Home Influence.
“Sentiment Is The Vehicle Of Thought, And Thought The Origin Of Action”
Aguilar, Grace. Home Influence. A tale for mothers and daughters. New York: Appleton, 1898.
8vo.; contemporary ownership signature on front endpaper, inscription on first blank; two-page frontispiece, tissue guard; blue-grey cloth stamped in red and gilt; light wear to extremities.
Later edition, stated “new edition” on title page; the first edition came out in 1847, and the 29th, in 1905; with an eight-page “memoir.” In her preface, Aguilar declares that the moral of her book is directed at mothers, “for on them so much of the responsibility of Home Influences devolves.” Accordingly, she hopes to diffuse two preconceptions that might cause a mother to disregard Home Influence. Aguilar’s first worry is that her reputation as primarily “the author of Jewish works, and as an explainer of the Hebrew Faith” may cause Christian mothers to keep this book from their children. She counters that this is “a simple domestic story, the characters in which are all Christians, believing in and practising that religion,” and that “all doctrinal points have been most carefully avoided, the author seeking only to illustrate the spirit of true piety, and the virtues always designated as the Christian virtues thence proceeding. Her sole aim, with regard to Religion, has been to incite a train of serious and loving thought toward God and man, especially toward those with whom He has linked us in the previous ties of parent and child, brother and sister, master and pupil.”
Aguilar’s second hurdle is that readers may weary of her seemingly excessive dialogue. This is necessary, she claims, believing that in “childhood and youth the spoken sentiment is one of the safest guides to individual character…Sentiment is the vehicle of thought, and thought the origin of action. Children and youth have very seldom the power to evince character by action, and scarcely if ever understand the mystery of thought; and therefore their unrestrained conversation may often greatly aid parents and teachers in acquiring a correct idea of their natural disposition, and in giving hints for the mode of education each may demand.”
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