Let instruction follow for the mind, not merely
by having the youngest daughter set, now and then, copies in the
writing-book, or by hearing read aloud a few verses in the Bible, but
by putting good books in their way, if able to read, and by
intelligent conversation when there is a chance,--the master with the
man who is driving him, the lady with the woman who is making her bed.
Explain to them the relations of objects around them; teach them to
compare the old with the new life. If you show a better way than
theirs of doing work, teach them, too, _why_ it is better. Thus
will the mind be prepared by development for a moral reformation;
there will be some soil fitted to receive the seed.
When the time is come,--and will you think a poor, uneducated person,
in whose mind the sense of right and wrong is confused, the sense of
honor blunted, easier of access than one refined and thoughtful?
Surely you will not, if you yourself are refined and thoughtful, but
rather that the case requires far more care in the choice of a
favorable opportunity,--when, then, the good time is come, perhaps it
will be best to do what you do in a way that will make a permanent
impression.
Pages:
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386