father no longer strikes, no longer curses, no longer kills; he is the protector of his children, not their master nor their executioner. It is a remarkable circumstance that in losing the power of the tyrant, he has lost the desire for tyranny; and were patriarchal or feudal omnipotence now offered to him, he would decline to use it.

The power which arises from love, renders all other power distasteful.

These poor children, people now think of rendering them happy. It would appear that the great troubles through which our generation has passed, have taught it not to blast in our children the only days of pure happiness which are allowed us in our journey through life. This state of things is good; and yet there are people who see in it a sign of decay, and the efficient cause of all the evils which threaten us. They regret the strong will, the absolute dominion concentrated in the head of the family, which regulated the present by the past, tracing out to each his path, imposing upon each his destiny; a power, the fall of which has occasioned, say they, the fall of all other authorities. Thus speak the friends of despotism, and they publish volumes upon paternal authority, demanding that it be restored, and attaching to this miracle the repose of kings and the prosperity of nations.

It is true, that by depriving the father of his despotic authority, a state of things has been destroyed which possessed a unity, a general order, and great power. It is true, also, that this power has not yet been replaced, and that for want of principles society seems on the point of being dissolved. But can we hope to re-constitute the present by the past? You believe in the past, but it belongs to no one, for the sole reason that it is the past. Were you to re-establish the republics of Sparta and of Rome, were you to introduce into your codes the Penta

teuch and the law of the Twelve Tables, you would effect nothing unless you could at the same time reanimate the people of which these institutions were the glory. There are ideas which die with populations, and which can only be revived with them. You require the resurrection of these ideas; ask, then, also the resurrection of the dead.

The father is the representative of society at home; the mother only represents the interior order of the house. The one brings home the cares of public life, the other prepares the pleasures of the domestic hearth. It is the father who should acquire fortune, or provide for the daily sustenance; it is the mother who should elevate the hearts of her children to the love of God and man. Thus all the functions of the father, be he a magistrate, soldier, merchant, tradesman, or mechanic, are exterior and public, and all those of his companion, be she queen or servant, are interior or private; nature has so ordered it for the happiness of the father, and for the morality of the children.

If the soft voice of the mother, if the grace of her gestures, and the sweetness of her look, penetrate into the heart of the child, the manly voice of the father, the seriousness of his manners, his look, are better adapted under difficult circumstances for imposing respect and compelling obedience; they prevent the child from becoming enervated in the cradle of caresses lavished in the arms and the lap of his mother.

The part of the father in the education of his children can then neither be a lesson nor a labour. Let him improve his condition by his avocations, let him place his delight in fulfilling his duties as a man and as a citizen, let his actions be always in accordance with his speech, always expressive of generous thoughts, and he will have

done more for his children than could the teachers of all the universities in the world. Society has established the education of youth in schools, nature has placed the morality of a people in the family circle. Every day on returning home the father relates what he has seen or heard in the world; his relations with his work-people, if he be a master; with the state, if he be a public man; with his work or studies, if he be an artist or literary man. Then an affectionate exchange of thoughts and sentiments take place between the husband and wife, in which the high questions of morality and polity are considered at proper times. It is thus that the destinies of a country are influenced; thus are formed, by a sweet intimacy in the effusions of the heart, the opinions of a whole life. What an admirable means of enlightening the conscience of the child, of making him an honest man, a patriot-of raising his soul to the two passions which most strongly move youth, the love of the beautiful and of truth! This is an easy education, which in no wise alters the habits of life, which exacts no sacrifice, which requires no care, and the vivifying action of which will be exerted over the father as well as the children. And, indeed, what father will dare to praise vice, or even to boast of a bad action, when he knows that each of his words being received into their young minds, may become an opinion, and tend to form the character of his children.

Look at Cato under Sylla, Joan of Arc under Charles VII., Bayard under Charles VIII., Henry of Navarre under Charles IX.,-whence did they derive the virtues which isolated them from the shameful passions of their age, but from these simple family conversations?

But it must not be supposed that the influence of the father is only exerted over his sons. It is through her brothers, if she have any, and especially by her father,

that the young girl learns to know the prerogatives of our sex, and how she should one day choose a husband. Our sex possesses strength, the poor child knows it, and she who is so weak already dreams of directing this strength, or of taming it. All her relations with her father teach her, then, the dependence of woman; but it is a royal de. pendence which causes itself to be served and obeyed. She has recourse to him in all her wants, she leans upon his arm, she rests upon his bosom, she solicits, caresses, and subdues him; one perceives that she has understood her strength at the same time as her weakness, and this early experience acquired in the family will be the lesson of her whole life.

Here concludes what we had to say respecting the influence of the father over the education of children. To him belongs the part of bringing beneath the domestic roof the generous influences of society, and of extending them to the human race. It behoves him to modify by positive virtues that which may be too ideal or too exalted in the lessons of the mother. It is his province to furnish his children with that solid nourishment which, according to St. Paul, is to replace the maternal milk. The mission of fathers is to defend the rights of the family in society, and represent the interests of society in the family circle. They should not isolate themselves either from the one or the other, and their task will be worthily fulfilled if they form for society honest men, and for the country good citizens.

CHAPTER XII.

OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, AND OF A MIXED EDUCATION.

MAN is susceptible of three educations, viz. physical, moral, and intellectual education.

The first was highly estimated in the political institutions of the ancients. Socrates might be seen passing from the gymnasium to the academy, to accustom his limbs to fatigue and his mind to wisdom; holding himself ready to serve his country either as a magistrate or as a warrior.

Among the moderns, gymnastics are no longer a means of defence, it has therefore ceased to be part of the laws of the state. Having become useless by the omnipotence of artillery, it has been too much neglected as a hygienic means. I know not whether historians, or even physiologists, have ever made the remark, and yet it is impossible that a similar revolution could have been effected without inducing evident changes in the physical constitution of

man.

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Next to physical, comes moral education, which we would intrust to maternal tenderness; it is the subject of this book and as regards the education of the intellect, which is the third, it belongs to the professors. Its end is to fertilise thought, whereas the aim of moral education is to vivify the soul, and to call it in to the judgment of our

actions.

From these three educations, properly conducted and