There
the young receive their first introduction to society; there they see the
world in all the brilliancy of outward life, in the pomp and pageantry of a
vanity fair. All seems to them as a fairy dream, as a brilliant romance;
their hearts are allured by these outward attractions; their imaginations
are fed upon the unreal, and they learn to judge character by the external
habiliments in which its reality is concealed. They estimate worth by the
beauty of the face and form, by the cost of dress and the genuflections of
the body. They form their notions of happiness from fashion, fortune and
position. They become enslaved to love-sick novels and fashionable
amusements. There, too, they make choice of companions; there they form
matrimonial alliances; there their hearts are developed, their minds
trained for social life, their affections directed, and influence brought
to bear upon them, which will determine their weal or their woe.
If such be the influence of the home-parlor, should it not be held sacred,
and made to correspond, in all the uses for which it is set apart, with the
spirit and character of a Christian family; and should not its doors be
effectually guarded against the intrusion of spurious and demoralizing
elements of society?
Parents should teach their children all about the character, interests and
deceptions of parlor-life. They should undeceive them in their natural
proneness to judge people from the standpoint of character assumed in the
parlor.
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