And with what added respect they would look upon all labor if they had never looked upon it as the part of a "gentleman" to stand aloof from it.
Lastly, but not least, I would plead most earnestly for the frequent home-letter, should your boy be sent to a boarding-school.

If you would have him resist the temptations of school life, keep the home as close to his heart and as present to his mind as you can.

Make it your first and paramount duty to write every day if you can, if not every other day, at least twice a week.
Do not misunderstand me here.

God knows I do not go in for the devoted mother who thinks of nothing but her boys and to whom the whole world besides is nothing but an empty flourish of the pen about their names.
Such mothers are like Chinese teacups, with no perspective and everything out of proportion; where the Mandarin is as big as the Pagoda, and suffers from a pathetic inability to get in at his own door.
You must see things in moral perspective in order to train character on large and noble lines.

And it is from the rough quarry of the outside world, with its suffering and sin, that you must fetch the most precious stones for the building up of true manhood or womanhood.