Perhaps the appeal of Juvenal that comes most powerfully to the present
generation, and contains the most solemn lesson for us, is his warning
to fathers and mothers that all unconsciously to them their sons and
daughters are following in their footsteps, bound to copy them, and
reproduce their faults in later life. The presence of a child is as
sacred as a temple shrine, and should be as carefully guarded from every
profaning influence. It is surely notable to find this wholesome
teaching springing like a lily out of the mire of that degenerate age.
It smacks neither of fervid rhetoric nor of cold and formal philosophy,
but rings true and natural as childhood itself.
Let no foul word or sight come nigh the threshold where dwells the
father of a family. _You owe your boy the profoundest respect. If
meditating aught that is base, despise not your boy's tender
years; but let the image of your infant son arrest you on the
verge of sin._ For should he some day do a deed to earn the
censor's wrath, and show himself not only your counterpart in face
and figure, but heir of your character as well--one to follow in
your steps, and sin every sin in worse degree--you will chide and
scold him, no doubt, with loud reproaches, and then proceed to
change your will. But whence that boldness, whence those parental
rights, when you do worse, despite your age? If company is coming,
none of your people will have any rest. Sweep the pavement! Let me
see the pillars glistening! Down with the shriveled spider and all
her web! Ho! you polish the plain silver, and you the figured
cups! So the master storms at the top of his voice, urging them
on, with rod in hand. Poor wretch! are you in such a fidget lest
the hall may offend your friend's eye, when he comes, and lest the
vestibule be splashed with mud--all of which one little page with
one half-peck of sawdust puts to rights--but yet bestow no thought
on this, that your son's eye shall rest upon a household
unsullied, stainless, innocent of vice? We thank you that you gave
a citizen to your country and your people, if you make him worthy
of that country, helpful to its soil, helpful in public work, in
peace and war; for it will matter much in what lessons and
principles you train him.
Such wholesome truths as these and many more did Juvenal press home upon
his generation. And he speaks no less to all humanity; for the problems
of human life and conduct are not peculiar to any age, but are always
and everywhere the same.