form of society, when
the _patria potestas_ was still in vigour, laid peculiar stress on the
duties of children to parents, while it almost ignored the reciprocal
duties of parents to children. When the members of a family were seldom
separated, and the pressure of population had not yet begun to be felt,
this was the natural order of ideas with respect to the parental
relation. But now that the common labour of the household is replaced by
competition amongst individuals, and most young men and women have, at
an early age, to leave their families and set about earning their own
living, or carving out their own career, it is obvious, on reflexion,
that parents are guilty of a gross breach of duty, if they do not use
their utmost endeavours to facilitate the introduction of their children
to the active work of life, and to fit them for the circumstances in
which they are likely to be placed. To bring up a son or daughter in
idleness or ignorance ought to be as great a reproach to a parent as it
is to a child to dishonour its father or mother. And yet, in the upper
and middle classes at all events, there are many parents who, without
incurring much reprobation from their friends, prefer to treat their
children like playthings or pet animals rather than to take the pains to
train them with a view to their future trials and duties. It ought to be
thoroughly realised, and, as the moral consciousness becomes better
adapted to the existing circumstances of society, it is to be trusted
that it will be realised, that parents have no moral right to do what
they choose with their children, but that they are under a strict
obligation both to society and to their children themselves so to mould
their dispositions and develope their faculties and inform their minds
and train their bodies as to render them good and useful citizens, and
honest and skilful men. It is to be hoped that, some day, people will
regard with as much surprise the notion that parents have a right to
neglect the education of their children as we now regard with wonder,
when we first hear of it; the maxim of archaic law, that a parent had a
right to put his child to death.

Much of the trouble, vexation, and misery of which men are the cause to
themselves is due to cowardice, or the false shame which results from
attaching undue importance to custom, fashion, or the opinion of others,
even when that opinion is not confirmed by their own reflexion. Shame is
an inva