on:
herein lies the root of all the evil that befalls the family through
degenerate love. What is commonly, but improperly, called love is
either pagan fondness or simon-pure egotism and self-love.

When a vain person looks into a mirror, she (if it be a "she") will
immediately fall in love with the image, because it is an image of
herself. And a selfish parent sees in his child, not another being, but
himself, and he loves it for himself. His affection is not an act of
generosity, as it should be, but an act of self-indulgence. He does not
seek to please another, he seeks to please himself. His love,
therefore, is nothing but concentrated vanity--and that is the wrong
kind.

Such a parent will neglect a less favored child, and he will so far
dote on the corporal and physical object of his devotion as to forget
there is a soul within. He will account all things good that flatter
his conceit, and all things evil that disturb the voluptuousness of his
attachment. He owns that child, and he is going to make it the object
of his eternal delights, God's rights and the child's own interests to
the contrary notwithstanding. This fellow is not a parent; he is a pure
animal, and the cub will, one day make good returns for services
rendered.

A parent with a growing-up family, carefully reared and expensively
educated, will often lay clever plans and dream elaborate dreams of a
golden future from which it would almost be cruelty to awake him. He
sees his pains and toils requited a thousand fold, his disbursements
yielding a high rate of interest and the name his children bear--his
name--respected and honored. In all this there is scarcely anything
blameworthy; but the trouble comes when the views of the Almighty fail
to square with the parental views.

Symptoms of the malady then reveal themselves. Misfortunes are met with
complaints and murmurings against Providence and the manner in which it
runs the cosmic machine. Being usually self-righteous, such parents
bring up the old discussion as to the justice of the divine plan by
which the good suffer and the wicked prosper in this world. Sorrow in
bereavement is legitimate and sacred, but when wounded love vents its
wrath on the Almighty, the limit is passed, and then we say: "Such love
is love only in name, love must respect the rights of God; if it does
not, it is something else." The Almighty never intended children to be
a paying investment; it belongs to Him to call child