The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-09-24
THE CATHOLIC FAMILY.
ITS INFLUENCE IN FORMING A GREAT MAN.
THE CASE OF COLUMBUS AS AN ILLUsTRA-
TON.
Messenger Of the Sacred Hearth

they are sty led-early education and the
surroundings of childhood exert life
long influence. They imprint upon the
character certain indelible marks, which
later contact with the world can never en-
tirely enace. A man may rise superior to
the associations of hoy hood, or he may sink
down TO level far beneath them. Yet there
| Will be found in him, in nine cases out of
| ten, certain qualities which are to a great
extent the sources of his failure or his sue
cess and whose origin may be- traced back
to the family circle of the school room.
| Careful training Ia necessary in every
station of life whereas wealth, a fashlona-
bic circle of acquaintances, u thorough ed
ucatlon in merely secular branches, in a
word, all the most favorable opportunities,
can never supply the void which has been
| LETT by neglecting TO form the character of
the child TO habits of virtue and industry.
! This work of formation must be one of
love, OF tact, OF prayer, of unceasing, I'M
| tiIlng attention. 1t is, therefore, the work
| OF the parent, not of servants or strangers.
Here 1t Is that the humble home of the
practical Christian peasant or mechanic,
| where the mother herself assumes the care
| of her own children, so often gives to the
world noble, true hearted men, whose in
tegrlty and perseverance make them
worthy of our esteem and friendship, and
not unfrequently raise them to positions of
honor and trust in church and state. On
| the other hand it is not uncommon to find
among those who nave been brought up by
| the governesscs and tutors in regal pala-
ces, knaves, libertines, and useless do-noth-
ings, whose very existence ia burthen to
the nation and scandal to religion.
The case OF Columbus forms no exception
to the general principles which we have
been laying down. lr sing, indeed, says of
him " He was one of those men of strong
| natural genius, who appear to form them
| selves; who, from having to contend from
| tho outset, with privations and impede
meuts, acquire an lntrepid.ty to encounter
ard facility to vanQulsh difficulties,
throughout their Career. SGch men Learn
| to effect great purl oses with small means,
Supplying the deficiency by the resources
of their own energy and invention. This,
| from his earliest commencement, through
out the whole of his life, was one of the
most remarkable features in tt o history of
Columbus. In every undertaking the scan
tlness and apparent ilsutticenCy of his
means enhance the grandeur of his achieve
ments."
This, however, does not contradict the
theory which we have been advaNcipg. The
strong natural genius of our hero would
never have made him all the man that he
was had 1t not been nodded and strength
ened and supplemented by the powerful
aids OF a thoroughly Christian training, be-
fore it was set adritt to steer it's own course
on the sea of life. His wonderful energy !;
his systematic habits of order his cheer
lul, kluuly } Ills BOlIu, uuHWCtVlnS
piety his unaffected courtesy his devo
ton to religion and humanity his spirit of
constant prayer, which was the life and
guide of his great enterprise all these had
been fostered, if not created in his soul, by
the lessons which he Lad received at his
mothers knee.
Tho family circle in which the future dis
coverer passed his early years must have
been happy one. Harmony, mutual love
and mutual forbearGnce, frank, out spoken
familiarity and sympathy between the pa
rents and children, were surely among its
most striking characteristics. We can cas-
lily infer this from the peculiarly tender af-
lection which in after years, Columbus
manifested for his relatives as we'll as for
his old home in in the Via Mulcento. The
devotion W ich he showed toward his pa
| rents in particular has in it something ex-
Quisitely touching which words can hardly
express. 1t was full of all that openness
and confidence, that unquestoniDg spirit
of obedience, and that perfect abandon
ment of expression, which lend such q
charm to the love of little children. An ex
ample of his deep sense of flial duty will
not be out of the place here.
About the year l476, Columbus came
from Portugal to Italy in search of patrons
for his scheme of discovery. His mission
was unsuccessful, as the reader knows. He
| determined, therefore, to return to Lisbon
as soon as possible, after having first Wis
had retired in 1869, from Genoa. The meet
ing was joyous one ye- not unmixed with
| sorrow He found his parents intirm, and
harassed once more by pecuniary Difficult
ties. Their fortunes had not Prospered dur
ing the five years of his absence in Portu-
gal, and the sum of money which he had
sent from time to time out of HE own scanty
purse had been barely sufficient to satisfy
the demands of their creditors. Through
motives of delicacy they had not informed |
him of their trouble, and he himself never |
suspected it, for he had left the family in |
a condition of comparative ease before set |
ting out on his last expedition.
He was at this time full of his great |
scheme of discovery. 1t was the constant
food of his thought by day and of his |
dreams by night. He considered it as an |
inspiration from heaven, and he felt GER
tain of its ultimate success; and hence he |
longed most Anxiously to enter at once on
its accomplishment. But the promptings
of of his affection as we'll the voice of flial
duty-fOr in Columbus all the emotions of