act, you will find in every chapter of this volume something to help
you in making your way into the thoughts and the hearts of your family,
and we know that as the years pass away and manhood comes to your boys
they will look back upon the hours spent in reading with you as the most
momentous of their lives. Do you want your son to say in his manhood, "I
look upon Mr. A or Mr. B as the person who most influenced my life"? Do
you want him to say, "I might have been a cultured man with a wide range
of interests if my father had given to me a little of the time he spent
at his club"? Do you want your boy to think that he was a wanderer from
home, because he could not find in that home the manly sympathy that his
soul craved? In many a family there is no trouble in keeping the boys
off the streets. There is no place half so attractive as the home and
for them no inclination to seek among others the fun and intellectual
stimulus they crave as they crave their food.

Usually the reading habit must be formed early or not at all. A man in
middle life will not acquire the habit easily unless there is some
stimulus which keeps him reading for a time, in spite of himself. In the
active minds of his boys he may find just that stimulus, and in his
declining years when time weighs heavily upon his hands and great
activities are denied him he will find in his later acquirement an
unfailing source of enjoyment. In such hours will come to recollection
the days he spent with his boys and his heart will fill with joy that he
did not neglect his rich opportunities.

CHAPTER VII

MEMORIZING

Whenever children are interested in any selection, it is well to
encourage them to commit it to memory, if it be brief, or if they find
in it phrases or sentences which seem to them beautiful or filled with
meaning. If, however, the young people are driven to memorizing
selections of any kind, the practice is of little value, and it is
likely to create a prejudice against the very things for which they
should feel admiration. By a show of interest, however, the parents may,
without difficulty, lead the children to learn a great deal of the best
literature, and thus not only strengthen their knowledge but improve
their style of writing as well, for unconsciously the young will follow
the style of those whom they admire. Moreover, it frequently happens
that some of the inspiring thoughts which children have learned become
rules of action to t