I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of home. I believe in the republicanism of the family. I believe in liberty, equality and love.

F women have been slaves, what shall I say of children;

I

of the little children in alleys and sub-cellars; the little children who turn pale when they hear their father's footsteps; little children who run away when they only hear their names called by the lips of a mother; little children-the children of poverty, the children of crime, the children of brutality, wherever they are-flotsam and jetsam upon the wild, mad sea of life-my heart goes out to them, one and all.

I tell you, the children have the same rights that we have, and we ought to treat them as though they were human beings. They should be reared with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not with brutality. That is my idea of children.

When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children; do you know that? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies

¶I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity enough in the brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal parent, to throw up a little breastwork in the shape of a lie

¶ When a child of yours tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself.

Tell him it is not the best way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his boy left home,

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'John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both.” Be honest with him. Suppose a man as much larger than you as you are larger than a child five years old, should come at you with a liberty-pole in his hand, and in a voice of thunder shout, "Who broke that plate?" There is not a solitary one of you who would not swear you never saw it, or that it was cracked when you got it. Why not be honest with these children? Just imagine a man who deals in stocks whipping his boy for putting false rumors afloat! Think of a lawyer beating his own flesh and blood for evading the truth when he makes half of his own living that way! Think of a minister punishing his child for not telling all he thinks! Just think of it!

¶ When your child commits a wrong, take it in your arms; let it feel your heart beat against its heart, let the child know that you really and truly and sincerely love it. Yet some Christians, good Christians, when a child commits a fault, drive it from the door and say, "Never do you darken this house again." Think of that! And then these same people will get down on their knees and ask God to take care of the child they have driven from home. I will never ask God to take care of my children unless I am doing my level best in that same direction.

¶ Life should not be treated as a solemn matter. I like to see the children at table, and hear each one telling of the wonderful things he has seen and heard ☛ I like to hear the clatter of knives and forks and spoons mingling with their happy voices. I had rather hear it than any

opera that was ever put upon the boards. Let the children have liberty. Be honest and fair with them; be just; be tender; and they will make you rich in love and joy

THE

HE laugh of a child will make the holiest day more sacred still. Strike with hand of fire, O weird musician, thy harp strung with Apollo's golden hair; fill the vast cathedral aisles with symphonies sweet and dim, deft toucher of the organ keys; blow, bugler, blow, until thy silver notes do touch and kiss the moonlit waves, and charm the lovers wandering 'mid the vine-clad hills. But know, your sweetest strains are discords all, compared with childhood's happy laugh-the laugh that fills the eyes with light and every heart with joy. O rippling river of laughter, thou art the blessed boundary-line between the beasts and men; and every wayward wave of thine doth drown some fretful fiend of care. O laughter, roselipped daughter of Joy, there are dimples enough in thy cheeks to catch and glorify all the tears of grief.

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T is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not necessary to be rich to be just and generous and to have a heart filled with divine affection No matter whether you are rich or poor, treat your wife as though she were a splendid flower, and she will fill your life with perfume and with joy.

And do you know, it is a splendid thing to think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really love her, you will always see the face you have loved and won. And a woman that really loves a man does not

see that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble; he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her heart and hand. I like to think of it in that way; I like to think that love is eternal. And to love in that way and then go down the hill together; and as you go down, hear, perhaps, the laughter of grandchildren, while the birds of love and joy sing once more in the leafless branches of the tree of age.

REASON

EASON, Observation and Experience—the Holy Trinity of science—have taught us that happiness is the only gold; that the time to be happy is now, and the way to be happy is to make others so. This is enough for us. In this belief we are content to live and die. If by any possibility the existence of a power superior to, and independent of, Nature shall be demonstrated, there will then be time enough to kneel. Until then, let us stand erect.

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OR ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said, "Think!" The many have said, "Believe!"

¶ Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading Bibles will not protect him from the blasts of Winter; but houses, fires and clothing will. To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons.

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should cease to expect aid from on high. By this time he should know that Heaven has no ear to hear, and no hand to help. The present is the necessary child of all the past. There has been no chance, and there can be no interference.

If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy them. If slaves are freed, men must free them. If new truths are discovered, man must discover them. If the naked are clothed; if the hungry are fed; if justice is done; if labor is rewarded; if superstition has been driven from the mind; if the defenseless are protected, and if the right finally triumphs, all must be the work of man The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone.

¶ Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith!

¶ Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!

¶ Beyond Nature man can not go even in thoughtabove Nature he can not rise below Nature he can not fall o

¶ Heresy is what the minority believe.

¶ When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it can not be demonstrated, an appeal to force is infamous. In the presence of the unknown, all have an equal right to think.