Our Home - vol. 1 & 2 (1889)

Some of the chapter headings read: "Economy of home", "Evenings at home", "Sundays at home", "Manners at home", "Dignity at home", and "Unselfishness at home". The author gives us the following instructions: "The institution of home is in itself a divine application of the law of economy. It contains the first suggestion of the division of labor. The evening hours are the holy hours of home life. They are the hours in which there is the freest play of all the hallowed influences that come from the domestic relation. Whether we regard the Sabbath as divinely appointed or as growing out of the instincts and necessities of man's moral and spiritual nature, the experience of man has demonstrated that it sustains a vital relation to our highest welfare. Manners constitute the natural language in which the biography of every man is written. They are the necessary and unconscious expression of our lives and characters. Dignity is self-respect, or rather the manifestation of self-respect. It is the involuntary and unconscious expression of one's appraisal of himself. In accordance with an eternal law, selfishness defeats its own ends. The selfish man, from the very nature of selfishness, declares war against the universe, and in that unequal fight is sure to fail." 432 pages