This can never be
the case where the guest perceives that the order of family arrangement
is essentially altered, and that time, comfort, and convenience are
sacrificed for his accommodation.
Offering the best to visitors, showing a polite regard to every wish
expressed, and giving precedence to them, in all matters of comfort
and convenience, can be easily combined with the easy freedom which
makes the stranger feel at home; and this is the perfection of
hospitable entertainment.
XXIV.
CARE OF THE AGED.
One of the most interesting and instructive illustrations of the design
of our Creator, in the institution of the family state, is the
preservation of the aged after their faculties decay and usefulness
in ordinary modes seems to be ended. By most persons this period of
infirmities and uselessness is anticipated with apprehension, especially
in the case of those who have lived an active, useful life, giving
largely of service to others, and dependent for most resources of
enjoyment on their own energies.
To lose the resources of sight or hearing, to become feeble in body,
so as to depend on the ministries of others, and finally to gradually
decay in mental force and intelligence, to many seems far worse than
death.
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