There is a common proverb which says that ministers’ children are
worse than other people’s. We shall not inquire into the case, but
we would suggest that there is no power without freedom, and no deep
sentiment without solitude, and the minister’s wife can enjoy neither
freedom nor solitude where the parishioners provide the salary; for
she is considered the property of the parish--her words and actions
are forever criticised. She must conciliate the easily offended, steer
clear of church factions, abstain from downrightness of speech. The
dangers of her situation are permanently impressed upon her, for
is not the bread they eat dependent on unanimity of opinion in the
society respecting their worth? If she can think her own thoughts, she
certainly must not express them. If she has any doubt concerning any
part of the creed, she must force it back and make believe that the
strait-jacket is as easy as a knitted shirt.
Children born amid these petty oppressions are not likely to be
patterns of perfection. Then they are not allowed to be bad like other
children, and to get, by degrees, rid of their inharmony. If they break
windows or punch noses, they are considered fearfully depraved, and to
reflect on the father. So they learn to consult appearances, and give
up the only experience that would make men of them. Too much catechism
and formal prayer during their early years must give a disgust
for the solemnities, and create a distrust of earnest living and
thinking, integrity and sincerity. Just in proportion to the degree of
irrationality of the creed, are the chances for damaging the characters
of the minister’s children.
Love of Truth expands the soul;
Fear of Evil cramps it.
The most unproductive use one can put one’s mind and heart to, is
hatred of evil, of meanness, falsehood, ugliness in others. It does
not even prove that we possess the opposite virtues. Especially if we
would convey to our children generosity, ingenuousness, and beauty,
let our hearts be filled with admiration of these divine qualities.
As I have shown, we reproduce that which most impresses us. If it is
ugliness, _and we hate it_, still we reproduce it, because we have
dwelt on it. Do not then, when _enciente_, permit yourself to analyze
or dislike imperfections of either mind or body, for this puts the
unborn _en rapport_ with that imperfection.