CHAPTER XIII.

THE LAW OF INFLUENCE IMPLIED IN THE ORDER, WELL-BEING, AND DESIGN OF THE FAMILY CONSTITUTION.

Law of influence.

THE law of influence may be thus expressed: every thing in the family sustains a relation, and possesses a right, in the great system of means, according to its power of subserving the end; or every thing brings in and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it, the degree in which they should be influenced, and the degree in which it, in its turn, should be influenced by every thing else. For if every created thing necessarily expresses some property of the Divine nature; if it possesses that resemblance on the condition of manifesting it in subserviency to the great end, and is placed in a system of relations in order that it might be able to make the manifestation, then every thing in the family will sustain an active and a passive relation, or will have a right to influence every thing of inferior, and a susceptibility of being influenced by every thing of superior, subserviency to the great end.

In the conjugal

union.

In the pre-existing kingdoms of nature, and in the human constitution, this law universally prevails.* The family may be expected, on the * Man Primeval, c. ix. pp. 242, 243.

ground stated, to illustrate it still further. Accordingly— beginning with its internal relations-"marriage is a contract between a man and a woman by which each receives a right in the person of the other, which right is conferred for their mutual happiness, and for the production and education of children," in subserviency to the ultimate end of creation. Every violation of the law of chastity, on the part of the husband, is an infringement of the right of the wife, and vice versâ.

Supremacy of On the ground of this law it is that the the husband. husband is made the head of the wife, and of the domestic society. It is a Divine arrangement which recognizes, not, indeed, any abstract superiority of nature, but the fact that he possesses certain qualities and facilities for his office which the wife does not possess. He has a right, therefore, to expect her affectionate submission and obedience as a wife. On the other hand, she has a right to expect that he will not use his authority unjustly or unkindly, but purely for the good of the family constitution; that her yielding shall be rewarded with love, and with the recognition of that element of superior virtue which it includes, and which the exercise of authority does not include; and that it be not expected to extend to the sacrifice of any of those moral relations and obligations which render her a person, and which give her the rights of a person. In a word, she has a right to all the influence necessary to the well-being of the domestic constitution; and this is second only to that of the husband. How wise and benevolent is that arrangement by which his exercise of authority, and her subordination, become an occasion for the love, the improvement, and the happiness of each;

* Lectures on Paley, for the Use of Students in the University, § 4.

and by which her weakness and exposure find protection and respect in the very law which might have been made. the means of her oppression and degradation. Her affectionate subordination alone can secure her rights; and these alone can secure her from degradation and wrong.

The rights of

The rights of the parent ;-these, of course,

parents. are commensurate with his obligations. If he be under obligation to train up his children in such a manner as to secure their own happiness, the good of society, and the end of existence, he has a right to employ all the means requisite for the attainment of this end. Nor is any individual or society entitled to interfere with his rights, provided he restrict himself to these limits.

and

When speaking of the parent's obligations, we saw that he is bound to discharge his duties in a manner suited to the advancing character of his child. He has a right, therefore, to vary his method of training the child, for the same reason that he is invested with any parental rights at all. During its infancy, his authority over it is absolute. As it advances in knowledge, and reason, and in moral qualities, he has a right to relax the reins of authority, to commit it more and more to its own self-government. And in proportion as he discharges his duty from a regard to the will of God, he has a right to expect the love, obedience, and reverence of his child. Indeed, if the parent were to train up his child, in every respect, in the way that he should go, he would have a right to expect that when he became old he would not depart from it. Accordingly, the declaration of Scripture to this effect is not a temporary promise, but a statement of one of the great laws of the family constitution. And thus it admirably comes to pass, that the very point of time at which the ever-dimin

ishing rights of the parent to control his child has reached its minimum is the moment when the child passes over into the hands of God, and becomes, by the habits of virtue in which he has been trained, a free and an obedient subject. of the Divine Government.

In the power of the various kinds

of parental influ

ence.

Further, it may be expected that if the various means which the parents employ are not of precisely equal value, each will bring in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why and in what degree it shall influence, and be influenced in return. Accordingly, if the means by which youthful character is influenced and formed be authority, reason, example, and prayer, it will be found that mere authority exercises the lowest degree of influence in this respect that reason, as it comes from a deeper source in human nature, being the addition of the intellect to the will, so it goes deeper into the nature of the child, carrying along with it his judgment or rational powers that example penetrates deeper still,* for besides the will and the intellect, it includes the practice, implying that the authority of conscience is superadded, and thus enlisting on his side the moral affection, admiration, and sympathy, of the child; while prayer-besides presupposing that the will, the intellect, and the conscience are already engaged, and are manifesting themselves in authority, reason, and example-evinces his high and holy determination to call in a power beyond his own, to enlist on his side an agency which has access to all the springs and principles of human nature, and thus to engage the youthful character to seek its formation in the hand of God. Now, all this the parent has a right to expect;-for it is only saying, that if he

* Hence the Latin proverb, Precepta ducunt, at exempla trahunt.

is held responsible for the attainment of a certain end, he is entitled to expect that the means with which he is intrusted will prove successful in proportion as he employs them.

The inferior in

rior.

As every thing brings in it, and with it, in fluences the supe- its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it, and the degree in which they should be influenced, so it may be expected that the right reception of parental influence on the part of the children would react beneficially on the character of the parent. For as "there is nothing so little which in its kind is not endowed with some reality which the beings of a more exalted constitution do not possess so precisely, or in the same manner, and upon the same account, therefore, the least things strive to imprint upon the greatest their realities- and signature; because, little as they are, they still represent God as good and communicative.” * And nowhere is the law more strongly illustrated than in the reaction of children on the character of their parents. The cedar-wood sheds its fragrance on the hand which carves it. True, the child may act involuntarily on the parent, while the influence of the parent is, to a considerable extent, exercised intelligently and with design. But not the less true is it that the parent is benefited; the helplessness of the child appealing to his tenderness, its obedience tending to prevent an abuse of the authority obeyed, its implied faith operating as a salutary check on his testimony, its efforts to understand improving his own powers of reasoning, its imitation of his example rendering him at once more affectionate and more circumspect, and its opening piety proving both the reward and incentive of his piety.

* Pierre Poiret's Economie Divine, ou Système Universel, vol. i. c. 7.