Children, naturally affectionate, in a fair degree, and who live always in the sunshine of a wise and vigorous parental love, will rarely, if ever, fail to render such a return of the devotion of their hearts as shall not merely make both parties happy, but such as shall support a firm domestic government, without any visible effort, or means of intimidation.
And let it be allowed to me to add, that, if a loving temper in parents and children be requisite for effecting the purposes of home education, hardly less can be affirmed of the conjugal affection. In a family not blessed with this first element of felicity, every difficulty of the domestic system of training is vastly enhanced, or is rendered insuperable. There can be no need the truism, that the undisguised dissonance of parents is totally incompatible with methods of culture, and with a general course such as we have now in view. But there is even a coldness and formality sometimes subsisting between husband and wife, which will too much chill the general temperature of the house, and take effect upon the dispositions of children, who will either become, in like manner, frigid and motionless; or attach themselves, with the pernicious feelings of partizans, to the one parent, or to the other. In relation to this subject we must repeat the aphorism, that, happiness is the first principle of home education.
There is, however, something more to be noted in relation to the influence of conjugal affection upon the dispositions and behavour of children; for let it be remembered, and we are now speaking especially of the maternal authothority, which it is so desirable to raise to the highest pitch, that, when conjugal love is warm and uniform, a mother stands invested, in the eyes of her children, with a power combining an indirect reverence of their father, who appears only to sustain the maternal rule, with the direct radiance of her own gentle fondness. And it is a constant
