Hence it is not merely
adventitious,--a corporation of individual interests, but that organic
unity of natural life and interest in which the members are bound up. By
the moral idea of home, we mean the union of the moral life and interests
of its members. This explodes the infidel systems of Fourierism, Socialism,
Mormonism, and "Woman's Rights." These forms of Agrarianism destroy the
ethical idea and mission of home; for they are not only opposed to
revelation and history, but violate the plainest maxims of natural
affection.
Love is an essential element of home. Without this we may have the form of
a home, but not its spirit, its beating heart, its true motive power, and
its sunshine. The inward stream would he gone, and home would not be the
oneness of kindred souls. Home-love is instinctive, and begets all those
silken chords, those sweet harmonies, those tender sympathies and
endearments which give to the family its magic power. This home-love is the
mother of all home delights, yea, of all the love of life. We first draw
love from our mother's breast, and it is love which ministers to our first
wants. It flashes from parent to parent, and from parent to child,
making-up the sunshine and the loveliness of domestic life. Without it
home would have no meaning. It engenders the "home-feeling" and the
"home-sickness," and is the moral net-work of the home-existence and
economy.
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