But drink is not the only deadly nightshade that can poison the
life-blood and cloud the serenity of a family. One act of dishonesty
in any member of it may bow down a father's head and break a
mother's heart, and make innocent sisters ashamed to appear among
their friends. Perhaps it has not been the result of any natural ten-
dency to theft or forgery, but has been caused by desperate losses at
the secret gaming-table. Parents and sisters may never have had
the faintest suspicion that anything was wrong until the detective ap-
pears upon the scene and the criminal is arrested or makes his escape.
In either case, the happy iiome is shattered like a beautiful picture or
fragile vessel by a madman's hand.
Sometimes an awful and mysterious destiny seems to come upon
a home when its happiness is at the flood. What fearful tragedies
have resulted from an unnoticed or lightly regarded brain or nervous
trouble in some member of a family, all the rest of whom are sane
and possessed of rationality, balance of faculties and self-control !
What shame and humiliation may a morbidly secretive, untruthful or
thieving child bring upon a home !
As a rule, such abnormal tendencies as inveracity, where the rest
are truthful, envy, where the rest are proud of one another, and any
other evil disposition which is not hereditary, may be eradicated and
cured bv wise and kindly treatment if taken at its earliest manifesta-
tions. But too many parents grieve ovjr a child's idiosyncrasies
224 THE hearthstone; or, life at home.
and never attempt to deal with them until it is too late. Example
is not enough ; precept is not enough ; the axe must be laid to the
root of the tree of evil tendencies as soon as it appears above the
ground. Few human beings are incurably and irreparably bad in
their childhood. While the heart and affections are not seared and
dead to good influences, the vicious child can be cured.
It is, nowever, of the awful fact that when one member suffers with
some tendency or infirmity of the moral nature, all the members suffer
with and through it, that I here remind the reader. The warnings
of legions of angels would not be too much for such reminders. It
is the selfish feeling that a brother or sister or child must be left to
go their own way that ends in such wholesale misery as we see in
many once happy homes.
Of a really happy home the secret spring is harmony ; of an un-
happy one, discord. The example of parents has the chief influence
upon the conduct and future life of children. Not only are they imi-
tative and observant, but from the dawn of thought they sit in silent
judgment on the ways and words of their parents. For the harmony
which makes home happy, affection and justice are two of the chief
contributors.
Page 143
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
But drink is not the only deadly nightshade that can poison the life-blood and cloud the serenity of a family. One act of dishonesty in any member of it may bow down a father's head and break a mother's heart, and make innocent sisters ashamed to appear among their friends. Perhaps it has not been the result of any natural tendency to theft or forgery, but has been caused by desperate losses at the secret gaming-table. Parents and sisters may never have had the faintest suspicion that anything was wrong until the detective appears upon the scene and the criminal is arrested or makes his escape. In either case, the happy iiome is shattered like a beautiful picture or fragile vessel by a madman's hand.
Sometimes an awful and mysterious destiny seems to come upon a home when its happiness is at the flood. What fearful tragedies have resulted from an unnoticed or lightly regarded brain or nervous trouble in some member of a family, all the rest of whom are sane and possessed of rationality, balance of faculties and self-control ! What shame and humiliation may a morbidly secretive, untruthful or thieving child bring upon a home !
As a rule, such abnormal tendencies as inveracity, where the rest are truthful, envy, where the rest are proud of one another, and any other evil disposition which is not hereditary, may be eradicated and cured bv wise and kindly treatment if taken at its earliest manifestations. But too many parents grieve over a child's idiosyncrasies
224 THE hearthstone; or, life at home.
and never attempt to deal with them until it is too late. Example is not enough ; precept is not enough ; the axe must be laid to the root of the tree of evil tendencies as soon as it appears above the ground. Few human beings are incurably and irreparably bad in their childhood. While the heart and affections are not seared and dead to good influences, the vicious child can be cured.
It is, nowever, of the awful fact that when one member suffers with some tendency or infirmity of the moral nature, all the members suffer with and through it, that I here remind the reader. The warnings of legions of angels would not be too much for such reminders. It is the selfish feeling that a brother or sister or child must be left to go their own way that ends in such wholesale misery as we see in many once happy homes.
Of a really happy home the secret spring is harmony ; of an unhappy one, discord. The example of parents has the chief influence upon the conduct and future life of children. Not only are they imitative and observant, but from the dawn of thought they sit in silent judgment on the ways and words of their parents. For the harmony which makes home happy, affection and justice are two of the chief contributors.