The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-09-08

"Children are heritage from th
Lord" The care of them is sacred
trust, and for the discharge of this trust
parents are responsible to society and to
God. The child is the sum of inherited
traits from his parents and their ances.
tors, modified by the circumstances at
tending his introduction in life. In the
hands of his natural or appointed guar
dians he is ''as clay in the hands of the
potter" They may not change its ele-
mentary constituents, but they may elm
mate what would mar its perfect beauty
when in its completed form, and they
may incorporate with it some new quail
ity: they certainly..can mould it and
make it into shape as they will, if they
have the requisite moulding skill. Here
is the great difficulty. The mother may
be called on to train child that by
some unknown law resembles her hus-
bands father, and has qualities widely
different from those she or her husband
possesses, qualities which she she knows
not how to manage. What wisdom does
she need that she may do the right
thing, and especially that she should not
do the wrong thing. This she can learn
only by careful study of the child's CHAR
acter, and by close observation of
the results of various methods of manag.
ing him. Marriages contracted between
parties of widely different nationalities
or temperaments or antecedents resultin
just such conditions of parental perplex-
ity and result also in satisfying thought
full parents that systems of training for
rather than rigid and uniform. What is
A Il II. h
ring of his own brother. To hold, for
example. clear-headed, matter-of fact
child to the utterance of the simple, un-
vanished truth is an easy matter, bat to
hold an Imaginative, enthusiastic, i'm
pulsive child to the same thing is impos
sible, and yet both children may be
equally desirous to state the thing that
is, or that seems to them to be. Then in
the matter of obedience, some children
with hearty frankness easily do just as
they are told to o,others with an arpar
emily proud concession, while both alike
may be equally disposed to do what is
lawfully required of them. The son who
said, ST go not, sir" but "afterward re-
pented and went" was the son who
really did the will of his father.
It would seem that the first thing for
b parent 70 40 II 10 -Set Hcquaintcu Will
his child, and SO to place his mind along
the level of his child's mind and in such
contact with it that he may understand
its workings and so become familiar with
all its approaches. He will then easily
know how to regulate, direct and re-
strain its action, until the child becomes
his own intelligent master, and no more
needs the parental guidance. Most par
ents in general way care for their chill
dren, and are disposed to do everything
that can promote their interests. They
provide home, clothing and other COM
forts and necessaries, but never give
time for exchange of ideas, of prefer
ences, and for that intimate mutual un-
derstanding which is the basis of sym
pathy and friendship, and which leads
the child to repose the most sacred con-
fdences in the parent. There are no
friendships purer or sweeter than those
between parents and children. Sons
who find in their father an elder brother.
daughters who find in their mother an
elder sister, seldom stray from the paths
of virtue. Said mother: sI scarcely
ever played With my children, for I