. . .
There is great truth and good sense in your analysis of the cause of
our past failures. We have now come to a sort of crisis. If you and I
do as we should for _five years_ to come the character of our
three oldest children will be established. This is why I am willing to
spend so much time and make such efforts to have health. Oh, that God
would give me these five years in full possession of mind and body,
that I may train my children as they should be trained. I am fully
aware of the importance of system and order in a family. I know that
nothing can be done without it; it is the keystone, the _sine qu?
non_, and in regard to my children I place it next to piety. At the
same time it is true that both Anna [Footnote: The governess, Miss
Anna Smith.] and I labor under serious natural disadvantages on this
subject. It is not all that is necessary to feel the importance of
order and system, but it requires a particular kind of talent to carry
it through a family. Very much the same kind of talent, as Uncle
Samuel said, which is necessary to make a good prime minister. . . .
I think you might make an excellent sermon to Christians on the care
of health, in consideration of the various infirmities and impediments
to the developing the results of religion, that result from bodily ill
health, and I wish you would make one that your own mind may be more
vividly impressed with it.
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