Household Education

The author treats the household as a mutual school in which every member participates in lifelong moral and intellectual improvement. Practical counsel addresses care of the body and cultivation of moral powers such as will, hope, fear, patience, love, veneration, and truthfulness. Attention then shifts to intellectual training and a suggested order of development for perceptive, conceptive, reasoning, and imaginative faculties. Chapters on habit formation, personal and family routines, and considerations for educating women offer concrete methods and reflections, all aimed at encouraging cooperative domestic deliberation and gradual, continuous self-improvement.