throat, even though she
knows in her heart that he is not her ideal, nor the man that will make
her happy. It is not true that any husband, who can support a wife, is
better than no husband. Marriage means more to a sensible woman than
an alliance with a husband for the sake of being clothed and fed and
housed. She has a heart and soul and mind that have their wants, and
if they be starved, unhappy marriage, if nothing worse, is the result.

Mothers and fathers! Have you watched over your daughter from the day
of her birth; have you guarded her from infancy to girlhood, and from
girlhood to womanhood; have you suffered for her sake; have you
surrendered comforts and sacrificed pleasures for her sake; have you
toiled and stinted and saved for her sake; have you afforded her the
best education and all the pleasures and opportunities that your means
will allow, and all to wish yourselves rid of her; to think that any
husband, who can support your daughter--sometimes not even so much is
expected from him--no matter how old, how uncultured, how unsuitable to
her tastes and wants, is better than no husband? A father's personal
attention to the training of his children will in time reduce
materially unhappy marriages, and greatly lessen the miseries and vices
of society. He owes his children more than support and chastisement.
Society holds him responsible for their character. The duties of
training devolve upon the father as much as on the mother. A father's
wider experience and worldly wisdom prove valuable contributions to the
mother's simpler knowledge in the raising of their children. A
father's continuous absence, or neglects, or severity, or unkindness,
or heartlessness, has made more reprobates and scamps and criminals in
this world than all the failings of women combined. Think less of your
dignity and more of your duty. Rather that your child should love you
than fear you. You can maintain your authority and dignity by love and
gentleness as well as by frowns and threats and chastisements. You may
walk and talk and study and play with them, and yet have their full
respect. The great and warlike Agesilaus did not think it beneath him
to entertain his children during his leisure hours, to join them in all
their merry sports, and permit himself to crawl on his fours with his
little child upon his back. If you would raise good children let your
example at home be accordingly. As you will teach them so they