The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-31


of sedate and thoughtless. The fam
lily has in miniature all the elements
of the larger social relationships of
the race. Its laws command equal
ity among those of like power, respect
toward those of less endowment, care
for the weak, oversight from the
strong, obedience for those who d.
rect, and love between all. 1t illus
trates the universal law that all
things work together for an ultimate
good. AS thus we refine the home
and are refined by it, society at large
shall improve and moral force shall
be generated for the elevation of the
race.
The family, or home, as history is
among the curiosities of the world.
The history of homes is the later por-
ton of the history of families. There
were families before the ideal of
home had ever frightened the souls
of mankind. In savage communities
the spirit of home is entirely wanting.
In fact there are families in the saw
age state who do not approach so
near to all expression of the home
idea as do certain animals of the
brute kingdom. The chapters of the
history of the family present first, the
family as an animal instinct. Men
and women herd and live together
like brutes. This gives way to
family affection and pride in the off
spring, and the strong child becomes
an object of admiration. Other early
chapters tell of contests between
members of the family to rule. There
are periods when man, by reason of
his strength, is master; and other
periods when women is leader, as in
the days when Queen Hatasu COM
manded armies and navies in Egypt.
There have been times when the child
is always servile to the parent, as in
China even down to today; and other
times when the son puts his aged and
feeble parents to death, as amid the
African jungles. The later chapters
of the history of the family reveal
elements undreamed of by the early
society.
In reality the history of the family
is rise from the government by one,
to the actual equality of birth-right
equals, from the old law of might to
the law of right, from the rule of pas
sion to the ascendancy Of love. To-
day we are in period where the
world is taking a new estimate of
home. 1t is not house or body that
makes home, but love and equality
of relationship. Looking at the forces
that have ruled the home, it is seen
that man has commanded woman by
his muscle, and woman has subjug
ated man by her charms. Today
even there are families in which man
rules the details of woman's indi-
vidual and social life, and other fam
lilies where woman is blind to the
fact that she has any rights save in
the kitchen. There are families where
man has not awakened to the idea
that his wife is as good as he is, and
other families where woman does not
dream that she has any basis for
claiming equality with man. There
are families where relations are re-
versed and emancipated woman be-
comes as arrogant of her power as was
ever the man she criticises. The true
condition is one of equal right and
different offices.
If woman cannot be mistress of a
home without man to provide, man
cannot be master of a house without
woman to beautify and manage the
home. It is not that man provides
and woman spends, but that man
earns in the market place and woman
in the house, and both use their joint
products to make home. Emanci-
pations belongs not alone to woman,
but to man. He needs to be enamel
pated from the slavery of business
and the bondage to the almighty dol
lar; she needs to be emancipated from
the slavery of the house, and the
bondage to pots and kettles; and both
need to work toward the ideal OF
companionship of souls and the ele-
walton of life.
Notwithstanding that the ideal is
not yet reached, 1 believe there is
more of the true home spirit felt than
we think. Many couples may be ex-
ceedingly unhappy; but who can
count the list of happy honest Hap
piness is never unalloyed, but the
sorrows, pain and difficulties of life
serve to refine hearts and fit them
more truly to each other. A death,