Paternal Duty

The father who plunges into business so deeply that he has no leisure for domestic duties and pleasures, and whose only intercourse with his children consists in a brief word of authority, or a surly lamentation over their intolerable expensiveness, is equally to be pitied and to be blamed. What right has he to devote to other pursuits the time which God has allotted to his children? Nor is it any excuse to sny that he cannot support his family in their present style of living without this effort. I ask, by what right can his family demand to live in a manner which requires him to neglect his most solemn and important duties? Nor is it an excuse to say that he wishes to leave them a competence. Is he under obligation to leave them that competence which he desires? Is it an advantage to them to be relieved from the necessity of labour? Besides, is money the only desirable bequest which a father can leave to his children? Surely, well-cultivated intellects, —hearts sensible to domestic affection,—the love of parents, and brethren, and sisters,—a taste for home pleasures,—habits of order, and regularity, and industry,—hatred of vice and vicious men,—and a lively sensibility to their excellence of virtue, are as valuable a legacy as an inheritance of property,—simple property purchased by the loss of every habit which could render that property a blessing.--R. Wayland