involves a waste of capital, which God requires to be
appropriated to promote the cultivation and happiness
of his intelligent moral creation. A waste of the ac-
cumulations of labor is always wrong — a sin ; because
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TEACHING — MATERIAL LIVING. 99
wealth is appointed of God for the benefit of His crea-
tures, and the poor always need for their comfort and
happiness the superfluities of the rich.
Fitness is not, however, the only consideration to be
regarded in dress.. God has endowed us with a love
of the beautiful, and in the development of this emo-
tion, men and women experience a true happiness;
since love in all its modes of development, whether it
is a love of the beautiful or the good, is the perfected
state of a human soul, the highest development of hu-
manity. Love is the fulfilling of the law ; hence, when
the soul is all aglow with this emotion, it is and must
be happy. All of God's work in their perfect state —
the earth with its varied beauty, and human rectitude
and goodness — necessarily call up this emotion in the
soul, and thus contribute to its happiness. This divine
capacity is therefore to be cultivated in all possible
ways. It may be done by so shaping the creations of
human skill and ingenuity as to meet this want of our
nature, and call its powers of love into active exercise.
Everything around us should be made beautiful, though
nothing can be so when • its construction sins agaiqst
the laws of fitness and propriety. There are some em-
ployments for which fitness — adaptation— is the sole
consideration to be regarded ; while there are others for
which the elements of beauty should be studied^ subor-
dinate, however, to the idea of fitness and adaptation.
As the subject of art, dress is to be regarded as a
means of exhibiting to the best advantage and in the
highest perfection the beauty of the human form. The
human being should be so presented to the eye of others
as to call up the emotion of the beautiful, the love of
the beautiful, instead of disgust. The outward man
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or woman should excite our love, and to aid this effect,
dress should be so shaped and fitted to exhibit the
human form and the face divine, that whenever we
meet a human being, we may spontaneously be led to
exclaim —
** What glorious shape
Comes this way moving; seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon."
A well-dressed man or woman will therefore draw
attention to their own persons, not to their dress.
Whenever the dress calls off attention from the person
of the wearer to itself, there is something wrong with
it in an aesthetic point of view ; we are led to love the
dress rather than the wearer. All ornament, too,
should be made to subserve the same purpose; for
whenever the eye wanders from the article of dress to
the ornament attached to it, that ornament is out of
place, and defeats the very end of all ornament. The
dress is to heighten the effect of the figure, and the
ornaments are added to aid the dress in producing that
result. A lady dressed in calico and other fitting ac-
cessories is often, in an artistic point of view, better
dressed than another on whom wealth has showered
the waving folds of shining silk and a profusion of
barbaric pearl and gold. We admire and love the one,
and are disgusted with the other. The one floats be-
fore our minds as a being of a refined taste and pure
thoughts ; the other as one of vulgar tastes and im-
pure thoughts. The one glides along as a glorious
vision of beauty and loveliness, diffusing light and
joy ; the other moves as a rough and ill-assorted
show-box, causing disgust in the mind of the beholder.
We every day meet with such examples of good and
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bad taste in dress, and the refined mind can not hesi-
tate which example it ought to study and imitate.
Besides, such a wasteful expenditure of wealth is ab-
solutely horrid, wicked, while so many, sick and des-
titute, suffer for even the necessaries which that same
wealth might have procured in rich abundance. The
wearer could make others happy with it, rather than
thus, by its improper use, make herself worse and
more hateful. This vain show calls up in her mind
vain thoughts, pride, and envy, while, if she had given
It to bless the poor, she might have learned to love her
fellow-creatures, and have made them love her. It is
indeed more blessed to give than to receive. Charity
calls up in the soul of the giver that richest and most
blessed of all sympathy — a love for suffering hu-
manity.
Children should always be plainly dressed — dressed
in such a way as not to distinguish them, in their own i ,
estimation, from the mass of children around them.
To dress them out like dolls for show is to deepen
their depravity in their very infancy. It cultivates
within them feelings of vanity, pride, selfishness, and
a whole brood of other bad thoughts and passions,
and crushes out of their very life love and benevolence,
and every other sweet and gentle emotion. And yet
how many weak and foolish parents strive, by extrav-
agance in dress, to ruin the best interests of their off-
spring — to breed in them a hardness of heart and a
selfishness as impenetrable as the nether millstone. It
is enough to make one's heart bleed to witness the
young immortals thus being trained to be hateful in-
stead of lovely, selfish instead of generous, wasteful
instead of benevolent. Parents have l^ere a fearful
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I02 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
sin to answer for — the sin of training for misery their
own children. Sxich parents have no real love for
them. . Their children are to them like their palatial
residences, their costly furniture, their gilded carriages,
their superb horses, and their choice dinYiers — a means
of elevating self, of making themselves recognized in
the world by an outward show of mere wealth. But
this error is not limited to the wealthy. Most parents
strive to dress their children beyond the calls of their
position. They wish their children to be somehow
distinguished from others, and thus their vanity and
pride are cultivated instead of their love and humility.
By such a course of treatment the child is made bad,
led on from bad to worse, instead of being nurtured
with noble feelings and thoughts — unlike God instead
of like Him. Let parents lay this vital matter to heart,
and impress it upon their memory, if they would train
up their children in the way they should go when they
arrive at years of maturity.
The next subject to which I propose to invite atten-
tion — that of providing shelter for the body — will re-
quire but a few words. The same law of duty applies
to this matter as to those already discussed. The
wants and comforts of the body are, in the first place,
to be regarded — not, however, those of a single indi-
vidual, but of several, for the residence looks to the
comfort and happiness of the family above all other
ends. The dwelling, therefore, should be so con-
structed as best to meet the convenience and comfort
of that collection of individuals called a family. When-
ever this end is sacrificed to mere show, there has
been a failure in the highest conception of architec-
tural adaptations, and an unpleasant impression will
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TEACHING — MATERIAL LIVING. IO3
be made upon the minds of those who survey the
structure. Mere ornament is not beauty. The laws
of adaptation and harmony mu»t guide the application
of it, if it is to aid the structure in making the right
impression upon the mind — that impression which calls
up in the human soul the emotion of beauty. Build-
ings may often be seen which Appear to the beholder
as though they were about to be crushed under the
weight of the ornamental work heaped upon them.
Such architectural creations always produce a painful
impression on the mind, calling up the feeling of fear
rather than the emotion of beauty. Besides, it is a
sinful extravagance thus to waste the results of human
labor for the mere purpose of making a show, an ex-
hibition of boundless wealth. Vanity and pride are
the architects of such structures — not charity and hu-*
mility. Still, beauty is not to be overlooked in our
architecture, but it is to be sought rather in following
the laws of adaptation than in seeking mere architec-
tural show and ornament. This law holds true of all
our domestic and public architecture. The style which
would suit a public building will be wholly inappro-
priate for a private residence. The interior conven-
ience of many a building is sacrificed to its mere
outside appearance. Comforts and conveniences are
wanting in many a dwelling, because the owner thought
more of making an exhibition of himself and his wealth
than of 'the happiness of his family. Economy in do-
ing the work for the family should also be regarded in
the plan of a dwelling, since we are in duty bound to
save the outlay of all the labor we can.
..But it is unnecessary to carry these suggestions
further. Enough has been said to show that the idea
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104 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
of duty runs through all the relations of life, and binds
us down under its sacred bonds in all our plans and
actions ; and it is this thought which should be im-
pressed upon every youthful mind and heart. Every
young man and woman should enter upon life with
the living conviction that it is no holiday affair ; that
all its works are matters of the most serious import,
which should be looked at in the light of eternity, and
performed under a deep and ever-present conscious-
ness of duty. When we shall all provide for our daily
necessities under such convictions, the world and so-
ciety will put on a higher'beauty and embody a deeper
significance.
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CHAPTER XI-
TEACHING — INDUSTRY.
The next subject which I shall discuss is that of in-
dustry. Every man has his appointed work of body
or mind. Idleness is no part of the divine economy.
'* Work out thy salvation with fear and trembling" is
a broader and more sweeping command than it is
generally supposed to be. The salvation of the soul
depends upon the health of the body, and that upon
our industry. The prosecution of the last is a condi-
tion to the successful accomplishment of the other.
Industry, then, is of divine appointment, and hence a
duty to be executed by all, while idleness is a sin to
be avoided by all.
The work of all work is man's moral, religious,
spiritual culture ; but the cultivation of the mind is
essential to the success of this higher work. The
mind must be developed and strengthened by educa-
tion, or man cair not attain to a clear apprehension of
God and his own duties, whether to God, his fellow-
men, or himself. Education is therefore a duty, and
this view of it must be impressed upon the youthful
mind, that the stimulus of duty may be added to the
pleasures of knowledge, to urge the young on in the
serious work of mental cultivation. .The prosecution
of science is a duty, since by it we are enabled the
better to understand the powers and capabilities of
matter, and compel them to subserve the purposes of
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I06 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
life. We thus bring about useful results with a less
outlay of labor and time. Nor is the cultivation of
literature without its utility, provided its aim is to de-
velop in the reader those powers and thoughts which
enlarge his views of God and the divine economy, and
contribute to develop in himself those emotions of love,
reverence, and piety, which is the highest and ulti-
mate end of all human culture. The child, then,
should be taught that in scientific and literary pursuits
it may labor in the fulfillment of duty as truly as the
minister in his pulpit or the farmer in his fields.
Girls and boys should therefore be taught that every
humian being is bound to have some pursuit, some in-
dustry, some calling, in. the prosecution of which they
will be engaged in the discharge of duty. They should
be taught that labor, that industry is honorable, praise-
worthy, and idleness not only disgraceful but wicked.
A human being without any employment, without any
calling, living upon the products of the labor of others,
is a curse to himself and society 'f nor does it matter
whether he is rich or poor, since, if he does not add
to the common stock of products by his own labor, he
lives upon the labor of others ; without what others pro-
duce by their labor, he would go naked and starve.
When and where has God said that the rich may be
idle? Some industry is absolutely necessary to .a
healthy and vigorous development of our physical pow-
ers. Children raised in idleness rapidly degenerate
in their physical constitution, and almost invariably
fall into vice, if not into crime. The rich should there-
fore take the more pains in educating and training their
children for some industry of body or mind, which will
at least protect them from idleness and vice, if it does
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TEACHING INDUSTRY. IO7
not overflow in fruitful benefits upon their fellow-crea-
tures.* Intelligence in the application of labor is as
much needed as the mere power of muscle. Industry
requires intelligent leaders as well as multitudes of
brawny arms, and the rich have the means of educat-
ing their sons and daughters to become the leaders
of industry and the benefactors of the world.
Girls should be educated and trained to industry as
much as boys. Who has granted woman any dispen-
sation to be idle and frivolous ? The duties which God
has assigned to her, require as high a mental and moral
culture as that of the farmer, or merchant, or doctor,
or lawyer, or statesman. To her care are committed
the education and training of the young ; and what em-
ployment, to which men devote themselves, requires a
higher intelligence and a ^rer and more loving heart
than this? There, too, are the needy and destitute,
the poor, to be looked aJfter and cared for ; and who
can better execute this blessed mission than a highly
educated and pure-minded woman ? God has laid out
work enough to employ the time and talents of rich and
poor, of male and female, and to whom He has given
much, will He require the more.
Men and women are diverse, not inferior. She is
to be the companion of man, and companionship is im-
possible unless the woman is educated up to the level
of the man. Unless such is the fact, the wife can not
sympathize with the husband in the dearest and most
cherished objects of life. Girls must learn to think,
to reason, to compare, to have aims of life as much as
men do ; they must be equal with them in the general
field of thought, if companionship is to be possible.
They must be brought to regard life as a setious reality.
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I08 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
in the current of which there is work for them to do as
well as for their fathers and brothers and husbands.
There is a general education and training, and a spe-
cial one. The first is such that all girls and boys,
women and men, should acquire ; the other is such as is
adapted to prepare one for a particular calling or pro-
fession. When a particular industry is fixed upon, the
child should be educated to understand its character,
and all that which is necessary to enable him or her to
be successful in it. Every industry and branch of em-
ployment require this special preparation, and in no
case should it be neglected.
The child should be taught the spirit with which it
should engage in the business of life. The first les-
son to be taught the young man is to be honest.
Honesty is the most indisj^hsable qualification for a
business man, if he is to carry it on as a divine em-
ployment, as a God-appointed duty. Honesty is
founded upon justice ; it is the giving to every human
being what is in the eye, not of human law, but of
the divine law, his right — that which rightly belongs
to him. One may fulfill all his legal obligations, and
yet fall far short of being an honest man according to
the severe logic of reason and in the sight of God.
An incident may illustrate this more clearly. A
farmer calls upon his landlord, an English nobleman,
for compensation for injuries sustained by a growing
crop from horsemen and sportsmen having passed
over it. The landlord promptly paid what was de-
manded, fifty pounds. After harvest, when the farmer
had gathered in his crop, he found that in fact it had
not been injured as he supposed ; he thereupon called
upon his landlord, and stated to him that he had been
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mistaken as to the fact of an injury to his crop, and
he therefore brought him back the money he had re-
ceived ; the landlord, a real man, and an honest and
generous one, added another like sum to the first,
and set it aside as an outfit for the eldest son of his
honest tenant. Here met at once two noble and true-
hearted men, coming from the two extremes of social
life, and each fully appreciated the moral worth of
the other. The law gave the money to the former, but
he had claimed rt under a mistake as to the truth of cer-
tain facts ; he supposed he had suffered a loss when he
had not. If he had then known the truth he would not
have claimed the money, and he did not believe it right
to keep that which, if he had known the truth, he would
not have required. The act of the landlord was an act
of noble generosity, to exhibit the high value which
he placed upon such integrity — such honesty.
Honesty requires the strictest truth and fidelity in
the making and execution of contracts. Parties who
deal with each other, should be upon equal terms as
to the subject of the contract ; they should both have
the same means of knowing the quality, condition,
and value of the thing to be bought or sold. No man
has a moral right to obtain from his neighbor an arti-
cle for less than he knows that it is worth. And yet
the current rule of trade is the reverse ; buy as cheap
•as you can and sell for the most you can, is the maxim
of a selfish world. On this construction of the law of
God, one man claims the right to buy his neighbor's
property for less than its value, if he catches him in
distress, in a tight place, when he is compelled to sell
at any price almost, or to do worse. Sharpness, cun-
ning, overreaching, seems to be the true law of mod-
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no CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
ern trade and commerce, but God can never bless
wealth thus obtained.
There is another idea, which lies at the bottom of
all production and trade : the business engaged in
should be a legitimate one. In all production and
trade there are three elements — the producer, the con-
sumer, and the merchant, trader, or go-between. It
is the business of the latter to aid, to facilitate the pas-
sage of produce from the hands of the producer to
those of the. consumer. Legitimate trade, then, con-
sists in carrying on this intercourse between producer
and consumer, and those engaged in it are entitled to
a reasonable compensation for their time and capital .
employed. The speculator is not a legitimate trader :
his object is to gamble, to bet on the rise and fall of
produce ; he buys, not to move, but to wait a rise, so
that he can sell again at a profit. His business, his
object is to live by his wits, his cunning, his sharp-
ness, to get something for nothing, to live without la-
bor and upon the labor of others. It is a business no
more legitimate and honest than the preparing and
drawing of lotteries and the selling of tickets. Nothing
is produced ; property merely changes hands on an
uncertain contingency — ^in the one case, the drawing
of the numbers ; in the other, the rise and fall of the
market. Most of our city stock sales are of this
character; stocks are not bought because they are-
wanted as an investment, but for the purpose of see-
ing whether they >vill rise or fall within a given time ;
if they rise meantime, the buyer requires the vendor
to pay him the rise over the contract price ; and if
they fall, he pays the difference. This is not a legiti-
mate business, it is not the proper employment of cap-
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ital, it adds no value to the products of the world, nor
does it facilitate their transmission from the producer
to the consumer ; it is a mere shift or device to live
without work, to live upon the labor of others without ^
even making any compensation for it. No honest,
right-minded man can conscientiously be engaged in
such business, nor would anyone, if he rightly appre-
ciated his duty to God and his fellow-men. The di-
vine injunction is, that man shall eat his bread in the
sweat of his face ; that every human being shall and
must earn — produce by some form of useful labor — the *
things necessary for his own material wants ; that he
has no right to live upon the sweat of another, even if by
his greater shrewdness, foresight, and craft he can do
it. Where such is the case, others are compelled to
do more than their proper proportion of the physical
labor necessary for the support of the world ; some one
must sweat for bread that he does not eat, and another
must eat bread for which he has not sweat. This is
in direct conflict with the true law of right and the di-
vine injunctions.
I can not now carry this discussion further. The
subject is one of deep significance, and capable of
being carried through all the ramifications of active
life. There is some terrible errors current in the marts
of trade and at the broker's board, which can never
stand the test of an enlightened reason, and much less
the final adjudication of the Great Judge, when He
shall take His seat upon His throne of final justice.
Sharpness and cunning are oftener commended in the
business man than that scrupulous honesty which for-
bids one to take advantage of another's ignorance or
necessities. The rate of interest with some men is
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112 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
the necessities of the borrower, not the real value of
the money. Such a business is the discipline of con-
demnation — a discipline under which the man is ever
sinking as a moral and spiritual being, instead of ris-
ing in that scale, as every human ought to be doing
while life continues.
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TEACHING SOCIETY. 1 1 3
CHAPTER XII.
TEACHING — SOCIETY.
Man is born into society. He can not escape its
duties and its burdens, if he would. It is therefore
necessary that the child should be educated and
trained for society as much as for any other of the
duties of life. Intercourse with our fellow-creatures
is a source of some of our present joys, if we know
how to use it aright ; while, by misusing it, it becomes
the cause of constant irritation and much unhappiness.
It may also be made the efficient instrument of intel-
lectual and moral progress, if we properly improve it.
Another consideration is not to be overlooked. The
child who has been solely confined to the family, how-
ever perfect its training may there have been,, has pow-
ers which will remain dormant and undeveloped ; it will
have powers it knows not of. In order to the perfect
development and culture of a human soul, the child
must be subjected to the action and influence of all the
media for which it has been created. The action of
society is therefore necessary to bring into activity
some of our capacities and powers. The child, sub-
jected alone to the influence of the family, is liable to
want that independent and self-reliant decision which
is so necessary to success in life. The influence of
society is indispensable to the development of these
habits of thought and action in a human soul. Con-
8
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114 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
tact and conflict with others tend to the formation of
these essential habits, to that self-reliance, to that con-
fi.dence in our own judgments, to that decision of char-
acter, without which the man will ever remain a child,
ever continue to hesitate when it should act, to specu-
late when it ought to decide. Without the influence
and action of society upon us, we should all of us re-
main incomplete and imperfect, with powers lying dor-
mant and capacities undeveloped. It is as important,
therefore, to prepare the child for society as for any of
the other relations and duties of life. •