The confusing social currents of this changing era set free from ancient moorings many who can find no clear chart for newer voyaging in thought and action.

These need what the family more than any other inherited institution can still give--something of the simplicity of the blood bond and something of the strength of clan membership, and more of the partial affection which sets each personality in its best light and gives each a chance to better its own world achievement in the appreciation of its dearest.
=The Family the Nursery of Personality.=--The family in this sense of comforting and developing the individual nature has as yet no rival.
Says Browning, "Every man has two soul sides--one to face the world with and one to show a woman when he loves her." There are those who blame the family relationship for its exclusiveness and partiality, and there are countless instances where the ego is so extended into the blood group that selfish disregard of all others becomes a mark of family affection.

Yet is it profoundly true that just as the baby needs some one to whom its little life is all-important in order to gain strength of will to achieve its difficult beginnings of consciousness, so all of us need a small group in which our well-being and our happiness are of greater concern than those of any one person can be to all the world of persons.

No truly enlightened person believes that he or she is as wise or as good as the best friend thinks; and no truly enlightened person believes that the affection of one's family is a just gauge of the value of one's life to the world.
We all need, however, and children particularly need, some inner circle of love which comes to us by virtue simply of our being, to help us when we make excursions of moral and affectional adventure in the world outside, in a world in which we are valued only for what we can achieve.
=Life, Not Theory About Life, Teaches Us.=--Let no one believe, however, that any theory about or claim for the family really indicates its value.

We live before we can interpret our life, and what is already achieved by those in the forward ranks shows what all may yet become.