Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-01-06

ton permits you to dress them rich
ly, think of the damage that you
could cause them in exciting their
vanity. Preserve them from the mis-
for ule Of ever believing that it suf-
fees to be dressed beautifully to POS
sess distinction, and, above all, do
not add 10 the gayety of their he rts
by their costume and their habits. the
distances that scarate them already
from their fellows. Dress them sim
ply. If, on the contrary, you must
make efforts of economy to give your
children the pleasure of being ele-
gantly dressed, | beg you 10 reserve
for another and better cause your
spirit of sacrifice. You risk seeing
it badly recompensod You scatter
your money, while it would be better
if you saved it for serious needs; you
prepare for yourself a later harvest
of ingratitude. How dangerous it is to
accustom your sons and daughters
to a manner of life which exceeds
your means and theirs. First, that is
very bad for the pocket, and next 1t
develops the spirit of scOrn in the
very bosom of the family. If you
dress your children like little lords
and give them reason to believe that
they are your superiors, is it astouish-
ing If they finish by despising you?
You would have fed those of another
class. Now, this kind of product costs
dearly and values nothing.
There is also a certain fashion OF
instructing children which for clear
est results brings them to despise
their parents, their surroundings, and
the labors in the midst of which they
have grown up. Such an instruction
is a calamity. 1t is good only to pro-
duce a legion of discontinued ones
who separate themselves from their
stock, their origin, their affinities, all
of which in sum makes the first stun
of a man Once detached from the ro-
bust tree which produced them, the
wind of their foolish ambition blows
them back and forth like the dead
leaves which gather in certain places
to ferment and rot one upon the other.
Nature does not move by jumps and
bounds, but by slow and sure evolu-
ton. Let us initiate her in the man.
ner of preparing a career for our chill
dren. Do not confound the advance
ment with those exercises which they
call double somersaults. Let us not
bring up our children in such way
that they will come to despise work,
aspirations and the spirit of simplici-
ty Of the paternal home do not eX-
pose them to the evil temptation OF
being ashamed of our poverty, if they
should ever achieve fortune. A So
ciety is very sick the day when the
sons of peasants forsake the pillow,
when the sons of sailors desert the
sea, or working girls, in the hope of
being taken for heirCsses, prefer to
walk alone in the streets rather than
on the arms Of their good parents. A
society is healthy on the contrary,
when each member applies himself to
do about the same thing as his pa
rents are doing, but, better aiming TO
lift himself, yet contents himself with
the most modest functions, filling
them conscientiously
Education should form free men. II
you bring up your children for liberty,
do it simply, and do not fear to thus
destroy their happiness. Quite the
contrary. The more playthings, holt
days and extraordinary pleasures a
child has, the less he is amused. There
is in that a sure indication. Let us
he sober in our means of rejoicing
and diversions for youth, and above
all do not create fictitious needs light
". Food, clothing, shelter, amuse-
ments. let all these be natural and as
little complicated as possible. TO
make life agreeable to children, cer-
| tain parents give them habits of gIut-
| tony and idleness, allow them excite
ments incompatible with their age:
multiply invitations and spectacles.
Poor presents these! Instead of a
free man you raise up slave. Too
accustomed to luxury, he will weary
of it. and in spite of it, and when for
one reason or another his comfort is
gone he will suffer and you with
him, and what is worse you will per
haps both be disposed under grand
occasions of life to sacrifice human
dignity, truth, duty, by pure coward
ice
Bring up your children, therefore
simply would say, almost rudely;
draw them to terrifying exercises,
through privations even. Let them
rather be OF tnOSe WHO are INC 'OS'
prepared to sleep hard, bear fatigue
than those who love the pleasures OF
the table, and the comfort of bed
Thus we shall make of them indie
Dendent men and solid ones on whom
we can count, and who will never sell
themselves for little personal com
fort and who nevertheless, more thar
any one, will have the faculty OF be
ing happy.
A too easy life brings a sort of las
situde of the vital energies. One be
comes weary disillusionized, young
old man, without faculty for amusing
himself. How many children anc
young people are to-day in this condi
ton. On them are deposited, like
racking mold, the traces of orr de
crepitudes, our scepticsms, our vices