Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners: A Complete Sexual Science and a Guide to Purity and Physical Manhood, Advice To Maiden, Wife, And Mother, Love, Courtship, And MarriageJefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Science
Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners: A Complete Sexual Science and a Guide to Purity and Physical Manhood, Advice To Maiden, Wife, And Mother, Love, Courtship, And Marriage
Jefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Marriage; Medicine, Popular; Sexual ethics
5. MAKE YOURSELF HELPFUL BY THOUGHTFULNESS.--Remember to bring into the
house your best smile and sunshine. It is good for you, and it cheers up
the home. There is hardly a nook in the house that has not been carefully
hunted through to drive out everything that might annoy you. The dinner
which suits, or ought to suit you, has not come on the table of itself. It
represents much thoughtfulness and work. You can do no more manly thing
than find some way of expressing, in word or look, your appreciation of it.
6. EXPRESS YOUR WILL, NOT BY COMMANDS, BUT BY SUGGESTIONS.--It is God's
order that you should be the head of the family. You are clothed with
authority. But this does not authorize you to be stern and harsh, as an
officer in the army. Your authority is the dignity of love. When it is not
clothed in love it ceases to have the substance of authority. A simple
suggestion that may embody a wish, an opinion or an argument, becomes one
who reigns over such a kingdom as yours.
7. SEEK TO REFINE YOUR NATURE.--It is no slander to say that many men have
wives much more refined than themselves. This is natural in the
inequalities of life. Other qualities may compensate for any defect here.
But you need have no defect in refinement. Preserve the gentleness and
refinement of your wife as a rich legacy for your children, and in so doing
you will lift yourself to higher levels. {215}
8. BE A GENTLEMAN AS WELL AS A HUSBAND.--The signs and bronze and callouses
of toil are no indications that you are not a gentleman. The soul of
gentlemanliness is a kindly feeling toward others, that prompts one to
secure their comfort. That is why the thoughtful peasant lover is always so
gentlemanly, and in his love much above himself.
9. STAY AT HOME.--Habitual absence during the evenings is sure to bring
sorrow. If your duty or business calls you, you have the promise that you
will be kept in all your ways. But if you go out to mingle with other
society, and leave your wife at home alone, or with the children and
servants, know that there is no good in store for you. She has claims upon
you that you can not afford to allow to go to protest. Reverse the case.
You sit down alone after having waited all day for your wife's return, and
think of her as reveling in gay society, and see if you can keep out all
the doubts as to what takes her away. If your home is not as attractive as
you want it, you are a principal partner. Set yourself about the work of
making it attractive.
10. TAKE YOUR WIFE WITH YOU INTO SOCIETY.--Seclusion begets morbidness. She
needs some of the life that comes from contact with society. She must see
how other people appear and act. It often requires an exertion for her to
go out of her home, but it is good for her and for you. She will bring back
more sunshine. It is wise to rest sometimes. When the Arab stops for his
dinner he unpacks his camel. Treat your wife with as much consideration.
[Illustration]
{217}
Cause of Family Troubles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account