed to aid in organized systems of charity were returned to the

donors, to be applied by the agency and discretion of each, thousands

and thousands of the treasures now employed to promote the moral and

intellectual wants of mankind would become entirely useless. In a

democracy like ours, where few are very rich and the majority are in

comfortable circumstances, this collecting and dispensing of drops

and rills is the mode by which, in imitation of nature, the dews and

showers are to distill on parched and desert lands. And every person,

while earning a pittance to unite with many more, may be cheered with

the consciousness of sustaining a grand system of operations which must

have the most decided influence in raising all mankind to that perfect

state of society which Christianity is designed to accomplish.

Another consideration relates to the indiscriminate bestowal of

charity. Persons who have taken pains to inform themselves, and who

devote their whole time to dispensing charities, unite in declaring

that this is one of the most fruitful sources of indolence, vice,

and poverty. From several of these the writer has learned that, by

their own personal investigations, they have ascertained that there

are large establishments of idle and wicked persons in most of our

cities, who associate together to support themselves by every species

of imposition. They hire large houses, and live in constant rioting

on the means thus obtained. Among them are women who have or who hire

the use of infant children; others, who are blind, or maimed, or

deformed, or who can adroitly feign such infirmities; and by these

means of exciting pity, and by artful tales of woe, they collect alms,

both in city and country, to spend in all manner of gross and guilty

indulgences. Meantime many persons, finding themselves often duped

by impostors, refuse to give at all; and thus many benefactions are

withdrawn, which a wise economy in charity would have secured. For this

and other reasons, it is wise and merciful to adopt the general rule,

never to give alms till we have had some opportunity of knowing how

they will be spent. There are exceptions to this, as to every general

rule, which a person of discretion can determine. But the practice so

common among benevolent persons of giving at least a trifle to all who

ask, lest perchance they may turn away some who are really sufferers,

is one which causes more sin and misery than it cures.

The writer has never known any system for dispensing charity more

successful than the one by which a town or city is divided into

districts, and each district is committed to the care of two ladies,

whose duty it is to call on each family and leave a book for a child,

or do some other deed of neighborly kindness, and make that the

occasion for entering into conversation and learning the situation

of all residents in the district. By this method the ignorant, the

vicious, and the poor are discovered, and their physical, intellectual,

and moral wants are investigated. In some places where the writer

has known this mode pursued, each person retained the same district

year after year; so that every poor family in the place was under

the watch and care of some intelligent and benevolent lady, who used

all her influence to secure a proper education for the children, to

furnish them with suitable reading, to encourage habits of industry

and economy, and to secure regular attendance on public religious

instruction. Thus the rich and the poor were brought in contact in

a way advantageous to both parties; and if such a system could be

universally adopted, more would be done for the prevention of poverty

and vice than all the wealth of the nation could avail for their

relief. But this plan can not be successfully carried out in this

manner, unless there is a large proportion of intelligent, benevolent,

and self-denying persons who unite in a systematic plan.

But there is one species of “charity” which needs especial

consideration. It is that spirit of kindly love which induces us to

refrain from judging of the means and the relative charities of other

persons. There have been such indistinct notions, and so many different

standards of duty on this subject, that it is rare for two persons to

think exactly alike in regard to the rule of duty. Each person is bound

to inquire and judge for himself as to his own duty or deficiencies;

but as both the resources and the amount of the actual charities of

others are beyond our ken, it is as indecorous as it is uncharitable to

sit in judgment on their decisions.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE CARE OF INFANTS.

The topic of this chapter may well be prefaced by an extract from

Herbert Spencer on the treatment of offspring. He first supposes that

some future philosophic speculator, examining the course of education

of the present period, should find nothing relating to the training of

children, and that his natural inference would be that our schools were

all for monastic orders, who have no charge of infancy and childhood.

He then remarks, “Is it not an astonishing fact that, though on the

treatment of offspring depend their lives or deaths and their moral

welfare or ruin, yet that so little instruction on the treatment of

offspring is ever given to those who will hereafter be parents? Is

it not monstrous that the fate of a new generation should be left

to the chances of unreasoning custom, or impulse, or fancy, joined

with the suggestions of ignorant nurses and the prejudiced counsel of

grandmothers?

“If a merchant should commence business without any knowledge of

arithmetic or book-keeping, we should exclaim at his folly, and look

for disastrous consequences. Or if, without studying anatomy, a man

set up as a surgeon, we should wonder at his audacity, and pity his

patients. But that parents should commence the difficult work of

rearing children without giving earnest attention to the principles,

physical, moral, or intellectual, which ought to guide them, excites

neither surprise at the actors nor pity for the victims.

“To tens of thousands that are killed add hundreds of thousands that

survive with feeble constitutions, and millions not so strong as they

should be; and you will have some idea of the curse inflicted on their

offspring by parents ignorant of the laws of life. Do but consider for

a moment that the regimen to which children are subject is hourly

telling upon them to their life-long injury or benefit, and that there

are twenty ways of going wrong to one way of going right, and you

will get some idea of the enormous mischief that is almost everywhere

inflicted by the thoughtless, hap-hazard system in common use.

“When sons and daughters grow up sickly and feeble, parents commonly

regard the event as a visitation of Providence. They assume that these

evils come without cause, or that the cause is supernatural. Nothing

of the kind. In some cases causes are inherited, but in most cases

foolish management is the cause. Very generally parents themselves are

responsible for this pain, this debility, this depression, this misery.

They have undertaken to control the lives of their offspring, and with

cruel carelessness have neglected to learn those vital processes which

they are daily affecting by their commands and prohibitions. In utter

ignorance of the simplest physiological laws, they have been, year by

year, undermining the constitutions of their children, and so have

inflicted disease and premature death, not only on them but also on

their descendants.

“Equally great are the ignorance and consequent injury, when we

turn from the physical to the moral training. Consider the young,

untaught mother and her nursery legislation. A short time ago she

was at school, where her memory was crammed with words and names

and dates, and her reflective faculties scarcely in the slightest

degree exercised—where not one idea was given her respecting the

methods of dealing with the opening mind of childhood, and where her

discipline did not in the least fit her for thinking out methods of

her own. The intervening years have been spent in practicing music,

fancy-work, novel-reading, and party-going, no thought having been

given to the grave responsibilities of maternity, and scarcely any of

that solid intellectual culture obtained which would fit her for such

responsibilities; and now see her with an unfolding human character

committed to her charge, see her profoundly ignorant of the phenomena

with which she has to deal, undertaking to do that which can be done

but imperfectly even with the aid of the profoundest knowledge!”

In view of such considerations, every young lady ought to learn how

to take proper care of an infant; for, even if she is never to become

the responsible guardian of a nursery, she will often be in situations

where she can render benevolent aid to others in this most fatiguing

and anxious duty.

The writer has known instances in which young ladies, who had been

trained by their mothers properly to perform this duty, were in some

cases the means of saving the lives of infants, and in others, of

relieving sick mothers from intolerable care and anguish by their

benevolent aid.

On this point Dr. Combe remarks: “All women are not destined, in the

course of nature, to become mothers; but how very small is the number

of those who are unconnected, by family ties, friendship, or sympathy,

with the children of others! How very few are there who, at some time

or other of their lives, would not find their usefulness and happiness

increased, by the possession of a kind of knowledge intimately allied

to their best feelings and affections! And how important is it to the

mother herself, that her efforts should be seconded by intelligent

instead of ignorant assistants!”

In order to be prepared for such benevolent ministries, every young

lady should improve the opportunity, whenever it is afforded her, for

learning how to wash, dress, and tend a young infant; and whenever she

meets with such a work as Dr. Combe’s, on the management of infants,

she ought to read it, and _remember_ its contents.

The directions that follow have been taken from standard medical

writers, or have been examined and approved by the highest class of

physicians, and also by judicious and experienced mothers.

Says Dr. Combe: “Nearly one half of the deaths occurring during

the first two years of existence are ascribable to mismanagement,

and to errors in diet. At birth, the stomach is feeble, and as yet

unaccustomed to food; its cravings are consequently easily satisfied,

and frequently renewed.” “At that early age, there ought to be no fixed

time for giving nourishment. The stomach can not be thus satisfied.”

“The active call of the infant is a sign, which needs never be

mistaken.”

“But care must be taken to determine between the crying of pain or

uneasiness, and the call for food; and the practice of giving an infant

food to stop its cries is often the means of increasing its sufferings.

After a child has satisfied its hunger, from two to four hours,

according to the age, should intervene before another supply is given.

“At birth, the stomach and bowels, never having been used, contain a

quantity of mucous secretion, which requires to be removed. To effect

this, Nature has rendered the first portions of the mother’s milk

purposely watery and laxative. Nurses, however, distrusting Nature,

often hasten to administer some active purgative; and the consequence

often is, irritation in the stomach and bowels, not easily subdued.” It

is only where the child is deprived of its mother’s milk, as the first

food, that some gentle laxative should be given.

“It is a common mistake to suppose that because a woman is nursing,

she ought to live very fully, and to add an allowance of wine, porter,

or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only result of this

plan is, to cause an unnatural fullness in the system, which places

the nurse on the brink of disease, and retards rather than increases

the food of the infant. More will be gained by the observance of the

ordinary laws of health than by any foolish deviation, founded on

ignorance.”

There is no point on which medical men so emphatically lift the voice

of warning as in reference to administering medicines to infants. It

is so difficult to discover what is the matter with an infant, its

frame is so delicate and so susceptible, and slight causes have such a

powerful influence, that it requires the utmost skill and judgment to

ascertain what would be proper medicines, and the proper quantity to be

given.

Says Dr, Combe: “That there are cases in which active means must be

promptly used to save the child, is perfectly true. But it is not

less certain that these are cases of which no mother or nurse ought

to attempt the treatment. As a general rule, where the child is well

managed, medicine of any kind is very rarely required; and if disease

were more generally regarded in its true light, not as something

thrust into the system, which requires to be expelled by force, but as

an aberration from a natural mode of action, produced by some external

cause, we should be in less haste to attack it by medicine, and more

watchful in its prevention. Accordingly, where a constant demand for

medicine exists in a nursery, the mother may rest assured that there is

something essentially wrong in the treatment of her children.

“Much havoc is made among infants by the abuse of medicines, which

procure momentary relief but end by producing incurable disease; and

it has often excited my astonishment to see how recklessly remedies

of this kind are had recourse to, on the most trifling occasions, by

mothers and nurses, who would be horrified if they knew the nature

of the power they are wielding, and the extent of injury they are

inflicting.”

Instead, then, of depending on medicine for the preservation of the

health and life of an infant, the following precautions and preventives

should be adopted:

“Take particular care of the _food_ of an infant. If it is nourished by

the mother, her own diet should be simple, nourishing, and temperate.

If the child be brought up ‘by hand,’ the milk of a new milch-cow,

mixed with one-third water, and sweetened a little with _white_

sugar, should be the only food given, until the teeth come. This

is more suitable than any preparations of flour or arrow-root, the

nourishment of which is too highly concentrated. Never give a child

_bread_, _cake_, or _meat_, before the teeth appear. If the food appear

to distress the child after eating, first ascertain if the milk be

really from a new milch-cow, as it may otherwise be too old. Learn,

also, whether the cow lives on proper food. Cows that are fed on

_still-slops_, as is often the case in cities, furnish milk which is

very unhealthful.”

Be sure and keep a good supply of pure and fresh air in the nursery.

On this point Dr. Bell remarks, respecting rooms constructed without

fire-places and without doors or windows to let in pure air from

without, “The sufferings of children of feeble constitutions are

increased beyond measure by such lodgings as these. An action, brought

by the commonwealth, ought to lie against those persons who build

houses for sale or rent, in which rooms are so constructed as not to

allow of free ventilation; and a writ of lunacy taken out against those

who, with the common-sense experience which all have on this head,

should spend any portion of their time, still more, should sleep, in

rooms thus nearly air-tight.”

After it is a month or two old, take an infant out to walk, or ride,

in a little wagon, every fair and warm day; but be very careful that

its feet, and every part of its body, are kept warm; and be sure that

its eyes are well protected from the light. Weak eyes, and sometimes

blindness, are caused by neglecting this precaution. Keep the head of

an infant cool, never allowing too warm bonnets, nor permitting it to

sink into soft pillows when asleep. Keeping an infant’s head too warm

very much increases nervous irritability, and this is the reason why

medical men forbid the use of caps for infants. But the head of an

infant should, especially while sleeping, be protected from draughts of

air, and from getting cold.

Be very careful of the skin of an infant, as nothing tends so

effectually to prevent disease. For this end, it should be washed all

over every morning, and then gentle friction should be applied with

the hand, to the back, stomach, bowels, and limbs. The head should be

thoroughly washed every day, and then brushed with a soft hair-brush,

or combed with a fine comb. If, by neglect, dirt accumulates under the

hair, apply with the finger the yelk of an egg, and then the fine comb

will remove it all without any trouble.

Dress the infant so that it will be always warm, but not so as to

cause perspiration. Be sure and keep its feet always warm; and for

this often warm them at a fire, and use long dresses. Keep the neck

and arms covered. For this purpose, wrappers, open in front, made high

in the neck, with long sleeves, to put on over the frock, are now very

fashionable.

It is better for both mother and child, that it should not sleep on

the mother’s arm at night, unless the weather be extremely cold. This

practice keeps the child too warm, and leads it to seek food too

frequently. A child should ordinarily take nourishment but once or

twice in the night. A crib beside the mother, with plenty of warm and

light covering, is best for the child; but the mother must be sure that

it is always kept warm.

Never cover a child’s head so that it will inhale the air of its own

lungs. In very warm weather, especially in cities, great pains should

be taken to find fresh and cool air by rides and sailing. Walks in

a public square in the cool of the morning, and frequent excursions

in ferry or steamboats, would often save a long bill for medical

attendance. In hot nights, the windows should be kept open, and the

infant laid on a mattress, or on folded blankets. A bit of straw

matting, laid over a feather-bed and covered with the under sheet,

makes a very cool bed for an infant.

Cool bathing, in hot weather, is very useful; but the water should be

very little cooler than the skin of the child. When the constitution

is delicate, the water should be slightly warmed. Simply sponging the

body freely in a tub, answers the same purpose as a regular bath. In

very warm weather this should be done two or three times a day, always

waiting two or three hours after food has been given.

“When the stomach is peculiarly irritable, (from teething,) it is of

paramount necessity to withhold all the nostrums which have been so

falsely lauded as ‘sovereign cures for _cholera infantum_.’ The true

restoratives for a child threatened with disease are cool air, cool

bathing, and cool drinks of simple water, in addition to _proper_ food,

at stated intervals.”

In many cases, change of air from sea to mountain, or the reverse,

has an immediate healthful influence and is superior to every other

treatment. Do not take the advice of mothers who tell of this, that,

and the other thing, which have proved excellent remedies in their

experience. Children have different constitutions, and there are

multitudes of different causes for their sickness; and what might

cure one child, might kill another which _appeared_ to have the same

complaint. A mother should go on the general rule of giving an infant

very little medicine, and then only by the direction of a discreet

and experienced physician. And there are cases when, according to the

views of the most distinguished and competent practitioners, physicians

themselves are much too free in using medicines, instead of adopting

preventive measures.

Do not allow a child to form such habits that it will not be quiet

unless tended and amused. A healthy child should be accustomed to lie

or sit in its cradle much of the time; but it should occasionally be

taken up and tossed, or carried about for exercise and amusement.

An infant should be encouraged to _creep_, as an exercise very

strengthening and useful. If the mother fears the soiling of its nice

dresses, she can keep a long slip or apron which will entirely cover

the dress, and can be removed when the child is taken in the arms. A

child should not be allowed, when quite young, to bear its weight on

its feet very long at a time, as this tends to weaken and distort the

limbs.

Many mothers, with a little painstaking, succeed in putting their

infants into their cradle while awake, at regular hours for sleep; and

induce regularity in other habits, which saves much trouble. During

this training process a child may cry, at first, a great deal; but,

for a healthy child, this use of the lungs does no harm, and tends

rather to strengthen than to injure them, unless it becomes exceedingly

violent. A child who is trained to lie or sit and amuse itself, is

happier than one who is carried and tended a great deal, and thus

rendered restless and uneasy when not so indulged.

The most critical period in the life of an infant is that of dentition

or teething, especially at the early stages. An adult has thirty-two

teeth, but young children have only twenty, which gradually loosen

and are followed by the permanent teeth. When the child has ten teeth

on each jaw, all that are added are the permanent set, which should

be carefully preserved; this caution is needful, as sometimes decay

in the first double teeth of the second set are supposed to be of the

transient set, and are so neglected, or are removed instead of being

preserved by plugging. When the first teeth rise so as to press against

the gums, there is always more or less inflammation, causing nervous

fretfulness, and the impulse to put every thing into the mouth.

Usually there is disturbed sleep, a slight fever, and greater flow of

saliva; this is often relieved by letting the child have ice to bite,

tied in a rag.

Sometimes the disorder of the mouth extends to the whole system. In

difficult teething, one symptom is the jerking back of the head when

taking the breath, as if in pain, owing to the extreme soreness of the

gums. This is, in extreme cases, attended with increased saliva and

a gummy secretion in the corners of the eyes, itching of the nose,

redness of cheeks, rash, convulsive twitching of lips and the muscles

generally, fever, constipation, and sometimes by a diarrhea, which

last is favorable if slight; difficulty of breathing, dilation of the

pupils of the eyes, restless motion and moaning; and finally, if not

relieved, convulsions and death. The most effective relief is gained

by lancing the gums. Every woman, and especially every mother, should

know the time and order in which the infant teeth come, and, when any

of the above symptoms appear, should examine the mouth, and if a gum

is swollen and inflamed, should either have a physician lance it, or

if this can not be done, should perform the operation herself. A sharp

pen-knife and steady hand, making an incision to touch the rising

tooth, will cause no more pain than a simple scratch of the gum, and

usually will give speedy relief.

The temporary teeth should not be removed until the new ones appear,

as it injures the jaw and coming teeth; but as soon as a new tooth is

seen pressing upward, the temporary tooth should be removed, or the new

tooth will come out of its proper place. If there is not room where the

new tooth appears, the next temporary tooth must be taken out. Great

mischief has been done by removing the first teeth before the second

appear, thus making a contraction of the jaw.

Most trouble with the teeth of young children comes from neglect to use

the brush to remove the tartar that accumulates near the gum, causing

disease and decay. This disease is sometimes called _scurvy_, and is

shown by an accumulation around the teeth and by inflamed gums that

bleed easily. Removal of the tartar by a dentist and cleaning the

teeth after every meal with a brush will usually cure this evil, which

causes loosening of the teeth and a bad breath.

Much injury is often done to teeth by using improper tooth-powder. The

tooth-brush should be used after every meal, and floss silk pressed

between the teeth to remove food lodged there. This method will usually

save the teeth from decay till old age, and there is no need of

tooth-powder.

When an infant seems ill during the period of dentition, the following

directions from an experienced physician may be of service. It is

now an accepted principle of the medical world that fevers are to

be reduced by cold applications; but an infant demands careful and

judicious treatment in this direction; some have extremely sensitive

nerves, and cold is painful. For such, tepid sponging should be used

near a fire, and the coldness increased gradually. The sensations of

the child should be the guide. Usually, but not always, children that

are healthy will learn by degrees to prefer cold water, and then it may

safely be used.

When an infant becomes feverish, wrapping its body in a towel wrung out

in tepid or cold water, and then keeping it warm in a woolen blanket,

is a very safe and soothing remedy.

In case of constipation, this preparation of food is useful:

One table-spoonful of unbolted flour wet with cold water. Add one pint

of hot water, and boil twenty minutes. Add, when taken up, one pint of

milk. If the stomach seems delicate and irritable, strain out the bran,

but in most cases retain it.

Where the mother’s milk fails, and good cow’s milk can not be insured,

there are preparations of Oat-meal and barley-meal that are next best.

These may be used when the mother’s milk is injured by ill health. A

trial must be made to see which is best. Make a thin gruel, and add

half a tea-spoonful of condensed milk, or four great spoonfuls of milk

to a coffee-cup of the gruel for a young infant, and a full one for an

older child.

In case of diarrhea, walk with the child in arms a great deal in the

open air, and give it rice-water to drink.

The warmth and vital influences of the nurse are very important, and

make this mode of exercise both more soothing and more efficacious,

especially in the open air, the infant being warmly clad.

In case of feverishness from teething or from any other cause, wrap

the infant in a towel wrung out in tepid water, and then wrap it in a

woolen blanket. The water may be cooler according as the child is older

and stronger. The evaporation of the water draws off the heat, while

the moisture soothes the nerves, and usually the child will fall into a

quiet sleep. As soon as it becomes restless, change the wet towel and

proceed as before.

The leading physicians of Europe and of this country, in all cases

of fevers, use cool water to reduce them, by this and other modes of

application. This method is more soothing than any other, and is as

effective for adults as for infants.

Some of the most distinguished physicians of New York who have examined

this chapter give their full approval of the advice given. If there is

still distrust as to this mode of using water to reduce fevers, it will

be advantageous to read an address on the use of cold applications in

fevers, delivered by Dr. William Neftel, before the New York Academy

of Medicine, published in the _New York Medical Record_ for November,

1868; this can be obtained by inclosing twenty cents to the editor,

with the post-office address of the applicant.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN.

In regard to the physical education of children, Dr. Clark, Physician

in Ordinary to the Queen of England, expresses views on one point in

which most physicians would coincide. He says: “There is no greater

error in the management of children than that of giving them animal

diet very early. By persevering in the use of an over-stimulating

diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and the various

secretions immediately connected with digestion, and necessary to it,

are diminished, especially the _biliary secretion_. Children so fed

become very liable to attacks of fever and inflammation, affecting

particularly the mucous membranes; and measles and other diseases

incident to childhood are generally severe in their attacks.”

The result of the treatment of the inmates of the Orphan Asylum at

Albany is one which all who have the care of young children should

deeply ponder. During the first six years of the existence of this

institution, its average number of children was eighty. For the first

three years, their diet was meat once a day, bread of fine flour, rice,

Indian puddings, vegetables, fruit, and milk. Considerable attention

was given to clothing, fresh air, and exercise; and they were bathed

once in three weeks. During these three years, from four to six

children, and sometimes more, were continually on the sick-list; one

or two assistant nurses were necessary; a physician was called two or

three times a week; and during this time there were between thirty and

forty deaths. At the end of this period, the management was changed

in these respects: daily ablutions of the whole body were practiced;

bread of unbolted flour was substituted for that of fine wheat; and all

animal food was banished. More attention, also, was paid to clothing,

bedding, fresh air, and exercise.

The result was, that the nursery was vacated; the nurse and physician

were no longer needed; and for two years not a single case of sickness

or death occurred. The third year, also, there were no deaths, except

those of two idiots and one other child, all of whom were new inmates,

who had not been subjected to this treatment. The teachers of the

children also testified there was a manifest increase of intellectual

vigor and activity, while there was much less irritability of temper.

Let parents, nurses, and teachers reflect on the above statement, and

bear in mind that stupidity of intellect, and irritability of temper,

as well as ill health, are often caused by the mismanagement of the

nursery in regard to the physical training of children.

There is probably no practice more deleterious than that of allowing

children to eat at short intervals through the day. As the stomach is

thus kept constantly at work, with no time for repose, its functions

are deranged, and a weak or disordered stomach is the frequent result.

Children should be required to keep cakes, nuts, and other good things,

which should be sparingly given, till just before a meal, and then they

will form a part of their regular supply. This is better than to wait

till after their hunger is satisfied by food, when they will eat the

niceties merely to gratify the palate, and thus overload the stomach

and interrupt digestion.

In regard to the intellectual training of young children, some

modification in the common practice is necessary, with reference

to their physical well-being. More care is needful in providing

_well-ventilated_ school-rooms, and in securing more time for sports in

the open air during school hours. It is very important to most mothers

that their young children should be removed from their care during

certain school hours; and it is very useful for quite young children

to be subjected to the discipline of a school, and to intercourse with

other children of their own age. And, with a suitable teacher, it is

no matter how early children are sent to school, provided their health

is not endangered by impure air, too much confinement, and too great

mental stimulus, which is the chief danger of the present age.

In regard to the formation of the moral character, it has been too

much the case that the discipline of the nursery has consisted of

disconnected efforts to make children either do, or refrain from doing,

certain particular acts. Do this, and be rewarded; do that, and be

punished; is the ordinary routine of family government.

But children can be very early taught that their happiness, both now

and hereafter, depends on the formation of _habits_ of submission,

self-denial, and benevolence. And all the discipline of the nursery

can be conducted by parents, not only with this general aim in their

own minds, but also with the same object daily set before the minds

of the children. Whenever their wishes are crossed, or their wills

subdued, they can be taught that all this is done, not merely to please

the parent, or to secure some good to themselves or to others; but

as a part of that merciful training which is designed to form such a

character, and such habits, that they can hereafter find their chief

happiness in giving up their will to God, and in living to do good to

others, instead of living merely to please themselves.

It can be pointed out to them, that they must always submit their will

to the will of God, or else be continually miserable. It can be shown

how, in the nursery, and in the school, and through all future days,

a child must practice the giving up of his will and wishes, when they

interfere with the rights and comfort of others; and how important it

is early to learn to do this, so that it will, by habit, become easy

and agreeable. It can be shown how children who are indulged in all

their wishes, and who are never accustomed to any self-denial, always

find it hard to refrain from what injures themselves and others. It

can be shown, also, how important it is for every person to form such

habits of benevolence toward others that self-denial in doing good will

become easy.

Parents have learned, by experience, that children can be constrained

by authority and penalties to exercise self-denial, for _their own_

good, till a habit is formed which makes the duty comparatively easy.

For example, well-trained children can be accustomed to deny themselves

tempting articles of food which are injurious, until the practice

ceases to be painful and difficult; whereas an indulged child would be

thrown into fits of anger or discontent when its wishes were crossed by

restraints of this kind.

But it has not been so readily discerned that the same method is

needful in order to form a habit of self-denial in doing good to

others. It has been supposed that while children must be forced, by

_authority_, to be self-denying and prudent in regard to their own

happiness, it may properly be left to their own discretion whether they

will practice any self-denial in doing good to others. But the more

difficult a duty is, the greater is the need of parental authority in

forming a habit which will make that duty easy.

In order to secure this, some parents turn their earliest efforts to

this object. They require the young child always to offer to others

a part of every thing which it receives; always to comply with all

reasonable requests of others for service; and often to practice little

acts of self-denial, in order to secure some enjoyment for others. If

one child receives a present of some nicety, he is required to share

it with all his brothers and sisters. If one asks his brother to help

him in some study or sport, and is met with a denial, the parent

requires the unwilling child to act benevolently, and give up some of

his time to increase his brother’s enjoyment. Of course, in such an

effort as this discretion must be used as to the frequency and extent

of the exercise of authority, to induce a habit of benevolence. But

where parents deliberately aim at such an object, and wisely conduct

their instructions and discipline to secure it, very much will be

accomplished.

In regard to forming habits of obedience, there have been two extremes,

both of which need to be shunned. One is, a stern and unsympathizing

maintenance of parental authority, demanding perfect and constant

obedience, without any attempt to convince a child of the propriety

and benevolence of the requisitions, and without any manifestation of

sympathy and tenderness for the pain and difficulties which are to be

met. Under such discipline, children grow up to fear their parents,

rather than to love and trust them; while some of the most valuable

principles of character are chilled, or forever blasted.

In shunning this danger, other parents pass to the opposite extreme.

They put themselves too much on the footing of equals with their

children, as if little were due to superiority of relation, age, and

experience. Nothing is exacted, without the implied concession that

the child is to be a judge of the propriety of the requisition; and

reason and persuasion are employed, where simple command and obedience

would be far better. This system produces a most pernicious influence.

Children soon perceive the position thus allowed them, and take every

advantage of it. They soon learn to dispute parental requirements,

acquire habits of forwardness and conceit, assume disrespectful

manners and address, maintain their views with pertinacity, and yield

to authority with ill-humor and resentment, as if their rights were

infringed upon.

The medium course is for the parent to take the attitude of a superior

in age, knowledge, and relation, who has a perfect _right_ to control

every action of the child, and that, too, without giving any reason for

the requisitions. “Obey _because your parent commands_,” is always a

proper and sufficient reason: though not always the best to give.

But care should be taken to convince the child that the parent is

conducting a course of discipline designed to make him happy; and in

forming habits of implicit obedience, self-denial, and benevolence,

the child should have the reasons for most requisitions kindly stated;

never, however, on the demand of it from the child, as a right, but as

an act of kindness from the parent.

It is impossible to govern children properly, especially those of

strong and sensitive feelings, without a constant effort to appreciate

the value which they attach to their enjoyments and pursuits. A lady

of great strength of mind and sensibility once told the writer that

one of the most acute periods of suffering in her whole life was

occasioned by the burning up of some milkweed-silk by her mother. The

child had found, for the first time, some of this shining and beautiful

substance; was filled with delight at her discovery; was arranging it

in parcels; planning its future use, and her pleasure in showing it to

her companions—when her mother, finding it strewed over the carpet,

hastily swept it into the fire, and that, too, with so indifferent

an air, that the child fled away, almost distracted with grief and

disappointment. The mother little realized the pain she had inflicted,

but the child felt the unkindness so severely that for several days

her mother was an object almost of aversion. While, therefore, the

parent needs to carry on a steady course, which will oblige the child

always to give up its will, whenever its own good or the greater claims

of others require it, this should be constantly connected with the

expression of a tender sympathy for the trials and disappointments thus

inflicted.

Those, again, who will join with children and help them in their

sports, will learn by this mode to understand the feelings and

interests of childhood; while, at the same time, they secure a degree

of confidence and affection which can not be gained so easily in any

other way. And it is to be regretted that parents so often relinquish

this most powerful mode of influence to domestics and playmates, who

often use it in the most pernicious manner. In joining in such sports,

older persons should never yield entirely the attitude of superiors,

or allow disrespectful manners or address. And respectful deportment

is never more cheerfully accorded, than in seasons when young hearts

are pleased and made grateful by having their tastes and enjoyments so

efficiently promoted.

Next to the want of all government, the two most fruitful sources

of evil to children are, _unsteadiness_ in government and

_over-government_. Most of the cases in which the children of sensible

and conscientious parents turn out badly, result from one or the other

of these causes. In cases of unsteady government, either one parent

is very strict, severe, and unbending, and the other excessively

indulgent, or else the parents are sometimes very strict and decided,

and at other times allow disobedience to go unpunished. In such cases,

children, never knowing exactly when they can escape with impunity, are

constantly tempted to make the trial.

The bad effects of this can be better appreciated by reference to one

important principle of the mind. It is found to be universally true

that, when any object of desire is put entirely beyond the reach of

hope or expectation, the mind very soon ceases to long for it, and

turns to other objects of pursuit. But so long as the mind is hoping

for some good, and making efforts to obtain it, any opposition excites

irritable feelings. Let the object be put entirely beyond all hope, and

this irritation soon ceases.

In consequence of this principle, those children who are under the

care of persons of steady and decided government know that, whenever

a thing is forbidden or denied, it is out of the reach of hope; the

desire, therefore, soon ceases, and they turn to other objects. But

the children of undecided, or of over-indulgent parents, never enjoy

this preserving aid. When a thing is denied, they never know but

either coaxing may win it, or disobedience secure it without any

penalty, and so they are kept in that state of hope and anxiety which

produces irritation and tempts to insubordination. The children of

very indulgent parents, and of those who are undecided and unsteady in

government, are very apt to become fretful, irritable, and fractious.

Another class of persons, in shunning this evil, go to the other

extreme, and are very strict and pertinacious in regard to every

requisition. With them, fault-finding and penalties abound, until

the children are either hardened into indifference of feeling and

obtuseness of conscience, or else become excessively irritable or

misanthropic.

It demands great wisdom, patience, and self-control, to escape these

two extremes. In aiming at this, there are parents who have found the

following maxims of very great value:

First: Avoid, as much as possible, the multiplication of rules and

absolute commands. Instead of this, take the attitude of advisers.

“My child, this is improper, I wish you would remember not to do it.”

This mode of address answers for all the little acts of heedlessness,

awkwardness, or ill-manners so frequently occurring with children.

There are cases when direct and distinct commands are needful, and

in such cases a penalty for disobedience should be as steady and sure

as the laws of nature. A barrel in the nursery, with a seat in it

for the child, serves for a gentle and yet very effective solitary

imprisonment, and is a most salutary penalty. Where such steadiness and

certainty of penalty attend disobedience, children no more think of

disobeying than they do of putting their fingers into a burning candle.

The next maxim is, Govern by rewards more than by penalties. Such

faults as willful disobedience, lying, dishonesty, and indecent or

profane language, should be punished with severe penalties, after a

child has been fully instructed in the evil of such practices. But all

the constantly recurring faults of the nursery, such as ill-humor,

quarreling, carelessness, and ill-manners, may, in a great many cases,

be regulated by gentle and kind remonstrances, and by the offer of

some reward for persevering efforts to form a good habit. It is very

injurious and degrading to any mind to be kept under the constant fear

of penalties. _Love_ and _hope_ are the principles that should be

mainly relied on in forming the habits of childhood.

Another maxim, and perhaps the most difficult, is, Do not govern by

the aid of severe and angry tones. A single example will be given to

illustrate this maxim. A child is disposed to talk and amuse itself

at table. The mother requests it to be silent, except when needing to

ask for food, or when spoken to by its older friends. It constantly

forgets. The mother, instead of rebuking in an impatient tone, says,

“My child, you must remember not to talk. I will remind you of it

four times more, and after that, whenever you forget, you must leave

the table and wait till we are done.” If the mother is steady in her

government, it is not probable that she will have to apply this slight

penalty more than once or twice. This method is far more effectual

than the use of sharp and severe tones, to secure attention and

recollection, and often answers the purpose as well as offering some

reward.

The writer has been in some families where the most efficient and

steady government has been sustained without the use of a cross or

angry tone; and in others, where a far less efficient discipline was

kept up, by frequent severe rebukes and angry remonstrances. In the

first case, the children followed the example set them, and seldom used

severe tones to each other; in the latter, the method employed by the

parents was imitated by the children, and cross words and angry tones

resounded from morning till night in every portion of the household.

Another important maxim is, Try to keep children in a happy state of

mind. Every one knows, by experience, that it is easier to do right

and submit to rule when cheerful and happy, than when irritated. This

is peculiarly true of children; and a wise mother, when she finds her

child fretful and impatient, and thus constantly doing wrong, will

often remedy the whole difficulty by telling some amusing story, or by

getting the child engaged in some amusing sport. This strongly shows

the importance of learning to govern children without the employment of

angry tones, which always produce irritation.

Children of active, heedless temperament, or those who are odd,

awkward, or unsuitable in their remarks and deportment, are often

essentially injured by a want of patience and self-control in those

who govern them. Such children often possess a morbid sensibility

which they strive to conceal, or a desire of love and approbation,

which preys like a famine on the soul. And yet they become objects

of ridicule and rebuke to almost every member of the family, until

their sensibilities are tortured into obtuseness or misanthropy. Such

children, above all others, need tenderness and sympathy. A thousand

instances of mistake or forgetfulness should be passed over in silence,

while opportunities for commendation and encouragement should be

diligently sought.

In regard to the formation of habits of self-denial in childhood, it

is astonishing to see how parents who are very sensible often seem to

regard this matter. Instead of inuring their children to this duty

in early life, so that by habit it may be made easy in after-days,

they seem to be studiously seeking to cut them off from every chance

to secure such a preparation. Every wish of the child is studiously

gratified; and, where a necessity exists of crossing its wishes, some

compensating pleasure is offered in return. Such parents often maintain

that nothing shall be put on their table which their children may not

join them in eating. But where, so easily and surely as at the daily

meal, can that habit of self-denial be formed which is so needful

in governing the appetites, and which children must acquire, or be

ruined? The food which is proper for grown persons is often unsuitable

for children; and this is a sufficient reason for accustoming them

to see others partake of delicacies which they must not share.

Requiring children to wait till others are helped, and to refrain

from conversation at table, except when addressed by their elders,

is another mode of forming habits of self-denial and self-control.

Requiring them to help others first, and to offer the best to others,

has a similar influence.

In forming the moral habits of children, it is wise to take into

account the peculiar temptations to which they are to be exposed. The

people of this nation are eminently a trafficking people; and the

present standard of honesty, as to trade and debts, is very low, and

every year seems sinking still lower. It is, therefore, pre-eminently

important that children should be trained to strict _honesty_, both in

word and deed. It is not merely teaching children to avoid absolute

lying, which is needed: _all kinds of deceit_ should be guarded

against, and all kinds of little dishonest practices be strenuously

opposed. A child should be brought up with the determined principle

never to _run in debt_, but to be content to live in a humbler way,

in order to secure that true independence which should be the noblest

distinction of an American citizen.

Quite as important in family and school training is enforcing the _law

that protects character_, which is more precious than gold, while

the most cruel sufferings result from want of honor and care in this

respect. Especially is the enforcement of this law important at this

period, when there are such constant and destructive examples of its

violation both by the press and by general practice.

This law of benevolence and rectitude is this: every person who has

established a fair character in any direction should have it upheld

by _all_, as a protection against unproved rumors that impeach this

character. Such rumors should _always_ be met with the question, Is it

_proved_ by _proper_ evidence? If it is not, then it is a slander, and

whoever aids to circulate it should be treated as an abettor of slander.

To illustrate this, take a not uncommon case: A lady, who for thirty

years held the highest character for purity, propriety, and good

principles, was accused by a man of high position of following him

with repeated solicitations for marriage. He offered no proof but

his assertion, which was nullified by her denial. In this case, the

man should have been treated as a slanderer, and those who aided in

circulating his story as abettors of slander.

Every woman is especially interested in sustaining this law, for it is

a dreadful mortification and disgrace to a delicate and refined woman

to have certain questions even connected with her name. Not less so

is it to a clergyman of keen sensibilities. And it is an insult to

ask a person thus abused to furnish denials and defense. _Established

character_ should protect both the person thus maligned and also their

nearest friends from hearing, much less from noticing, such mean and

disgraceful assaults.

There is no more important duty devolving upon an educator than the

cultivation of habits of modesty and propriety in young children. All

indecorous words or deportment should be carefully restrained, and

delicacy and reserve studiously cherished. It is a common notion, that

it is important to secure these virtues to one sex more than to the

other; and, by a strange inconsistency, the sex most exposed to danger

is the one selected as least needing care. Yet a wise mother will be

especially careful that her sons are trained to modesty and purity of

mind.

The rule which should guide on this subject is this: Whenever health,

life, or duty demand it, all connected with such topics and duties

should be spoken of and done without embarrassment or restraint; but in

no other circumstances. Thus in the Bible, instruction on the dangers

and duties connected with our bodily organization are set forth in

plain and simple language, to be read in public worship and in private

by all. So, in medical, surgical, and nursing duties, the same freedom

is demanded, and disapproval or opposition are deemed false modesty and

foolish fastidiousness. But where there are no such demands for health

and safety, then conversation, poetry, pictures, jokes, and coarse

allusions are vulgar, indecent, and sinful.

Few mothers are sufficiently aware of the dreadful penalties which

often result from indulged impurity of thought. If children, in

_future_ life, can be preserved from licentious associates, it is

supposed that their safety is secured. But the records of our insane

retreats, and the pages of medical writers, teach that even in

solitude, and without being aware of the sin or the danger, children

may inflict evils on themselves which not unfrequently terminate in

disease, delirium, and death.

There is no necessity for explanations on this point any further than

this, that certain parts of the body are not to be touched except for

purposes of cleanliness, and that the most dreadful suffering comes

from disobeying these commands. So in regard to practices and sins

of which a young child will sometimes inquire, the wise parent will

say, that this is what children can not understand, and about which

they must not talk or ask questions. And they should be told that it

is always a bad sign when children talk on matters which parents call

vulgar and indecent, and that the company of such children should

be avoided. Disclosing details of wrong-doing to young and curious

children, often leads to the very evils feared. But parents and

teachers, in this age of danger, should be well informed and watchful;

for it is not unfrequently the case that servants and school-mates will

teach young children practices which exhaust the nervous system, and

bring on paralysis, mania, and death.

But there are social dangers during and after childhood which demand

from mothers and teachers such instructions as are rarely given; and

yet, for the want of it, the most dreadful vices and sufferings ensue.

The evils and dangers here indicated can never be understood or

appreciated till mothers and teachers gain that knowledge of the

construction of the body, and the dangers connected with duties of the

family state, which is now confined almost entirely to the medical

profession, while physicians, by false customs and false modesty on the

part of women, are constrained to a reticence which is dangerous and

often fatal. The difficulty can be wisely met, not by public lectures

or by pulpit ministries. It is in the privacy of the nursery and the

school-room that well-instructed mothers and teachers must train the

young to meet these dangers, by all needful knowledge and habits of

intelligent self-control.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

FAMILY RELIGIOUS TRAINING.

There are few women who have charge of servants or of children, in

the family and school, who do not suffer anxiety and perplexity, and

sometimes remorse, in attempts to perform their duty as chief ministers

of religion in the family state. The following suggestions may aid in

diminishing these difficulties:

The main foundation of these troubles is the endless diversities

of instruction as to what is right in character and conduct, and

especially as to what is taught in the Bible on these points. For there

are few practical questions on which persons of equal intelligence

and moral worth are not in antagonism as to what _is_ the right; and

all the Christian sects are in equal controversy as to what are the

teachings of the Bible. And yet every housekeeper, every mother, and

every teacher, practically, must decide these questions for herself

and her dependants, when, in the kitchen, nursery, and school-room

she teaches what actions and feelings are right or wrong, or when

she decides to what religious denomination she, and those she can

influence, shall belong.

There is one consoling consideration in view of these conflicting

opinions, and that is, that nothing tends more directly to cultivate

both the intellect and moral feelings, than the study, reflection,

and discussion resulting from this trying dilemma. For, were every

human being infallibly directed by a superior mind as to every step

and every decision, it would greatly diminish mental effort, and the

moral discipline of life. All would remain as mere children, guided and

upheld at every step. Instead of this, the whole moral and intellectual

world is kept vigorous, earnest, and bright by conflict and discussion,

while many moral virtues are cultivated by this turmoil.

The difficulties thus encountered may be much reduced by gaining clear

ideas as to _what it is_ which constitutes voluntary action _right_.

To settle this more clearly, we introduce again a portion of Chapter

XXV., with additional considerations. The definition of _right_, in its

widest use, is “any rule or method which will _best_ accomplish any

plan or design.” It is a fact, also, that there is a created intuitive

belief in all rational minds that happiness-making on the largest scale

possible is the end or purpose for which all things are made.

This is proved by the fact that whenever men perceive that a given

course will secure the most and the best good for both the individual

and for society, all decide that it is _right_. The main difficulty is

in discovering what _is_ the best for all concerned.

There are two ways in which mankind learn this. The first is, by the

trial of experience. Man learns “to know good and evil” by good lost

or gained, and evil suffered. This experimenting has been going on in

all ages, each generation gaining by the experience of the past. The

other mode is, by revelations from God made in human language, and to

be interpreted by the common rules of the language employed.

But one distinction is very important, and that is, the two relations

in which an action is to be judged as right, viz., first, with

reference to the action as best for all concerned, and next in

reference to the motive or intention of the actor. For it is best and

right that every mind should choose what it believes to be right; and

thus it often happens that the same action is right as to motive or

intention, and wrong as to actual result. So, also, an action may be

right in tendency and result, while it is wrong as to motive. There is

often much confusion from not recognizing this distinction.

There are many cases where experience will not avail in deciding what

is best for all, especially in reference to our prospects after death,

and our relations and duties toward our Creator. For all this we are

dependent on revelations made in human language, to be interpreted

by the rules of language. And as almost all words have more than

one literal meaning, and are also used sometimes in a literal, and

sometimes in a figurative sense, the chief labor in gaining God’s

teaching is in applying rightly the laws of language.

One difficulty in this attempt is the fact that the true interpretation

of language depends greatly on the habits of thought, the prejudices

of education, and the influence of excited feelings and wishes. So

strong are these influences in the common affairs of life, that it has

been a maxim of courts that a man is not qualified to testify where

his own interests are concerned. And in all daily affairs, men always

make allowances for deviation from a true judgment in what greatly

interests the feelings. This accounts for the fact that such a variety

of interpretations are put on the plain and natural meaning of the

Bible, when such a meaning controverts favorite opinions or interferes

with important plans or hopes. It is not because it is difficult to

interpret the Bible correctly by the proper use of those rules men

employ in daily life; it is because men’s feelings, prejudices, and

wishes interfere. No less is it the case that the bias of feeling

constantly sways the judgment of men in deciding what is right and

best, where experience and reason are the chief guides.

Another embarrassment in gaining the true teachings of the Bible is

the fact that the doctrines of churches and creeds have consisted

extensively of philosophical theories to explain the _how_ and the

_why_ of the facts made known by revelation; and men have been educated

to believe that these theories should be accepted as authoritative, the

same as the revealed facts, and thus feeling and prejudice interfere.

For example, that the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ was needful

to secure redemption to our race from sin and its penalties, is the

revealed fact. _Why_ it was needed, and _how_ it avails to save men,

is a question which men have invented various theories to answer and

explain, and belief in these theories has been deemed as sacred and

obligatory as if they were matters of revelation.

Another, and the chief difficulty, is the fact that the great mass,

even of educated minds, have never been trained to use the rules of

language in the interpretation of the Bible as they do in common life.

Although it is the great and distinctive principle of Protestantism

that every man is to form his own creed, and to interpret the Bible for

himself, responsible not to man but to God alone, the common people

have not been trained properly to use this right and privilege. And

this is not because it is not as easy and practical a matter as any

other duty requiring intellectual culture, practical exercises, and an

honest desire for the truth. In consequence of this, much that is only

figurative in the Bible has been received as literal, and repellent

doctrines thus established.

It is probable that no one thing could so effectually promote unity

of opinion among churches, and consequent harmony of action, as the

proper training of the common people in the nursery and school-room

to use the laws of language with the Bible as they do in common life.

Such training would also bring confidence and peace to minds so

extensively perplexed by supposed contradictions as to its teachings.

It was by this method that the writer overcame difficulties, and gained

such confidence and peace as can be secured in no other way. Without

stating the results of her own efforts in interpreting the Bible, a

few examples will follow, to illustrate the position that any woman of

ordinary capacity can find relief and comfort by the same method.

We will take, first, the great question of this life. What are our

dangers in the future life, and what must we do to be saved from them?

The following is a brief statement of the views of mankind on this

question. Among the heathen, especially among the wisest and best,

it was held that the virtuous would fare better after death than the

wicked. The seventy-third Psalm shows in most terrific language the

misery of the wicked, and as clearly the blessedness of the righteous

at death, as believed by the Jews in all ages.

Among Christian nations, a large class have no definite opinions on

this question, but by their practice assume that there is no danger at

all, and so give all their thoughts and aims to the things of this life.

A large class who profess to obtain their opinions from the Bible hold

that, either at death or at some period after, all mankind will be

forever good and happy in heaven.

Another large class hold that a portion of mankind will, at death, go

to everlasting misery, to be tormented with literal fire and brimstone,

and that all the rest will finally go to heaven; but previously the

good must suffer temporary punishment for sins committed here—this

period of suffering being more or less diminished by penances, and by

the sacrifices and good works of Jesus Christ and the good on earth.

Another class believe that at death every human being passes directly

to perfect happiness in heaven, or to dreadful sufferings in hell which

are never to end. One part of this class hold that the punishment

is literally existing forever in fire and brimstone, and the other

part hold that the suffering will be the natural result of an endless

character that insures misery, and that the language of the Bible

expresses this figuratively.

Finally, another class hold that, in the life to come, happiness and

misery depend on _character_; that a portion of our race in this life

forms one that insures immediate and endless happiness at death; that

another portion form a character that involves great suffering after

death; and that in _some_ cases this character is perpetuated forever,

involving consequent endless suffering. But they claim that the Bible

nowhere teaches that with _all_ mankind character is fixed at death.

Instead of this, what intervenes between death and the final day, when

the righteous and wicked are to be reclothed in bodies and forever

separated, is left in wise darkness.

But the most striking fact in these diverse opinions is, that Christian

sects all agree that the number who will escape from whatever dangers

there may be, depends upon the self-denying labor and sacrifices of the

followers of Jesus Christ.