The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-11
The Parental Relation.

parents are responsible to society and
to God. The child is the sum of in
herited traits from his parents and their
ancestors. modified by the circum-
stances attending his introduction to
life. In the hands of his natural or ap-
pointed guardians he is las CLAW in the
hands of the potter They NAV not
change its elementary constituents. but
they may eliminate what would mar its
perfect beauty when in its COMPLETED
form, and they may incorporate with it
some new quality; they certainly can
mould it and make it take shape as they
will, if they have the requisite moulding
skill Here is the great difficulty. The
mother may be called on to train a child
that by some unknown law resembles
her husbands father, and has qualities
widely different from those she or her
husband possesses, qualities which she
knows not how to manage. What wis
dom does she need that she may do the
right thing, and especially that She shall
not do the wrong thing This she can
learn only by careful study of the child's
character, and by close observation of
the results of various methods of man
aging him. Marriages contracted be-
tween parties of widely different nation
alities or temperaments or antecedents
result in just such conditions of pa
rental perpleXity, and result also in
satisfying thoughtful parents that sys-
TENS of training for children should
be flexible and adaptive rather
than rigid and uniform. What is
the making of one child may be the
marring of his own brother. To hold,
for example, a clear-headed, matter-of-
fact child to the utterance Of the simple,
unvarnished truth is an easy matter,
but to hold an Imaginable, enthusiastic,
impulsive child to the same thing is
impossible, and yet both children may
be equally DESTROYS to state the thing
that is, or that seems to them to be.
Then, in the matter obedience, some
children with hearty frankness easily
do just as they are told to do, others
with an apparently proud concession,
while both alike nay be equally dis
posed to do what is lawfully required
of them. The son who said, 81 90
not, sir" but ''aferward repented and
WCHls w dS UllC SJll WIZ lCtbllN Nllu llI6
will of his father
1t would seem that the first thing for
a parent to do is to get acquainted with
his child and so to place his mind
along the level of the cEild's mind and
in such contact with it that he may I'M
derstand its workings and so become
familiar with all its approaches. He
will then easily know how to regulate,
direct, and restrain its action, until the
child becomes his own intelligent
master, and no more needs the parental
guidance. Most parents in a general
way care for their children, and are
disposed to do everything that can
promote their interests. They pro-
vide home, clothing and other COM
forts and necessaries, but never give
time for exchange of ideas, of
preferences, and for that intimate
mutual understanding which is the
basis of sympathy and friendship, and
which leads the child to repose the
most sacred condolences 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: Il scarcely ever played with
my children, for | found that when |
did so was afterward unable to con-
troll them. If that mother had learned
to play with her children without ceas-
ing all the while to control them, they
1uO1tlh hnNra hY.n1-a,,
they afterwards did, by throwing off,
with their minority, all restraint, and
indulging unlimitedly in everything she
had forbidden them. The most success
full and beloved teachers and parents
are they who enter most earnestly and
heartily into the sports and enjoyments
Of the young in their charge, and
through their affections thus acquire
unbounded influence over them.
If men and women are but children
OF larger growth, children are men
andwomen of lesser growth. Though
both statements are equally true, we
are much slower to accept the last than
we are to accept the first. However
tiny and puny and young the baby-man
may be, he's ga man for a that, and
when he comes to his estate, the wrongs
and injustices done to the child will be
the wrongs and injustices done to the
man, and will be remembered as such.
If my father had only given me, when
was young, the one-hundredth part of
the money he left me when he died, l
could have gone to school and could
have made much better record than
have. He kept me cultivating the farm
when ought to have been cultivating
my mind. But he meant it for my
good" So said thoughtful farmer to
his son, who was just leaving home to
90 to school.
A few fleeing years suffice to bring
parents and children to the common
plane of manhood and womanhood.
where they are all subject to like con-
ditions. Hunger, thirst, WEAKNESS,
pain, sickness, death-the burdens of
life, like the pressure of the atmosphere
which none escapes-in one form or an
other press with equal weight on all.
The parents are for q little time per-
mitted to pioneer for their children, to
make a way for them, and to prepare
them and fortify them for the labors
they must perform, the responsibilities
they must assume, the sorrows they
must suffer-to fit them to act well
| their part in the orpaf drama Of life -