Many a child grows up a hard, unimpressionable, unloving man or woman
simply from the uncheered silence in which the first ten years of life
were passed. Very few fathers and mothers, even those who are fluent,
perhaps, in society, habitually _talk_ with their children.
It is certain that this is one of the worst shortcomings of our homes.
Perhaps no other single change would do so much to make them happier, and,
therefore, to make our communities better, as for men and women to learn
to speak.
Private Tyrants.
We recognize tyranny when it wears a crown and sits on an hereditary
throne. We sympathize with nations that overthrow the thrones, and in our
secret hearts we almost canonize individuals who slay the tyrants. From
the days of Ehud and Eglon down to those of Charlotte Corday and Marat,
the world has dealt tenderly with their names whose hands have been red
with the blood of oppressors. On moral grounds it would be hard to justify
this sentiment, murder being murder all the same, however great gain it
may be to this world to have the murdered man put out of it; but that
there is such a sentiment, instinctive and strong in the human soul, there
is no denying.
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