CHAPTER XXII.

THE HOME-PARLOR.

"The foolish floatiness of vanity, and solemn trumperies of pride,--
Harmful copings with the better, and empty-headed apings of the worse;
Vapid pleasures, the weariness of gaiety, the strife and bustle of
the world;
The hollowness of courtesies, and substance of deceits, idleness and
pastime--
All these and many more alike, thick conveying fancies,
Flit in throngs about my theme, as honey-bees at even to their hives!"

The Christian home includes the parlor. This department we must give but a
brief and passing notice. Yet it is as important and responsible as the
nursery. In it we have a view of the relations of home to society beyond
it. The parlor is set apart for social communion with the world. Much of
momentous interest is involved in this relation. The choice of companions,
the forming of attachments and matrimonial alliances, the establishment of
social position and influence in life beyond the family,--these are all
involved in the home-parlor.

If we would, therefore, escape the shackles and contamination of corrupt
society, we must hold the parlor sacred and give to it the air and bearing
of at least a moral aristocracy. Home is the first form of society. The law
of love rules and reigns there. It is enthroned in the heart, and casts
light around our existence. In that society we live above the trammels of
artificial life. In its parlor the members merge with society beyond its
sacred precincts. Hence it is the most beautiful room; the best furniture
is there; smiles adorn it; friends meet there; fashion meets there in her
silks and jewels, with her circumstance and custom, her sympathies,
antipathies and divers kinds of conversation; form and profession reign
there; flatteries and hypocrisies intrude themselves there; pledges are
given there; attachments and vows are made there; the mind and heart are
impressed and moulded there; the cobweb lines of etiquette are drawn there;
a panorama of social fascinations pass before the youthful eye
there,--these make the parlor the most dangerous department of home. There
the young receive their first introduction to society; there they see the
world in all the brilliancy of outward life, in the pomp and pageantry of a
vanity fair. All seems to them as a fairy dream, as a brilliant romance;
their hearts are allured by these outward attractions; their imaginations
are fed upon the unreal, and they learn to j