The Home, Its Work and Influence

What is the position of the home toward us in youth? We have seen / something of its effect upon the child, the wholly helpless child, who / knows no other place or power. We have seen something of its effect / upon the woman in her life-long confinement there. Between childhood / and maturity comes youth; holding what is left of the child's pure / heart and vivid hopes, and what begins to stir of man's or woman's / power. The gain of a race, if there is a gain, must make itself felt in / youth -- more strength, more growth, more beauty, a larger conscience, a / sounder judgment, a more efficient will.

Each new generation must improve upon its parents; else the world / stands still or retrogrades. In this most vivid period of life how does / the home meet the needs of the growing soul? The boy largely escapes / it. He is freer, even in childhood; the more resistant and combative / nature, the greater impatience of pain, makes the young male far harder / to coerce. He sees his father always going out, and early learns to / view the home from a sex-basis, as the proper place for women and / children, and to push incessantly to get away from it.