PARAGRAPHS TAKEN FROM THE WRITINGS OF APOSTLE ORSON PRATT, IN THE SEER, 1853.  
Let that man who intends to become a husband, seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and learn to govern himself, according to the law of God; for he that cannot govern himself cannot govern others. Let him dedicate his property, his talents, his time, and even his life to the service of God, holding all things at His disposal, to do with the same, according as He shall direct through the counsel that He has ordained. In selecting a companion, let him look not wholly at the beauty of the countenance, or the splendor of the apparel, or the great fortune, or the artful smiles, or the affected modesty of females; for all these, without the genuine virtues, are like the dew-drops which glitter for a moment in the sun and dazzle the eye, but soon vanish away. But let him look for a kind, amiable disposition; for unaffected modesty; for industrious habits; for sterling virtue; for honesty, integrity, and truthfulness; for cleanliness in person, in apparel, in cooking, and in every kind of domestic labor; for cheerfulness, patience, and stability of character; and above all, for genuine religion to control and govern her every thought and deed.
 
You should remember that harsh expressions against your wife, used in the hearing of others, will more deeply wound her feelings than if she alone heard them. Reproofs that are timely and otherwise good, may lose their good effect by being administered in the wrong spirit; indeed, they will most probably increase the evils which they are intended to remedy. Do not find fault with every trifling error that you may see, for this will discourage your family, and they will begin to think that it is impossible to please you; and, after a while, they will become indifferent as to whether they please you or not. How unhappy and extremely wretched is that family where {454} nothing pleases—where scolding has become almost as natural as breathing.
 
Let each mother commence with her children when young, not only to teach and instruct them, but to chasten and bring them into the most perfect subjection; for then is the time that they are the most easily conquered, and their tender minds are the most susceptible of influences and government. Many mothers from carelessness, neglect their children, and only attempt to govern them at long intervals, when they most generally find their efforts of no lasting benefit; for the children having been accustomed to having their own way, do not easily yield; and if peradventure they do yield, it is only for the time being, until the mother relaxes again into carelessness when they return again to their accustomed habits; and thus by habit they become more and more confirmed in disobedience, waxing worse and worse, until the mother becomes discouraged and relinquishes all discipline, and complains that she cannot make her children mind. The fault is not so much in the children, as in the carelessness and neglect of the mother when the children were young. It is she that must answer, in a degree, for the evil habits and disobedience of the children. She is more directly responsible than the father; for it cannot be expected that the father can always find time, apart from the laborious duties required of him, to correct and manage his little children who are at home with their mother. * * * Some mothers, though not careless, and though they feel the greatest anxiety for the welfare of their children, yet, through a mistaken notion of love for them, forbear to punish them when they need punishment; or if they undertake to conquer them, their tenderness and pity are so great that they prevail over the judgment, and the children are left unconquered, and become more determined to resist all future efforts of their mothers, until, at length, they conclude that their children have a more stubborn disposition than others, and that it is impossible to subject them to obedience. In this case, as in that of neglect, the fault is the mother's. The stubbornness of the children, for the most part, is the effect of the mother's indulgence, arising from her mistaken idea of love. By that which she calls love, she ruins her children. Children between one and two years of age are capable of being made to understand many things; then is the time to begin with them. How often we see children of that age manifest much anger. Frequently by crying through anger, they that are otherwise healthy, injure themselves. It is far better in such instances, for a mother to correct her child in a gentle manner, though {455} with decision and firmness, until she conquers it, and causes it to cease crying, than to suffer that habit to increase. When the child by gentle punishment has learned this one lesson from its mother, it is much more easily conquered and brought into subjection in other things, until finally, by a little perseverance on the part of the mother, it learns to be obedient to her voice in all things; and obedience becomes confirmed into a permanent habit. Such a child trained by a negligent or over-indulgent mother, might have become confirmed in habits of stubbornness and disobedience. It is not so much in the original constitution of children as in their training, that causes such wide differences in their disposition. It cannot be denied that there is a difference in the constitution of children even from their birth; but this difference is mostly owing to the proper or improper conduct of parents, as before stated; therefore, even for this difference, parents are more or less responsible. If parents, through their own evil conduct, entail hereditary dispositions upon their children, which are calculated to ruin them, unless properly curtailed and overcome, they should realize, that for that evil they must render an account. If parents have been guilty in entailing upon their offspring unhappy dispositions, let them repent, by............