Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-03-10
An Attractive Home.

urally together. Either Of them implies the
other. The world has beeu filed with sub
stitutes for bosi, but very poor substitutes
they are and the minds aud hearts Of men
still cling to them as the symbols Of all that
is best and purest here and hereafter The
great error Of Plato's republic was that he
subverted the family. No mere community
whether foreshadowed by the philosopher Of
Athens or Organized by the modern spirit
ualist at Oneida or Nalcour, can develop in
men the deepest sympathies aud the highest
energies Of their natures, which are alone
generated and fostered in the relations Of
the earthly home. Sunder the ties which
unite men ia family groups and the incentive
to purity, to industry and labor are gone
Il is utterly hopeless TO think OF eleyating
the Indian or The Bedouin tribes Of our race,
because the idea Of the family does not exist
among them, with its fixed local habitation
and name. Indifference to the household
gods is destructive Of any tribe or race. The
sweet charities and the elevating industries
of civilization cannot take root and grow by
the wayside of a nomadic people. Wherever
the house takes the place Of the tent, and
men begin to occupy and till certain terrific
rial districts, there the ideas and forms and
powers of civilized life begin to develop and
mature. Family and property, home and
land, are corelative terms. The love OF the
one c'e"'es d u'ai'' ,o' ''''
oe"'i'eS "ii'V" mp A.
uruuse'9 u 'i' '''u VI va ' -. M
i"V' 'i"' '"0' ~'' '"J''
INDUSTRY "ro"nu So'''' VAIN "'''
oo'''eS''' i''"' We
There are many hoInesteals "hleh are n"t
homes. The true home has an attractive
outward appearance, as well as beautiful
inward life. To secure the former there
must be taste the sense OF harmony "ud ut
ness love OF art the idea oil beauty III the
structure OF buildings and IN the arrange
ment of grounds. To secure the latter there
must be culture-sociaL intellectual and re
ligious; there must be books ana various
excellent reading, and the hallo"lng iniu-
ence Of every Christian grace and virtue
| Human beings can live in dens and caves
in clefts of rocks and underground tombs.
They may accustom themselves to shapeless
deformity; to rude Inconvenience; to the
presence around their domicils of half
starved squealing brutes looking wistiully
from hungry eyes or wallowing in inpassa-
BILE mud before the door; to stereoraceous
stenches exhaled from contiguous filth,
which pour through broken windows, and
are neutralized by no breath of flowers OF
smell of clover and honeysuckle. Such a
place is not home any more than the
wigwams Of Modoc or the tent of an Arab
1t is only lair for wild beasts; and th'
children who go forth from ii Will carry TIN
faint and flavor of its barbarism to the grave
A fne-looking house belongs to goo'
home, like a fne-looking, cheerful mothe
and woman, and it will always exert
healthfu influence on the small communt,
which occupy it. There is helpful powe
in every object Of beauty on which the eye o
man can rest Our characters take their hui
from the objects with which We are must ia
miliar and intimate. We are material be
ngs in material world, which is sure y
; affect us for good or evil, and we ought no
to forget the spiritual nature with which W
are endowed, and that it was not meant T.
be simply the passive recipient of Academia
and outward influences. II we allow tina
; to have full play, we shall aspire to eve
higher and purer material surroundings an
t conditions The civilized man wants be-
ter outward life than the savage, and IN
D most civilized better than the least. So o
civilization and Christianity advance tn
5 conditions Of our external life become moi
0 attractive and satisfactory Comfort an
( beauty are more widely diffused and me
more generally dwell in peaceable aud a
2 tractive habitations.
There are other and higher functions %
l human organism than the digestion of bee
l and corn. The gastric juices is not the un
y versal solvent. We have brains and heart
as well as stomachs heads as well as hand
= The primal duty of our life, under the ei
+ cumstances which surround us, is intellec
t ual and moral culture. And the trainin
/ which forms the habits Of allfetime, is give
in the household, and not in the school or i
e any public institutions. That early of seen
$ instruction should be more and more undo
c the influence of the best ideas and the be-
conditions. Its outward life should CORE
Z pond with its inward. TO study "househol
$ good" to make the home of our childre
o aud youth so complete that it may have
Il good effect on every sentiment and faculty
o the soul, that 1T may elevate social int
course purify the currents OF lille at Il
a fountain, and give the sense OF responsloi
, ity and the consciousness oil power Is I'll
e should fall into the French idea and custo
of family life, as there is some tendency
e. do, we should be as thoughtless and powe
II less as the French nation. Hyacinthe,
rs his sermons in Metre Dame, used to chars
lie the essential weakness of the nation to Il
r. comparative destruction of family life. fu
n lie life in its great and manifold resorts, VI
10 made iuhnitelv attractive there and III