The Husband's Duty.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1813, 18 July 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Husband's Duty.

A Gospel Which Needs to be Pieaohed to Fathers as well as Mothers.

There ia no mother, carrying alone tha burden of training the children, who will not heartily indorse the following Bentiments as set forth by a writer in Good Cheer :— There is too much talked and written about woman's duty to her home. No woman can make a perfect homo without the cheerful and earnest co-operation of her husband. Where ons wife fails in her put. there ara ten husbands who are utterly unmindful ot their own domestic responsibilities, ready to Burredner their own burdens to the wife whoso physical and meat&l i-trengtb. is ordinairly hardly adequate to the ck-msnds made upon her. How many fathers take upon themselves the educational training of their children? and yet how tew mothers are qualified, either by meutaJ discipline or habits of thought, for that work 1 I know all the popular arguments advanced on the other side, but they do not alter the fact that in nine eases out of tea it is the hueband's intellect v/hiuh is sharpened and kept alive by contao!; with other minds, by readiug and pursuits which require a wida mental outlook. As for tho necessary time, there are few men who cannot spare an hour from the day's engrossing duties in which to study the bent of their children's minds and f-;u'e direotion to their studies. Think of John Mill pauaiDg in tho midst of his mosi; arduous labor, the work whioh required closest application and concentration of thought, to patiently solve for his bon Stuart the troublesome Greek and Latin problems, and direot hia studies in history. And is there any thing Mrs. Fremont has written so charming as those scenes in whioh her father, burdened with the carea and anxieties of public life, gathered his children about hia etady table to prepare ths lessons for their teaohers under his supervision. I know among my friends one family in whioh the father has taken upon himself the intellectual training of his children from their very infancy. One boy evinced strong journalistic tendencies : another manifested great love for natural history, and his father has given him every opportunity for the study of beasts, birds and plants. He found his youngest boy — almost a babyabsorbed in tha plates of the Scientific American, and, taking the hint, helped him to familiarise himself with the machinery, in which study the boy made marvellous progress. I could multiply instances, but theae are sufficient to indicate that the gospel of parental responsibility needs to be preached to tbe stronger as well as to ths weaker sex.