id this vale of tears,

That when life's busy cares shall cease--
Its feeble ties be riven;
Thine honored head may rest in peace,
Thy soul ascend to heaven.

* * * * *

Original.

FAMILY GOVERNMENT

It is generally admitted that there has been a lamentable declension in
family government within a few years. I propose to show some of the
causes of this growing evil, and to point out the remedy.

1. _Inattention and blindness to the faults of children._--As a matter
of course we cannot expect parents will restrain their children without
observing their faults. They must see an error before they can correct
it.

It would not be strange if affection or love for our children should
sometimes hide their faults, or that others should sometimes notice them
before we do. They are often, too, looked upon as trivial, as of small
importance. The mother of pirate Gibbs might have thought it very
trivial that her little son should kill flies, and catch and torture
domestic animals. But it had its influence in forming the character of
the pirate. The man who finishes his days in state-prison as a notorious
thief began his career in the nursery by stealing pins, or in the pantry
by stealing sugar and cake, and as soon as old enough to look abroad, to
take a little choice fruit from a neighbor's garden or orchard. The
finished gambler began his career by the side of his mother, by taking
pins stealthily from her cushion. Children cannot do great things when
young. They have not the power. Their powers and views are too limited
to perform what may be called great deeds of wickedness. Yet the grossly
immoral usually begin their downward course in youth. The germ of
wickedness is then planted. Time only matures what is thus begun. Those
trivial things which you suffer to pass without a rebuke, constitute the
germ of all their future depravity. The wickedness of youth differs from
that of mature age rather in degree than in kind. The character of the
man may often be read in the conduct of the child. Thus bad government
originates in overlooking the faults of children, or in wrong views of
their conduct. The deeds of childhood are considered of small moment.
Childhood with them has no connection with manhood. The child may be
anything, and make a giant in intellect, or a professor in morals. But
it should be remembered that the very essence of good government lies in
watching the conn