34
A Solemn Appeal
to praise, and to have her food cooked in a fashionable style, are with
her higher considerations than the happiness and health of her children.
Intemperance in eating and in labor debilitates the parents, often
making them nervous, and disqualifying them to rightly discharge
their duty to their children. Three times a day, parent and children
gather around the table loaded with a variety of fashionable foods. The
merits of each dish have to be tested. Perhaps the mother had toiled
till she was heated and exhausted, and was not in a condition to take
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even the simplest food till she had first had a period of rest. The food
she wearied herself in preparing was wholly unfit for her at any time,
but especially taxes the digestive organs when the blood is heated and
the system exhausted. Those who have thus persisted in violating the
laws of their being, have been compelled to pay the penalty at some
period in their life.
There are ample reasons why there are so many nervous women in
the world, complaining of the dyspepsia, with its train of evils. The
cause has been followed by the effect. It is impossible for intemperate
persons to be patient. They must first reform bad habits, learn to live
healthfully, and then it will not be difficult for them to be patient. Many
do not seem to understand the relation the mind sustains to the body.
If the system is deranged by improper food, the brain and nerves are
affected, and slight things annoy those who are thus afflicted. Little
difficulties are to them troubles mountain high. Persons thus situated
are unfitted to properly train their children. Their life will be marked
with extremes. Sometimes they are very indulgent, at other times
severe, censuring for trifles which deserve no notice.
The mother frequently sends her children from her presence, be-
cause she thinks she cannot endure the noise occasioned by their happy
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frolics. But with no mother’s eye over them to approbate or disapprove
at the right time, unhappy differences often arise. A word from the
mother would set all right again. They soon become weary, desire
change, and go into the street for amusement; and pure, innocent-
minded children are driven into bad company, and evil communications
breathed into their ears corrupt their good manners. The mother often
seems to be asleep to the interests of her children until she is painfully
aroused by the exhibition of vice. The seeds of evil were sown in their
young minds, promising an abundant harvest. And it is a marvel to
her that her children are so prone to do wrong. Parents should begin