The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1870-03-12
The Fan,iIy--Its Government.

|
The family is kingdom by itself, primeval
and elementary in the constitution OF human
society," natural alike in its reality and necessity
and designed by the great Author of all things
to secure the culture, discipline, and social har
mony of Il well-ordered government. 1t is not a
representative den ocracy in which authority is
exercised in the name OF the people, and by
virtue of their consent 1t is rather monarchy
in which governmental powers are vested in
parents, subject to those limitations which are
imposed by the laws of nature and the enact
ments OF civil society The members of the
family not all equals in the grade of rank
There is always head somewhere ; and froUI
this source emanates the authority OF command,
Judgment, reward, and punishment This head
enacts laws, tries causes, rewards obedience and
Furnishes offenses and thus all the possible
functions of government exist in the family as
really as in the state
The relations between parents and children,
the intimacy and frequency Of their communion,
the strong ties of affection by which they are
bound together, the incipent, germinal, impressi-
bic, and dependent condition of the one-class in
comparison with the maturity and strength of
the other, and also the length Of the period during
which these parties are directly acting upon each
other, ipake the administration of home the most
powerful agency ofinfiuence known among men.
The great generic law of family life is one of
n5gTSSset froIn parent to child the former only
but also imparting the opinions, sentiments,
feelings, habits, phases of character, and modes
ofaction which are likely to be the Distinguishing
features of after-years. Parents in this sense
duplicate or re-live their own lives in the history
of the children whom they have trained and
| given to the world. Ia the persons of those who
represent them, they will be morally present
among men long after their bodies have modered
in the tomb An immense weight OF responsibility
rests upon them, greater than they always ap-
preciate or honorably discharge. Those who
are not fit TO stand at the head OF family and
properly administer its affairs, are not really fit
to be parents. They nave no right prematurely
to rush into relations for which they not
| qualified. They have no right, by their intel
| ectual and moral ncompetency, to entail upon
children the calamities, Disadvantages, and
curses OF thriftess, good-for nothing, degraded
parentage. One OF the great evils Of human
society springs from this very source. Multitudes
! of young people are married who have no proper
training for the governmental duties and practical
services of family life. They claim the manly
and the womanly diploma long before the
pupilage of the child is finished.
The fundamental Idlo that should ways form
the vital principle of government in the family is
the rule of right carefully thought out and
affectionately applied Adopting this doctrine
for themselves, parents should act upon it in
reference to their children, and thus generate ia
them the nabt of obedience 10 u good moral
government, not one of whims or despotic pas
sions, but one IN which virtue becomes the forma-
tive power in the construction of character. This
places the government upon the basis ofintrinsic
| restitude, and al the same time cloths it with
the authority which pertains to natural con-
| science Under the presence and all-pervading
dominancy of this idea family government is n
noble discipline, and not mere rescript of
arbitrary rules series of violent thunder
| claps 1t does not consist in the gesticuls.ions
| of a maniac the seventies of cruel despot, or
the ill-tempered peeviShntss of Il fool. II is u
government of authority, resting upon reason,
softened by pure and generous feeling, calm,
dgnifed and at times, perhaps stern, yet always
affeconae, patient, accessible lovable, and hence
not hated dreaded, or feared with sly and re-
tiring servility. 1t is government which gets
| into the heart of the child, and makes that heart
submissive and loyal to the supremacy of great
idea. 1t teaches the la,o-iesson through the force
that lies in the law ITSELF The parents become
breathing walking, talking, conscious govern
ment of moral ideas in all their just applications.
| 1t is so spontaneous that they hardly know it
themselves, and children are in the same happy
predicament; but somehow the parents move and
! the children move round them, catching their
spirit and feeling the inspiration of their lives.
Law and love thus meet together. Authority
aud obedience thus adjust themselves to each
1 other. Heda- WORK and neaTt-work free from all
| petulant and hasty acerbity, without those cuffs
and slaps of mere passion which are more likely
to make savages than men, bring forth in beauti-
| full and heavenly order the moral sovereignty of
principle, reason, and affection. This reader,
constitutes government in the family after the
true model. If you are parent, take these hints
and study the problem we'll. is parent, aim
to be all that a parent should be.
Children subject to such an administration may
not possess all the outside graces of mere oc-
compishmeut, or be thoroughly drilled in all
the punctios and artificial elegsnces OF polite
life yet, whether you meet them in the street,
in the school-room, or at their homes, you can
hardly fail to observe their subdued gentle, mild,
softened, and orderly manner. The spontaneous
phases of their being in temper and quality evince
the careful chiseling of the parental artist There
is something about them which throws genial
charm around their characters By simply seeing
them, though but for a few moments, you can
give very good guess as 10 what has taken
place at home. The difference between them and
another class not thus trained aud governed is
manifest at sight. In the latter we observe a
rudeness, recklessness, boldness, lawless rough
ness and sometimes a bestial lowness that clearly
show that home TO them is no home, certainly
not what it should be- Many Of them are candi-
dates for police courts county ails state prisons,
and perhaps the gallows while all of them enter
upon the career OF life at an awful disadvantage.
Not more dissimilar are day and night than those
children who enjoy, and those who do not, the
benefits of a judicious parental government,
whether we consider them as they now are or as
they probably will be in the history of the future.
To be wise and good parent is one of the
| greatest tributes to human veal that mortals can
render. To have had such parentage is one of
the richest legacies which it is possible to inherit.
-PhrenoIogical Journal.