avoid noticing, that the sons of particularly pious and straight-laced parents are generally much worse behaved when they get their liberty than those who have been brought up in an atmosphere of rational liberty and candor. One may see many a gray head being bowed down in sorrow towards the grave on account of the disgrace and anxiety brought upon a family by a son's profligacy or dishonesty. Some of these unworthy sons of Christian parents have gone so far in criminality as to pull up suddenly inside of a prison ; but others who have been smart enough to avoid legal consequences have none the less branded themselves for life with a mark upon their foreheads as indelible as that of Cain. Surely there is some show of reason in the suspicion that the being compelled to be, or feign to be, " righteous overmuch " in their boyhood, has made them when they were able to throw off the mask of hypocrisy stand out the more conspicuously in their real character. Some social philosophers have argued from such cases that to instill the principles of religion into a child is to make him a hypo- crite in the nature of things, and hence they have condemned the habit of attendance at public worship, and still more that of domestic worship or " family prayer." This seems to us to carry the argument too far, for if there are dozens, or even hundreds, of cases where the apparent effect of early religious training upon the subsequent conduct has been bad, there are thousands where it has strengthened the will, kept guard over the passions, and preserved the body and mind in purity and integrity. Who can think that such home religion and daily prayers and study of Scripture as those in William Wilbcrforce's household had a pernicious effect upon his children ? In religious belief most of them ran to the opposite extreme from that of their father, but in conduct they never disgraced their early training. It should be the ambition of every youth to be a successful home builder, and to earn by early industry a home of his own. It is dreary work to spend all one's life in sowing that others may reap. It is quite true that 32 THE HEARTHSTONE ; OR, LIFE AT HOME. " He who by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive ; " but the converse is not less true that he who holds or drives the plough ought also himself to thrive by it. This is the great social difficulty and problem that is shaking society to its centre. Alien proprietorship and a tenantry of serfs have had their day, but that day is passing away we trust forever. Education is now within the reach of all, and it was only the want of education on the one side that made them the social bondmen and mere hirelings of the other. The troubles in Ireland are the result of centuries of this unfair and unnatural inequality. The distinctions of rich and poor must always exist, because riches and poverty are relative, not absolute, conditions ; but that the rich should be idle and have luxuries, while the poor work hard and want for bread, is an atrocious and rotten state of things, and one that cannot last in an age of such decisive progress and prompt action as our own. The day cannot be distant when every cultivator of the soil will have a home of his own ; but agrarian out- rages and murders, postpone rather than hasten that good time.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

avoid noticing, that the sons of particularly pious and straight-laced parents are generally much worse behaved when they get their liberty than those who have been brought up in an atmosphere of rational liberty and candor. One may see many a gray head being bowed down in sorrow towards the grave on account of the disgrace and anxiety brought upon a family by a son's profligacy or dishonesty. Some of these unworthy sons of Christian parents have gone so far in criminality as to pull up suddenly inside of a prison ; but others who have been smart enough to avoid legal consequences have none the less branded themselves for life with a mark upon their foreheads as indelible as that of Cain. Surely there is some show of reason in the suspicion that the being compelled to be, or feign to be, " righteous overmuch " in their boyhood, has made them when they were able to throw off the mask of hypocrisy stand out the more conspicuously in their real character. Some social philosophers have argued from such cases that to instill the principles of religion into a child is to make him a hypocrite in the nature of things, and hence they have condemned the habit of attendance at public worship, and still more that of domestic worship or " family prayer." This seems to us to carry the argument too far, for if there are dozens, or even hundreds, of cases where the apparent effect of early religious training upon the subsequent conduct has been bad, there are thousands where it has strengthened the will, kept guard over the passions, and preserved the body and mind in purity and integrity. Who can think that such home religion and daily prayers and study of Scripture as those in William Wilbcrforce's household had a pernicious effect upon his children ? In religious belief most of them ran to the opposite extreme from that of their father, but in conduct they never disgraced their early training. It should be the ambition of every youth to be a successful home builder, and to earn by early industry a home of his own. It is dreary work to spend all one's life in sowing that others may reap. It is quite true that " He who by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive ; " but the converse is not less true that he who holds or drives the plough ought also himself to thrive by it. This is the great social difficulty and problem that is shaking society to its centre. Alien proprietorship and a tenantry of serfs have had their day, but that day is passing away we trust forever. Education is now within the reach of all, and it was only the want of education on the one side that made them the social bondmen and mere hirelings of the other. The troubles in Ireland are the result of centuries of this unfair and unnatural inequality. The distinctions of rich and poor must always exist, because riches and poverty are relative, not absolute, conditions ; but that the rich should be idle and have luxuries, while the poor work hard and want for bread, is an atrocious and rotten state of things, and one that cannot last in an age of such decisive progress and prompt action as our own. The day cannot be distant when every cultivator of the soil will have a home of his own ; but agrarian outrages and murders, postpone rather than hasten that good time.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home