6. God, indeed, is your great parent, your best friend, and from Him every good gift descends; but God is pleased to bestow every thing upon you through the kindness of your parents. To your parents you owe every comfort: you owe to them the shelter you enjoy from the rain and cold, the raiment which covers, and the food which nourishes you. 7. While you are seeking amusements, or are employed in gaining knowledge at school, your parents are toiling that you may be happy, that your wants may be supplied, that your minds may be improved, that you may grow up and be useful in the world. And when you consider how often you have forfeited all this kindness, and yet how ready they have been to forgive you and to continue their favors, ought not you to look upon them with the tenderest gratitude? 3 8. What greater monster can there be than an unthankful child, whose heart is never warmed by the daily expressions of parental solicitude; who, instead of requiting his best friend by his affectionate conduct, is sullen and passionate, and thinks his parents will do nothing for him, because they will not do all he desires? 9. Consider how much better they can decide for you than you can for yourselves. You know but little of the world in which you live. You hastily catch at every thing which promises you pleasure; and unless the authority of a parent should restrain you, you would soon rush into ruin, without a thought or a fear. In pursuing your own inclinations, your health would be destroyed, your minds would run to waste, you would grow up slothful, selfish, a trouble to others, and burdensome to yourselves. 10. Submit, then, cheerfully to your parents. Have you not experienced their goodness long enough to know that they wish to make you happy, even when their commands are most severe? Prove, then, your sense of this goodness by doing cheerfully what they require. When they oppose your wishes, do not think that you have more knowledge than they. Do not receive their commands with a sour, angry, sullen look, which says, louder than words, that you obey only because you dare not rebel. 11. If they deny your requests, do not persist in urging them, but consider how many requests they have already granted you. Do not expect that your parents are to give up every thing to you, but study to give up every thing to them. Do not wait for them to threaten, but when a look tells you what they want, fly to perform it. This is the way in which you can best reward them for all their pains and labors. In this way you will make their house pleasant and cheerful. 5 12. But if you are disobedient, perverse, and stubborn, you will make home a place of contention, noise, and anger, and your best friends will have reason to wish that you had never been born. A disobedient child almost always grows up ill-natured and disobliging to all with whom he is connected. None love him, and he has no heart to love any but himself. If you would be amiable in your temper and manner, and desire to be loved, let me advise you to begin your life by giving up your wills to your parents. 13. Again, you must express your respect for your parents, by placing unreserved confidence in them. This is a very important part of your duty. Children should learn to be honest, sincere, open-hearted to thei parents. An artful, hypocritical' child is one of the most unpromising characters in the world. 14. You should have no secrets which you are unwilling to disclose to your parents. If you have done wrong, you should openly confess it, and ask that forgiveness which a parent's heart is so ready to bestow. If you wish to undertake any thing, ask their consent. Never begin any thing in the hope you can conceal your design. If you once strive to impose on your parents, you will be led on, from one step to another, to invent falsehoods, to practice artifice,' till you will become contemptible and hateful. You will soon be detected, and then none will trust you. 15. Sincerity in a child will make up for many faults. Of children, he is the worst who watches the eyes of his parents, pretends to obey as long as they see him, but as soon as they have turned away, does what they have forbidden. Whatever else you do, never deceive. Let your parents learn your faults from your own lips, and be assured they will never love you less for your openness and sincerity. 1 DE-PEND'ENCE. Reliance on any person or thing for support. 2 DEBT (dět). That which is owed. 3 SQ-LIÇ'I-TUDE. Concern, anxious care, anxiety. 4 RE-QUÏT'ING. Repaying, rewarding. 5 PER-VERSE'. Disposed to be contrary, wayward, 6 UN-RE-SËRVED'. Full, entire; open, frank, candid. 7 HYP-Q-CRITICAL. Feigning to be what one is not, dissembling, insincere 8 UN-PROM'IS-ING. Giving no prom ise of good. 9 AR'TI-FICE. Fraud, trick, deceit, LII. "WHAT IS THAT, MOTHER?" G. W. DOANE. 1. "WHAT is that, mother?” "The lark, my child! Ever, my child, be thy morn's first lays1 2. "What is that, mother?” “The dove, my son! And that low, sweet voice, like a widow's moan, Constant and pure, by that lonely nest, In friendship as faithful, as constant in love." 3. What is that, mother?" “The eagle, boy! Proudly careering' his course of joy; Firm, on his own mountain vigor relying, His wing on the wind, and his eye on the sun, 3 He swerves not a hair, but bears onward, right on. Onward and upward, and true to the line.” 4. What is that, mother?" "The swan, my love! He is floating down from his native grove ; No loved one now, no nestling' nigh, Live so, my love, that when death shall come, 1. YE crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! And bid your tenant' welcome to his home Again! O sacred forms, how proud you look! How high you lift your heads into the sky! How huge you are, how mighty, and how free! Makes glad 2 2. Ye are the things that tower, that shine; whose smile whose frown is terrible; whose forms, Robed or unrobed, do all the impress3 wear Of awe divine. Ye guards of liberty, |