But suppose your little one be not "a mute, inglorious Milton,"
" a Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood," a Mozart, a Shaks-
peare, a Michael Angelo, or a Newton, but one of the many, one of
the people, an ordinary citizen of the world in promise, it may be
just as well for his happiness and yours. Precocious children are
not always the most amiable, and genius oftentimes has to suffer and
pay awful penalties. So that his brain works orderly, and his heart
is " in the right place," you need have no regrets. Your baby will
still be the dearest being in the world to you. You will learn from
him more than you can teach him. He will be the angel of the
covenant of home. He will draw out your noblest qualities, and
engage your most unselfish devotion. He will be more to you than
lands and houses, riches and fame, and make sunshine for you in
life's wintry days.
There is something very affecting and beautiful in the thought
that parents live again in their offspring. So that man may be said
never to die so long as his spirit is perpetuated in his children, who
again transmit it onward in unbroken succession. As a physio-
logical fact, the same distinctive qualities of mind and body, modified,
of course, by time, climate, circumstances, and the like, are found in
races, nationalities, and families. A curious instance of this occurred
to a traveller, who was much struck by the resemblance of a young
girl to a very dear friend of his, belonging to another place, and bear-
ing another name. Even the voice and manner constantly recalled
his absent friend. The young girl subsequently proved to be his
friend's second cousin, though the gentleman had not the remotest
idea previously of his friend's name or person being even known to
the girl's family. "What is bred in the bone will come out in the
flesh," is a very old saying, and it is constantly verified in the reap-
pearance of race and family characteristics in different generations
and individuals. What a multitude of reflections are suggested by
this fact ! Some of them are full of sweetness, light and hope ; others,
alas ! are full of awful warning and sadness. When Thomas Starr
King, the political orator and eloquent preacher, of San l^ran-
62 THE hearthstone; or, life at home.
CISCO, was on his death-bed, his last look was fixed upon the face of
his little son, carried in his nurse's arms. " Beautiful boy ! beautiful
boy ! " were the last words he spoke, and love for his dear child was
the last throb of the dying father's heart. Some persons attach a
significance akin to inspiration to a great spirit's parting sign on
•earth. If the last thought of earth should be the first in heaven,
and memory and affection only rise upward to a higher sphere, then
heaven's first gladness to this departing parent was love for his boy,
care for his welfare, hope for his future. And if, as some believe,
science will yet find means of photographing from the retina of a
dead person's eyes, the faces and objects that were last imaged upon
it, then this father left the earth with the picture of his child im-
pressed upon his physical, and with the spiritual picture upon his
spiritual vision. There is no fraud or superstition in such a spirit-
ualistic theory as this.
Page 34
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 suppose your little one be not "a mute, inglorious Milton," " a Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood," a Mozart, a Shakspeare, a Michael Angelo, or a Newton, but one of the many, one of the people, an ordinary citizen of the world in promise, it may be just as well for his happiness and yours. Precocious children are not always the most amiable, and genius oftentimes has to suffer and pay awful penalties. So that his brain works orderly, and his heart is " in the right place," you need have no regrets. Your baby will still be the dearest being in the world to you. You will learn from him more than you can teach him. He will be the angel of the covenant of home. He will draw out your noblest qualities, and engage your most unselfish devotion. He will be more to you than lands and houses, riches and fame, and make sunshine for you in life's wintry days.
There is something very affecting and beautiful in the thought that parents live again in their offspring. So that man may be said never to die so long as his spirit is perpetuated in his children, who again transmit it onward in unbroken succession. As a physiological fact, the same distinctive qualities of mind and body, modified, of course, by time, climate, circumstances, and the like, are found in races, nationalities, and families. A curious instance of this occurred to a traveller, who was much struck by the resemblance of a young girl to a very dear friend of his, belonging to another place, and bearing another name. Even the voice and manner constantly recalled his absent friend. The young girl subsequently proved to be his friend's second cousin, though the gentleman had not the remotest idea previously of his friend's name or person being even known to the girl's family. "What is bred in the bone will come out in the flesh," is a very old saying, and it is constantly verified in the reappearance of race and family characteristics in different generations and individuals. What a multitude of reflections are suggested by this fact ! Some of them are full of sweetness, light and hope ; others, alas ! are full of awful warning and sadness. When Thomas Starr King, the political orator and eloquent preacher, of San Fran-
[illustration: page 62]
CISCO, was on his death-bed, his last look was fixed upon the face of his little son, carried in his nurse's arms. " Beautiful boy ! beautiful boy ! " were the last words he spoke, and love for his dear child was the last throb of the dying father's heart. Some persons attach a significance akin to inspiration to a great spirit's parting sign on •earth. If the last thought of earth should be the first in heaven, and memory and affection only rise upward to a higher sphere, then heaven's first gladness to this departing parent was love for his boy, care for his welfare, hope for his future. And if, as some believe, science will yet find means of photographing from the retina of a dead person's eyes, the faces and objects that were last imaged upon it, then this father left the earth with the picture of his child impressed upon his physical, and with the spiritual picture upon his spiritual vision. There is no fraud or superstition in such a spiritualistic theory as this.