Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/134

 NOTE C.

The writer believes most fully that he has not overstated this matter in the text. The desire for the intellectual development of their children, so that they may become qualified to bear some honorable part in the great activities of life, is one of the strongest of parental instincts. Our fathers shewed how powerful it was in them by founding schools and colleges almost before they had secured for themselves the ordinary comforts of life; and with patient care they began the course of education in the family. Yale, Harvard, and other institutions, not only originated in parental solicitude, and tastes and impulses nourished in the household, but are largely dependent on these to-day, and always must be.

NOTE D.

The dissolution of the family by the going forth of its younger members one by one to the tasks of life, though it is always a sad process in itself, has yet its compensations. The happiness, the enduring welfare of the child, becomes to the thoughtful parent the paramount consideration. When, therefore, children go forth from beneath the paternal roof under favorable auspices, the pang of surrendering them is materially mitigated; and if they are seen living usefully and well, and especially if they rise to eminence among the wise and good, parents cannot but find in this a rich and abiding satisfaction that in large measure compensates for the loss of their society.