QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Questions in regard to Primary Work will be answered in this Should aids be set apart? Certainly. If aids are a necessity-and we believe they arethey are a part of the board of officers, and as such are entitled to their portion of the responsibility of such board and should receive all the support that is given to any other officer. They should be set apart by the proper authority in the Priesthood and made to realize from the beginning that they are being placed in a position of responsibility, and that they will be expected to honor their position and assume the responsibilities attached to it. The officers of any organization should form parts of a whole, and each one should have a definite place and part in the control of the organization. It is not right or proper to have officers who are not doing something for the onward progress of the organization to which they belong, and there should not be any difference in the respect given to any of the officers, whether President, aid or otherwise. When an association is disorganized, do the aids remain with power to act. If only secretaries remain in office, who holds the money? The office of the secretary is the only one that is continued during the disorganization of an association, and she should keep all records, properties or moneys until a new organization is effected, when she may be asked to resign or continue in her position. Should there be more than three grades? Large classes are not as satisfactory as small ones, and whenever it is practicable it is advisable to divide them into one or more classes, as the occasion and condition require, but this does not mean more grades. Lessons are prepared for these grades, and it is preferable for all the associations to be working in order and with system. One grade may have a number of classes, all using the same lesson, but do not add another grade. "God help us parents all to live aright, And may our homes all love and truth unfold, HOME POWER. "In the course of a conversation with Madame Campan, Napoleon Bonaparte remarked: "The old systems of instruction seem to be worth nothing; what is yet wanting in order that the people should be properly educated?" 'Mothers,' replied Madame Campan. The reply struck the Emperor. 'Yes' said he, 'there is a system of education in one word. Be it your care, then, to train up mothers who shall know how to educate their children.'"Aime Martin. Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life. Thus 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. 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 labor, a consolation in misfortune, a pride in prosperity, and a joy at all times. But while homes, which are the nurseries of character, may be the best of schools, they may also be the worst. Between childhood and manhood how incalculable is the mischief which ignor Between drawing the first moral suffering occasioned Commit a child to the care ance in the home has power to cause! breath and the last, how vast is the by incompetent mothers and nurses! of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done. Let the mother be idle, vicious, and a slattern; let her home be pervaded by cavilling,petulance and discontent, and it will become a dwelling of misery-a place to fly from, rather than to fly to; and the children whose misfortune it is to be brought up there will be morally dwarfed and deformed -the cause of misery to themselves as well as to others. We have spoken of the mother of Washington as an excellent woman of business; and to possess such a quality as capacity for business is not only compatible with true womanliness, but is in a measure essential to the comfort and well-being of every properly governed family. Habits of business do not relate to trade merely, but apply to all the practical affairs of life-to every thing that has to be arranged, to be organized, to be provided for, to be done. And in all these respects the management of a family and of a household is as much a matter of business as the management of a shop or of a counting-house. It requires method, accuracy, organization, industry, economy, discipline, tact, knowledge, and capacity for adapting means to ends. All this is of the essence of business; and hence business habits are as necessary to be cultivated by women who would succeed in the affairs of home-in other words, who would make home happy--as by men in the affairs of trade, of commerce, or of manufacture. The idea has, however, heretofore prevailed, that women have no concern with such matters, and that business habits and qualifications relate to men only. Take, for instance, the knowledge of figures. Mr. Bright has said of boys, "Teach a boy arithmetic thoroughly, and he is a made man." And why? Because it teaches him method, accuracy, value, proportions, relations. But how many girls are taught arithmetic well?-Very few indeed. And what is the consequence? When the girl becomes a wife, if she knows nothing of figures, and is innocent of addition and multiplication, she can keep no record of income and expenditure, and there will probably be a succession of mistakes committed which may be prolific of domestic contention. The woman, not being up to her business-that is, the management of her domestic affairs in conformity with the simple principles of arithmeticwill, through sheer ignorance, be apt to commit extravagances, though unintentional, which may be most injurious to her family peace and comfort. Method, which is portance in the home. Muddle flies before it, the soul of business, is also of essential imWork can only be got through by method. and hugger-mugger becomes a thing un known. Method demands punctuality, another eminently business quality. The unpunctual woman, like the nupunctual man, occasions dislike, because she consumes and wastes time, and provokes the reflection that we are not of sufficient importance to make her more prompt. To the business man, time is money; but to the business woman, method is more-it is peace, comfort, and domestic prosperity. Prudence is another important business quality in women, as in men. Prudence is practical wisdom, and comes of the cultivated judgment. It has reference in all things to fitness, to propriety; judging wisely of the right thing to be done, and the right way of doing it. It calculates the means, order, kind, and method of doing. Prudence learns from experience, quickened by knowledge. For these, among other reasons, habits of business are necessary to be cultivated by all women, in order to their being efficient helpers in the world's daily life and work. Furthermore, to direct the power of the home aright, women, as the nurses, trainers, and educators of children, need all the help and strength that mental culture can give them. Mere instinctive love is not sufficient. Instinct, which preserves the lower creatures, needs no training; but human intelligence, which is in constant request in a family, needs to be educated, The physical health of the rising generation is intrusted to woman by Providence; and it is in the physical nature that the moral and mental nature lies enshrined. It is only by acting in accordance with the natural laws, which, before she can follow, woman must needs understand, that the blessing of health of body, and health of mind and morals, can be secured at home. Without a knowledge of such laws, the mother's love too often finds its recompense only in a child's coffin. It is a mere truism to say that the intellect with which women as well as man is endowed has been given for use and exercise, and not "to fust in her unused." Such endowments are never conferred without a purpose. The Creator may be lavish in His gifts. but He is never wasteful. Woman was not meant to be either an unthinking drudge, or the merely pretty ornament of man's leisure. She exists for herself as well as for others; and the serious and responsible duties she is called upon to perform in life require the cultivated head as well as the sympathizing heart. Her highest mission is not to be fulfilled by the mastery of fleeting accomplishments, on which so much useful time is now wasted; for, though accomplishments may enhance the charms of youth and beauty, of themselves sufficiently charming, they will be found of very little use in the affairs of real life. Speaking generally, the training and discipline that are most suitable for the one sex in early life are also the most suitable for the other; and the education and culture that fill the mind of the man will prove equally wholesome for the woman. Indeed, all the arguments which have yet been advanced in favor of the higher education of men plead equally strongly in favor of the higher education of women. In all the departments of home, intelligence will add to woman's usefulness and efficiency. It will give her thought and forethought, enable her to anticipate and provide for the contingencies of life, suggest improved methods of management, and give her strength in every way. In disciplined mental power she will find a stronger and safer protection against deception and imposture than in mere innocent and unsuspecting ignorance; in moral and religious culture she will secure sources of influence more powerful and enduring than in physical attractions; and in due self-reliance and self-dependance she will discover the truest sources of domestic happiness. But while the mind and character of woman ought to be cultivated with a view to their own well-being, they ought not the less to be educated liberally with a view to the happiness of others. Men themselves can not be sound in mind or morals if woman be the reverse; and if, as we hold to be the case, the moral condition of a people mainly depends on the education of the home, then the education of woman is to be regarded as a matter of national importance. Not only does the moral character but the mental strength of man find its best safeguard and support in the moral purity and mental cultivation of woman; but the more completely the powers of both are developed, the more harmonious and wellordered will society be the more safe and certain its elevation ard advancement. The influence of woman is the same everywhere. Her condition influences the morals, manners, and character of the people in all countries. Where she is debased, society is debased; where she is morally pure and enlightened, society will be proportionately elevated. Hence, to instruct woman is to instruct man; to elevate her character is to raise his own; to enlarge her mental freedom is to extend and secure that of the whole community. For nations are but the outcomes of homes, and peoples of mothers. From Character by Samuel Smiles. |