Precept & Practice – APRIL 10 – The Place of Peace

Home is the place of Peace;  the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home;  so far as the anxieties of the outer life penetrate into it, and the inconsistently minded, unknown, un-loved, or hostile society of the outer world is allowed by either husband or wife to cross the threshold, it ceases to be home;  it is then only a part of the outer world which you have roofed over and lighted fire in.

But so far as it is a sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces none may come but those whom they can receive with love, so far as it is this, and roof and fire are types only of a nobler shade and light – shade as of the rock in a weary land, and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea;  so far it vindicates the name, and fulfils the praise, of Home.

Ruskin

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW