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  ...for one point of the compass.
[Sidenote: It harmonises natural interests.]
The family is one of nature's masterpieces. It would be hard to conceive a system of instincts more nicely adjusted, where the constituents should represent or support one another better. The husband has an interest in protecting the wife, she in serving the husband. The weaker gains in authority and safety, the wilder and more unconcerned finds a help-mate at home to take thought for his daily necessities. Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.
[Sidenote: Capacity to be educated goes with immaturity at birth.]
The long childhood in the human race has made it possible and needful to transmit acquired experience: possible, because the child's brain, being immature, allows instincts and habits to be formed after birth, under the influence of that very environment in which they are to operate; and also needful, since children are long incapable of providing for themselves and compel their parents, if the race is not to die out,...   Santayana, George

Excerpt from The Life of Reason · This quote is filed under Parents and Parenting · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation · Tell us if you know any facts or errors in this quote · Help your friends discover QB

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