2014-03 Samuel Smiles: CHARACTER - Home Power
Samuel Smiles [1812-1904] was a Scottish author, best known for
his didactic work Self-Help which elevated him to celebrity status almost overnight.
Self-Help [1859] was followed by Lives of the Engineers [1862], Character [1871], Thrift [1875] and Duty [1880].
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| [1812-1904] |
Self-Help [1859] was followed by Lives of the Engineers [1862], Character [1871], Thrift [1875] and Duty [1880].
I studied his essay on "Home Power" [Chapter 2 of Character] in an Intermediate Prose Anthology and was greatly impressed. I share with you here, excerpts from
HOME POWER
HOME
is the first and most important school of character.
"Home
makes the man." For the home-training includes not only manners and mind,
but character. It is mainly in the home that the heart is opened, the habits
are formed, the intellect is awakened, and character moulded for good or for
evil.
The child learns by simple imitation, without
effort, almost through the pores of the skin. "A fig tree looking on a fig
tree becomes fruitful," says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with
children; their first great instructor is example.
However
apparently trivial the influences which contribute to form the character of the
child, they endure through life. The child's character is the nucleus of the
man's; all after-education is but superposition; the form of the crystal
remains the same.
Says William Wordsworth, "The child is father
of the man;" or, as Milton puts it, "The childhood shows the man, as
morning shows the day." Those impulses to conduct which last the longest
and are rooted the deepest, always have their origin near our birth. It is then
that the germs of virtues or vices, of feelings or sentiments, are first
implanted which determine the character for life.
It
is in childhood that the mind is most open to impressions, and ready to be
kindled by the first spark that falls into it. Ideas are then caught quickly
and live lastingly. Thus Scott is said to have received, his first bent towards
ballad literature from his mother's and grandmother's recitations in his
hearing long before he himself had learned to read. Childhood is like a mirror,
which reflects in after-life the images first presented to it.
Homes, which are the nurseries of children who
grow up into men and women, will be good or bad according to the power that
governs them.
Where the spirit of love
and duty pervades the home—where head and heart bear rule wisely there—where
the daily life is honest and virtuous—where the government is sensible, kind,
and loving, then may we expect from such a home an issue of healthy, useful,
and happy beings, capable, as they gain the requisite strength, of following
the footsteps of their parents, of walking uprightly, governing themselves
wisely, and contributing to the welfare of those about them.
One good mother, said George Herbert, is worth a
hundred schoolmasters. In the home she is "loadstone to all hearts, and
loadstar to all eyes." Imitation of her is constant—imitation, which Bacon
likens to "a globe of precepts." But example is far more than
precept. It is instruction in action. It is teaching without words, often
exemplifying more than tongue can teach.
It
is because the mother, far more than the father, influences the action and
conduct of the child, that her good example is of so much greater importance in
the home.
The poorest dwelling, presided over by a
virtuous, thrifty, cheerful, and cleanly woman, may thus be the abode of
comfort, virtue, and happiness; it may be the scene of every ennobling relation
in family life; it may be endeared to a man by many delightful associations;
furnishing a sanctuary for the heart, a refuge from the storms of life, a sweet
resting-place after labour, a consolation in misfortune, a pride in prosperity,
and a joy at all times.
The good home is thus the best of schools, not
only in youth but in age. There young and old best learn cheerfulness,
patience, self-control, and the spirit of service and of duty.
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