Chapter 25 of the Professor In two months more, Francis had fulfilled the time of mourning for her aunt. One January morning, the first of the New Year holidays, I went in a fiac accompanied only by Monsieur Fandenhouten to the Rue Notre-Dame au Neige, and having alighted alone and walked upstairs, I found Francis apparently waiting for me, dressed in a style scarcely appropriate to that cold, bright, frosty day. Never till now had I seen her retired in any other than black or sad-coloured stuff, and there she stood by the window, clad all in white, and white for the most diaphanous texture. Her array was very simple to be sure, but it looked imposing and festal because it was so clear, full and floating.   Singular to state, she was or had been crying. When I asked her if she were ready, she said, Yes, Monsieur, with something very like a checked sob. And when I took a shawl which lay on the table and folded it round her, not only did tear after tear course unbidden down her cheek, but she shook to my ministration like a reed. I said I was sorry to see her in such low spirits, and requested to be allowed an insight into the origin thereof. She only said it was impossible to help it. And then, voluntarily though, hurriedly putting her hand into mine, accompanied me out of the room, and ran downstairs with a quick, uncertain step, like one who was eager to get some formidable piece of business over. I put her into the fiac. Monsieur Fandenhouten received her and seated her beside himself. We drove all together to the Protestant chapel, went through a certain service in the common prayer book, and she and I came out married. Monsieur Fandenhouten had given the bride away. We took no bridal trip, our modesty screened by the peaceful obscurity of our station and the pleasant isolation of our circumstances did not exact that additional precaution. We repaired at once to a small house I had taken in the Foghawk nearest to that part of the city where the scene of our avocations lay. Three or four hours after the wedding ceremony, Francis divested off her bridal snow and attired in a pretty lilac gown of warmer materials, a pecan black silk apron, and a lace collar with some finishing decoration of lilac ribbon, was kneeling on the carpet of a neatly furnished though not spacious parlor, arranging on the shelves of a chiffonnière some books which I handed to her from the table. It was snowing fast out of doors. The afternoon had turned out wild and cold. The leaden sky seemed full of drifts and the street was already ankle deep in the white downfall. Our fire burned bright. Our new habitation looked brilliantly clean and fresh. The furniture was all arranged and there were but some articles of glass, china, books etc to put in order. Francis found in this business occupation till tea time and then after I had distinctly instructed her how to make a cup of tea in rational English style, and after she had got over the dismay occasioned by seeing such an extravagant amount of material put into the pot, she administered to me a proper British repast, at which there wanted neither candies nor urn, fire lights nor comfort. Our week's holiday glided by and we readdressed ourselves to labour. Both my wife and I began in good earnest with the notion that we were working people destined to earn our bread by exertion and that of the most assiduous kind. Our days were thoroughly occupied. We used to part every morning at eight o'clock and not meet again till five p.m. but into what sweet rest did the turmoil of each busy day decline. Looking down the vista of memory I see the evenings passed in that little parlor like a long string of rubies circling the dusk brow of the past. Unvaried were they as each cut gem and like each gem brilliant and burning. A year and a half passed. One morning it was a fete and we had the day to ourselves. Francis said to me with a suddenness peculiar to her when she had been thinking long on a subject and at last having come to a conclusion wished to test its soundness by the touchstone of my judgment. I don't work enough. What now demanded I looking up from my coffee which I had been deliberately stirring while enjoying in anticipation a walk I proposed to take with Francis that fine summer day. It was June to a certain farmhouse in the country where we were to dine. What now and I saw at once in the serious ardour of her face a project of vital importance. I am not satisfied returned she. You are now earning eight thousand francs a year. It was true my efforts punctuality the fame of my pupils progress the publicity of my station had so far helped me on while I am still at my miserable twelve hundred francs. I can do better and I will. You work as long and as diligently as I do Francis. Yes, Monsieur, but I'm not working in the right way and I am convinced of it. You wish to change. You have a plan for progress in your mind. Go and put on your bonnet and while we take our walk you shall tell me of it. Yes, Monsieur. She went as docile as a well trained child. She was a curious mixture of tractability and firmness. I sat thinking about her and wondering what her plan could be when she re-entered. Monsieur, I have given Mini, our bun, leave to go out too. I did it so very fine. So will you be kind enough to lock the door and take the key with you. Kiss me, Mrs. Crimsworth, was my not very apposite reply. But she looked so engaging in her light-sum address and little cottage bonnet, and her manner in speaking to me was then, as always, so unaffectedly and suavely respectful that my heart expanded at the sight of her, and a kiss seemed necessary to content its importunity. There, Monsieur. Why do you always call me Monsieur? Say, William, I cannot pronounce your W. Besides, Monsieur belongs to you. I like it best. Mini, having departed in clean cap and smart shawl, we too set out, leaving the house solitary and silent. Silent at least, but for the ticking of the clock. We were soon clear of Brussels. The fields received us, and then the lanes, remote from carriage-resounding Chaussée. Air-long we came upon a nook so rural, green, and secluded it might have been a spot in some pastoral English province. A bank of short and mossy grass under a hawthorn offered a seat too tempting to be declined. We took it, and when we had admired and examined some English-looking wild flowers growing at our feet, I recalled Francis' attention and my own to the topic touched on at breakfast. What was her plan? A natural one, the next step to be mounted by us, or at least by her, if she wanted to rise in her profession. She proposed to begin a school. We already had the means for commencing on a careful scale having lived greatly within our income. We possessed too by this time an extensive and eligible connection in the sense advantageous to our business. For though our circle of visiting acquaintance continued as limited as ever, we were now widely known in schools and families as teachers. When Francis had developed her plan, she intimated in some closing sentences her hopes for the future. If we only had good health and tolerable success, we might, she was sure, in time realize an independency, and that perhaps before we were too old to enjoy it, then both she and I would rest, and what was to hinder us from going to live in England? England was still her promised land. I put it on the land. I put no obstacle in her way, raised no objection. I knew she was not one who could live quiescent and inactive, or even comparatively inactive. Duties she must have to fulfill, and important duties, work to do, and exciting absorbing profitable work. Strong faculties stirred in her frame, and they demanded full nourishment, free exercise. Mine was not the hand ever to starve or cramp them. No, I delighted in offering them sustenance, and in clearing them wider space for action. You have conceived a plan, Francis said I, and a good plan, executed. You have my free consent, and wherever and whenever my assistance is wanted, ask, and you shall have. Francis's eyes thanked me almost with tears, just a sparkle or two soon brushed away. She possessed herself of my hand, too, and held it for some time very close clasped in both her own, but she said no more than, thank you, monsieur. We passed a divine day, and came home late, lighted by a full summer moon. Ten years rushed now upon me with dusty, vibrating, unresting wings. Years of bustle, action, unslacked endeavour. Years in which I and my wife, having launched ourselves in the full career of progress, as progress whirls on in European capitals, scarcely new repose, were strangest to amusement, never thought of indulgence, and yet as our course ran side by side, as we marched hand in hand, we neither murmured, repented, nor faltered. Hope indeed cheered us, health kept us up, harmony of thought indeed smoothed many difficulties, and finally, success bestowed every now and then, encouraging reward on diligence. Our school became one of the most popular in Brussels, and as by degrees we raised our terms and elevated our system of education, our choice of pupils grew more select, and at length included the children of the best families in Belgium. We had too an excellent connection in England, first opened by the unsolicited recommendation of Mr. Hunneston, who having been over and having abused me for my prosperity in set terms, went back, and soon after sent a leash of young, blankshire heiresses, his cousins, as he said, to be polished off by Mrs. Crimsworth. As to this same Mrs. Crimsworth, in one sense she was become another woman, though in another she remained unchanged. So different was she under different circumstances, I seemed to possess two wives. The faculties of her nature already disclosed when I married her remained fresh and fair, but other faculties shot up strong, branched out broad, and quite altered the external character of the plant. Firmness, activity, and enterprise covered with grave foliage, poetic feeling, and fervour. But these flowers were still there, preserved pure and dewy under the umbridge of later growth and hardier nature. Perhaps only I in the world knew the secret of their existence, but to me they were ever ready to yield an exquisite fragrance, and present a beauty as chaste as radiant. In the daytime my house and establishment were conducted by Madame the Directoress, a stately and elegant woman, bearing much anxious thought on her large brow, much calculated dignity in her serious mean. Immediately after breakfast I used to part with this lady. I went to my college, she to her schoolroom. Returning for an hour in the course of the day, I found her always in class, intently occupied. Silence, industry, observance, attending on her presence. When not actually teaching, she was overlooking and guiding by eye and gesture. She then appeared vigilant and solicitous. When communicating instruction, her aspect was more animated. She seemed to feel a certain enjoyment in the occupation. The language in which she addressed her pupils, though simple and unpretending, was never trite or dry. She did not speak from routine formulas. She made her own phrases as she went on, and very nervous and impressive phrases they frequently were. Often when elucidating favorite points of history or geography, she would wax genuinely eloquent in her earnestness. Her pupils, or at least the elder and more intelligent amongst them, recognized well the language of a superior mind. They felt, too, and some of them received the impression of elevated sentiments. There was little fondling between mistress and girls, but some of Frances' pupils in time learned to love her sincerely, and all of them beheld her with respect. Her general demeanour towards them was serious, sometimes benignant when they pleased her with their progress and attention, always scrupulously refined and considerate. In cases where reproof or punishment was called for, she was usually forebearing enough. But if any took advantage of that forbearance, which sometimes happened, a sharp, sudden and lightning-like severity taught the culprit the extent of the mistake committed. Sometimes a gleam of tenderness softened her eyes and manner. But this was rare, only when a pupil was sick or when it pined after home, or in the case of some little motherless child, or of one much poorer than its companions, whose scanty wardrobe and mean appointments brought on it the contempt of the jewelled young countesses and silk-clad misses. Over such feeble fledglings the directorist spread a wing of kindliest protection. It was to their bedside she came at night to tuck them warmly in. It was after them she looked in winter to see that they always had a comfortable seat by the stove. It was they who by turns were summoned to the salon to receive some little dole of cake or fruit, to sit on a footstool at the fireside, to enjoy home comforts and almost home liberty for an evening together, to be spoken to gently and softly, comforted, encouraged, cherished. And when bedtime came, dismissed with a kiss of true tenderness. As to Julia and Georgiana G, daughters of an English baronet, as to Mademoiselle Matilde, heiress of a Belgian count, and sundry other children of patrician race, the directorist was careful of them as of the others, anxious for their progress as for that of the rest. But it never seemed to enter her head to distinguish them by a mark of preference. One girl of noble blood she loved dearly, a young Irish baroness, Lady Catherine. But it was for her enthusiastic heart and clever head, for her generosity and her genius, the title and rank went for nothing. My afternoons were spent also in college, with the exception of an hour that my wife daily exacted of me for her establishment, and with which she would not dispense. She said that I must spend that time amongst her pupils to learn their characters, to be au courant with everything that was passing in the house, to become interested in what interested her, to be able to give her my opinion on knotty points when she required it, and this she did constantly, never allowing my interest in the pupils to fall asleep, and never making any change of importance without my cognizance and consent. She delighted to sit by me when I gave my lessons, lessons in literature. Her hands folded on her knee, the most fixedly attentive of any present. She rarely addressed me in class, when she did it was with an air of marked deference.  At six o'clock p.m. my daily labour ceased. I then came home, for my home was my heaven. Ever at that hour, as I entered our private sitting-room, the lady directoress vanished from before my eyes, and Francis Henri, my own little lace-mender, was magically restored to my arms. Much disappointed she would have been if her master had not been as constant to the trist as herself, and if his truthful kiss had not been prompt to answer her soft, bonsoir, monsieur. Talk French to me, she would, and many a punishment she has had for her willfulness. I fear the choice of chastisement must have been injudicious, for instead of correcting the fault, it seemed to encourage its renewal. Our evenings were our own. That recreation was necessary to refresh our strength for the discharge of our duties. Sometimes we spent them all in conversation, and my young Genovese, now that she was thoroughly accustomed to her English professor, now that she loved him too absolutely to fear him much, reposed in him a confidence so unlimited that topics of conversation could no more be wanting with him than subjects for communion with her own heart. In those moments, happy as a bird with its mate, she would show me what she had of vivacity, of mirth, of originality in her well-doubbed nature. She would show to some stores of railery, of malice, and would vex teas peak me sometimes about what she called my bizarrerie anglaise, my caprice insulaire, with a wild and witty wickedness that made a perfect white demon of her while it lasted. This was rare, however, and the elfish freak was always short, sometimes when driven a little hard in the war of words, for her tongue did ample justice to the pith, the point, the delicacy of her native French, in which language she always attacked me, I used to turn upon her with my old decision, and arrest bodily the sprite that teased me. Vane idea, no sooner had I grasped hand or arm than the elf was gone, the provocative smile quenched in the expressive brown eyes, and array of gentle homage shone under the lids in its place. I had seized a mere vexing fairy and found a submissive and supplicating little mortal woman in my arms. Then I made her get a book and read English to me for an hour by way of penance. I frequently dosed her with Wordsworth in this way, and Wordsworth steadied her soon. She had a difficulty in comprehending his deep serene and sober mind. His language, too, was not facile to her. She had to ask questions to sue her explanations, to be like a child and a novice, and to acknowledge me as her senior and director. Her instinct instantly penetrated and possessed the meaning of more ardent and imaginative writers. Byron excited her. Scott, she loved. Wordsworth only she puzzled at, wondered over, and hesitated to pronounce an opinion upon. But whether she read to me or talked with me, whether she teased me in French or entreated me in English, whether she gested with wit or inquired with deference, narrated with interest, or listened with attention, whether she smiled at me or on me, always at nine o'clock I was left abandoned. She would extricate herself from my arms, quit by side, take her lamp, and be gone. Her mission was upstairs. I have followed her sometimes and watched her. First she opened the door of the Doctoire, the pupil's chamber. Noiselessly, she glided up the long room between the two rows of white beds, surveyed all the sleepers. If any were wakeful, and especially if any were sad, spoke to them and soothed them. Stood some minutes to ascertain that all was safe and tranquil. Trimmed the watch light which burned in the apartment all night, then withdrew, closing the door behind her without sound. Thence she glided to our own chamber. It had a little cabinet within, as she sought. There too appeared a bed, but one, and not a very small one. Her face, the night I followed and observed her, changed as she approached this tiny couch. From grave it warmed to earnest. She shaded with one hand the lamp she held in the other. She bent above the pillow and hung over a child asleep. It slumber, that evening at least, and usually, I believe, was sound and calm. No tear wet its dark eyelashes. No fever heated its round cheek. No ill dream discomposed its budding features. Frances gazed. She did not smile, and yet the deepest delight filled flushed her face, feeling pleasurable, powerful, worked in her whole frame, which still was motionless. I saw indeed her heart heave. Her lips were a little apart. Her breathing grew somewhat hurried. The child smiled. Then at last the mother smiled too, and said in low soliloquy, God bless my little son. She stooped closer over him, breathed the softest of kisses on his brow, covered his minute hand with hers, and at last started up and came away. I regained the parlour before her. Entering it two minutes later, she said quietly as she put down her extinguished lamp. Victor rests well, he smiled in sleep. He has your smile, monsieur. The said Victor was, of course, her own boy, born in the third year of our marriage. His Christian name had been given him in honour of Monsieur Fandenhouten, who continued always our trusty and well-beloved friend. Francis was then a good and dear wife to me, because I was to her a good, just, and faithful husband. What she would have been had she married a harsh, envious, careless man. A profligate, a prodigal, a drunkard, or a tyrant is another question, and one which I once propounded to her. Her answer, given after some reflection, was, I should have tried to endure the evil or cure it for a while, and when I found it intolerable and incurable, I should have left my torturer suddenly and silently. And if law or might had forced you back again, what to a drunkard, a profligate, a selfish spendthrift, an unjust fool? Yes, I would have gone back, again assured myself whether or not his vice and my misery were capable of remedy, and if not, have left him again, and if again forced to return and compel to abide. I don't know, she said hastily, why do you ask me, monsieur? I would have an answer, because I saw a strange kind of spirit in her eye whose voice I determined to waken. Monsieur, if a wise nature loathes that of the man she is wedded to, marriage must be slavery. Against slavery all right thinkers revolt, and though torture be the price of resistance, torture must be dared. Though the only roads of freedom lie to the gates of death, those gates must be passed, for freedom is indispensable. Then, monsieur, I would resist as far as my strength permitted. When that strength failed, I should be sure of a refuge. Death would certainly screen me both from bad laws and their consequences. Voluntary death, Francis. End of Chapter 25, Part 1 Chapter 25, Part 2 No, monsieur, I'd have courage to live out every throw of anguish fate assigned me, and principle to contend for justice and liberty to the last. I see you would have made no patient grizzle, and now supposing fate had merely assigned you the lot of an old maid, what then? How would you have liked celibacy? Not much, certainly. An old maid's life must doubtless be void and vapid, her heart strained and empty. Had I been an old maid, I should have spent existence in efforts to fill the void and ease the aching. I should have probably failed and died weary and disappointed, despised and of no account, like other single women. But I'm not an old maid, she added quickly. I should have been, though, but for my master. I should never have suited any man but Professor Crimseworth. No other gentleman, French, English or Belgian would have thought me amiable or handsome. And I doubt whether I should have cared for the approbation of many others if I could have obtained it. Now I have been Professor Crimseworth's wife eight years, and what is he in my eyes? Is he honourable, beloved?  She and I were standing side by side. She threw her arms round me and strained me to her heart with passionate earnestness. The energy of her whole being glowed in her dark and then dilated eye, and crimsoned her animated cheek. Her look and movement were like inspiration. In one there was such a flash, in the other such a power. Half an hour afterwards, when she had become calm, I asked where all that wild vigor was gone which had transformed her air while, and made her glance so thrilling and ardent, her action so rapid and strong. She looked down, smiling softly and passively. I cannot tell where it is gone, Monsieur, said she, but I know that whenever it is wanted it will come back again. Behold us now at the close of the ten years, and we have realised an independency. The rapidity with which we attained this end had its origin in three reasons. Firstly, we worked so hard for it. Secondly, we had no encumbrances to delay success. Thirdly, as soon as we had capital to invest, two well-skilled councillors, one in Belgium, one in England, Viz Fandenhouten and Hunston, gave us each a word of advice as to the sort of investment to be chosen. The suggestion made was judicious, and being promptly acted on the result proved gainful. I need not say how gainful. I communicated details to Messe's Fandenhouten and Hunston. Nobody else can be interested in hearing them. Accounts being wound up and our professional connection disposed of, we both agreed that as Mammon was not our master nor his service, that in which we desired to spend our lives, as our desires were temperate and our habits unostentatious, we now had abundance to live on, abundance to leave our boy, and should besides, always have a balance on hand, which properly managed by right sympathy and unselfish activity might help philanthropy in her enterprises and put solace into the hand of charity. To England, we now resolved to take wing. We arrived there safely. Francis realised the dream of her lifetime. We spent a whole summer and autumn in travelling from end to end of the British Isles, and afterwards passed a winter in London. Then we thought it high time to fix our residence. My heart yearned towards my native county of Blankshire, and it is in Blankshire I now live. It is in the library of my own home I am now writing. That home lies amid a sequestered and rather hilly region, 30 miles removed from X. A region whose verdure, the smoke of mills has not yet solid, whose water still run pure, whose swells of moorland preserve in some ferny glens that lie between them, the very primal wildness of nature, her moss, her bracken, her bluebells, her scents of reed and heather, her free and fresh breezes. My house is a picturesque and not too spacious dwelling with low and long windows, a trellis and leaf veiled porch over the front door, just now on this summer evening looking like an arch of roses and ivy. The garden is chiefly laid out in lawn, formed of the sod of the hills, with herbage short and soft as moss, full of its own peculiar flowers, tiny and star-like, embedded in the minute embroidery of their fine foliage. At the bottom of the sloping garden there is a wicket, which opens upon a lane as green as the lawn, very long, shady and little frequented. On the turf of this lane generally appear the first daisies of spring, hence its name, Daisy Lane, saving also as a distinction to the house. It terminates, the lane I mean, in a valley full of wood, which wood, chiefly oak and beech, spreads shadowy about the viscinage of a very old mansion, one of the Elizabethan structures, much larger as well as more antique than Daisy Lane. The property and residents of an individual familiar both to me and to the reader. Yes, in Hunston Wood, for so are those glades and that grey building with many gables and more chimneys named, abides York Hunston, still unmarried. Never, I suppose, having yet found his ideal, though I know at least a score of young ladies within a circuit of forty miles who would be willing to assist him in the search. The estate fell to him by the death of his father five years since. He has given up trade after having made by it sufficient to pay off some encumbrances by which the family heritage was burdened. I say he abides here, but I do not think he is resident above five months out of the twelve. He wanders from land to land and spends some part of each winter in town. He frequently brings visitors with him when he comes to Blankshire, and these visitors are often foreigners. Sometimes he has a German metavisition, sometimes a French savant. He had once a dissatisfied and savage-looking Italian who neither sang nor played, and a whom Francis affirmed that he had too l'air d'un conspirateur. What English guests Hunston invites are all either men of Birmingham or Manchester, hard men seemingly knit up in one's thought, whose talk is of free trade. The foreign visitors too are politicians. They take a wider theme, European progress, the spread of liberal sentiments over the continent. On their mental tablets the names of Russia, Austria and the Pope are inscribed in red ink. I have heard some of them talk vigorous sense. Yea, I have been present at polyglot discussions in the old oak-clined dining room at Hunston Wood, where a singular insight was given of the sentiments entertained by resolute minds respecting old northern despotisms and old southern superstitions. Also, I have heard much twaddle, announced chiefly in French and Deutsch, but let that pass. Hunston himself tolerated the driveling theorists. With the practical men he seemed leagueed hand and heart. When Hunston is staying alone at the wood, which seldom happens, he generally finds his way two or three times a week to Dady Lane. He has a philanthropic motive for coming to smoke his cigar in our porch on summer evenings. He says he does it to kill the earwigs amongst the roses, with which insects, but for his benevolent fumigations, he intimates we should certainly be overrun. On wet days, too, we are almost sure to see him. According to him, it gets on time to work me into lunacy by treading on my mental corns, or to force from Mrs. Krimsworth revelations of the dragon within her by insulting the memory of Hawfer and Tell. We also go frequently to Hunston Wood, and both I and Francis Relisher visit there highly. If there are other guests, their characters are an interesting study. Their conversation is exciting and strange. The absence of all local narrowness, both in the host and his chosen society, gives a metropolitan, almost a cosmopolitan, freedom and largeness to the talk. Hunston himself is a polite man in his own house. He has, when he chooses to employ it, an inexhaustible power of entertaining guests. His very mansion, too, is interesting. The rooms look storied. The passage is legendary. The low-ceiling chambers, with their long rows of diamond-pained lattices, have an old world haunted there. In his travels he has collected stores of Articles of Vertu, which are well and tastefully disposed in his panelled or tapestryed rooms. I have seen there one or two pictures and one or two pieces of statuary, which many an aristocratic connoisseur might have envied. When I and Francis have dined and spent an evening with Hunston, he often walks home with us. His wood is large and some of the timber is old and of huge growth. There are winding ways in it which pursued through glade and break make the walk back to Daisy Lane a somewhat long one. Many a time when we've had the benefit of a full moon and when the night has been mild and barmy, when moreover a certain nightingale has been singing and a certain stream hid in alders has lent the song a soft accompaniment, the remote church bell of the one hamlet in a district of ten miles has told midnight ere the lord of the woods left us at our porch. Free-flowing was his talk at such hours and far more quiet and gentle than in the daytime and before numbers. He would then forget politics and discussion and would dwell on the past times of his house, on his family history, on himself and on his own feelings. Subjects each and all invested with a peculiar zest for they were each and all unique. One glorious night in June after I'd been taunting him about his ideal bride and asking him when she would come and graft her foreign beauty on the old Hunston oak, he answered suddenly, you call her ideal but see here is a shadow and there cannot be a shadow without a substance. He had led us from the depth of the winding way into a glade from whence the beaches withdrew leaving it open to the sky. An unclouded moon poured her light into this glade and Hunston held out under her beam a ivory miniature. Francis with eagerness examined it first and she gave it to me still however pushing a little face close to mine and seeking in my eyes what I thought of the portrait. I thought it represented a very handsome and very individual looking female face with as he had once said straight and harmonious features. It was dark, the hair raven black swept not only from the brow but from the temples seemed thrust away carelessly as if such beauty dispensed with and they despised arrangement. The Italian eye looked straight into you and an independent determined eye it was. The mouth was as firm as fine, the chin ditto. On the back of the miniature was gilded Lucia. That is a real head was my conclusion. Hunston smiled I think so he replied always real in Lucia and she was somebody would have liked to marry but could not. I should certainly have liked to marry her and that I have not done so is a proof that I could not. He repossessed himself of the miniature now again in Francis's hand and put it away. What do you think of it? He asked of my wife as he buttoned his coat over it. I am sure Lucia once wore chains and broke them was the strange answer. I do not mean matrimonial chains she added correcting herself as if she feared misinterpretation but social chains of some sort. The face is that of one who has made an effort and a successful and triumphant effort to rest some vigorous and valued faculty from insupportable constraint. And when Lucia's faculty got free I am certain it spread wide pinions and carried her higher than she hesitated. Then what? Demanded Hunston. Then Le Corvinos permitted you to follow. I think you grow spiteful impertinent. Lucia has trodden the stage continued Francis. You never seriously thought of marrying her. You admired her originality, her fearlessness, her energy of body and mind. You delighted in her talents whatever that was whether song, dance, or dramatic representation. You worshipped her beauty which was of the sort after your own heart but I am sure she filled a sphere from whence you would never have thought of taking a wife. Ingenious remarked Hunston whether true or not is another question. Meantime don't you feel your little lamp of a spirit wax very pale besides such a Girondolle as Lucia's? Yes. Candid at least and the Professor will soon be dissatisfied with the dim light you give. Will you, monsieur? My sight was always too weak to endure a blaze Francis and we had now reached the wicked. I said a few pages back that this is a sweet summer evening. It is. There has been a series of lovely days and this is the loveliest. The hay is just carried from my fields. Its perfume still lingers in the air. Francis proposed to me an hour or two since to take tea out on the lawn. I see the round table loaded with china placed under a certain beach. Hunston is expected. Nay, I hear he has come. There is his voice laying down the lawn at some point with authority. That of Francis replied, she opposes him, of course. They are disputing about Victor of whom Hunston affirms that his mother is making a milk-sob. Mrs. Crimsworth retaliates. Better a thousand times he should become a milk-sob than what he, Hunston, calls a fine lad. And moreover she says that if Hunston were to become a fixture in the neighbourhood, and were not a mere comet coming and going, no one knows how, when, where or why. She should be quite uneasy till she had got Victor away to a school at least a hundred miles off. For that with his mutinous maxims and unpractical dogmas he would ruin a score of children. I have a word to say of Victor ere I shut this manuscript in my desk, but it must be a brief one, for I hear the tinkle of silver on porcelain. Victor is as little of a pretty child as I am of a handsome man or his mother of a fine woman. He is pale and spare, with large eyes, as dark as those of Francis, and as deeply set as mine. His shape is symmetrical enough but slight, his health is good. I never saw a child smile less than he does, nor one who knits such a formidable brow when sitting over a book that interests him, or while listening to tales of adventure, peril, or wonder, narrated by his mother, Hunston, or myself. But though still he is not unhappy, though serious, not morose, he has a susceptibility to pleasurable sensations almost too keen for its amounts to enthusiasm. He learned to read in the old-fashioned way out of a spelling book at his mother's knee, and as he got on without driving by that method she thought it unnecessary to buy him ivory letters or to try any of the other inducements to learning now deemed indispensable. When he could read he became a glutton of books and is so still. His toys have been few, and he has never wanted more. For those he possesses he seems to have contracted a partiality amounting to affection. This feeling directed towards one or two living animals of the house strengthens almost to a passion. Mr. Hunston gave him a mastiff cub, which he called York after the donor. It grew to a superb dog whose fierceness, however, was much modified by the companionship and caresses of its young master. He would go nowhere, do nothing without York. York lay at his feet while he learned his lessons, played with him in the garden, walked with him in the lane and wood, sat near his chair at meals, was fed always by his own hand was the first thing he sought in the morning the last he left at night. York accompanied Mr. Hunston one day to X and was bitten in the street by a dog in a rapid state. As soon as Hunston had brought him home and had informed me of the circumstance I went into the yard and shot him where he lay licking his wound. He was dead in an instant. He had not seen me level the gun I stood behind him. I had scarcely been ten minutes in the house when my ear was struck with sounds of anguish. I repaired to the yard once more for they proceeded thence. Victor was kneeling beside his dead mastiff, bent over it embracing its bull-like neck and lost in a passion of the wildest woe. He saw me. Oh, papa, I'll never forgive you. I'll never forgive you," was his exclamation. You shot York. I saw it from the window. I never believed you could be so cruel. I can love you no more. I had much adieu to explain to him with a steady voice the stern necessity of the deed. He still, with that inconsolable and bitter accent which I cannot render, but which pierced my heart repeated, He might have been cured. You should have tried. You should have burnt the wound with a hot iron, or covered it with caustic. You gave no time. And now it is too late. He is dead. He sank fairly down on the senseless carcass. I waited patiently a long while till his grief had somewhat exhausted him. And then I lifted him in my arms and carried him to his mother, sure that she would comfort him best. She had witnessed the whole scene from a window. She would not come out for fear of increasing my difficulties by her emotion, but she was ready now to receive him. She took him to her kind heart and onto her gentle lap, consult him but with her lips, her eyes, her soft embrace for some time. And then, when his sobs diminished, told him that York had felt no pain in dying, and that if he had been left to expire naturally, his end would have been most horrible. Above all, she told him that I was not cruel, for that idea seemed to give exquisite pain to poor Victor. That it was my affection for York and him that which had made me act so, and as I was now almost heartbroken to see him weep thus bitterly. Victor would have been no true son of his father had these considerations, these reasons, breathed in so low, so sweet a tone, married to caretice, so benign, so tender, to look so inspired with pitying sympathy produced no effect on him. They did produce an effect.  Looking up shortly, he asked his mother to tell him over again what she had said about York having suffered no pain, and my not being cruel. The barmy words being repeated, he again pillowed his cheek on her breast, and was again tranquil. Some hours after he came to me in my library, asked if I forgave him and desired to be reconciled. I drew the lad to my side, and there I kept him a good while and had much talk with him, in the course of which he disclosed many points of feeling and thought I approved of in my son. I found it is true few elements of the good fellow or the fine fellow in him scant sparkles of the spirit which loves to flash over the wine cup, or which kindles the passions to a destroying fire. But I saw in the soil of his heart healthy and swelling germs of compassion, affection, fidelity. I discovered in the garden of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome principles, reason, justice, moral courage that promised, if not blighted, a fertile bearing. So I bestowed on his large forehead and on his cheek still pale with tears a proud and contented kiss, and sent him away comforted. Yet I saw him the next day, laid on the mound under which York had been buried, his face covered with his hands. He was melancholy for some weeks, and more than a year elapsed before he would listen to any proposal of having another dog. Victor learns fast. He must soon go to Eaton, where I suspect his first year or two will be utter wretchedness. To leave me, his mother, and his home will give his heart an agonized wrench. Then the fagging will not suit him. But emulation, first after knowledge, the glory of success, will stir and reward him in time. Meantime I feel in myself a strong repugnance to fix the hour which will uproot my sole olive branch, and transplant it far from me. And when I speak to Francis on the subject, I am heard with a kind of patient pain, as though I alluded to some fearful operation at which her nature shudders, that from which her fortitude will not permit her to recoil. The step must, however, be taken, and it shall be. For though Francis will not make a milksop of her son, she will accustom him to a style of treatment, a forbearance, a congenial tenderness he will meet with from none else. She sees, as I also see, a something in Victor's temper, a kind of electrical ardour and power which emits now and then ominous sparks. Hunston calls it his spirit, and says it should not be curbed. I call it the leaven of the offending Adam, and consider that it should be, if not whipped out of him, at least soundly disciplined, and that he will be cheap of any amount of either bodily or mental suffering which will ground him radically in the art of self-control. Francis gives this something in her son's marked character no name, but when it appears in the grinding of his teeth, in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce revolt of feeling against disappointment, mischance, sudden sorrow or supposed injustice, she folds him to her breast, or takes him to walk with her alone in the wood. Then she reasons with him like any philosopher, and to reason Victor is ever accessible. Then she looks at him with eyes of love, and by love Victor can be infallibly subjugated. But will reason or love be the weapons with which in future the world will meet his violence? Oh no, for that flash in his black eye, for that cloud on his bony brow, for that compression of his statuesque lips, the lad will someday get blows instead of blandishments, kicks instead of kisses. Then for the fit of mute fury which will sicken his body and madden his soul, then for the ordeal of merited and salutary suffering, out of which he will come my trust, a wiser and a better man. I see him now. He stands by Hunston, who is seated on the lawn under the beach. Hunston's hand rests on the boy's collar, and he is instilling God knows what principles into his ear. Victor looks well just now, for he listens with a sort of smiling interest. He never looked so like his mother as when he smiles. Pity the sunshine breaks out so rarely. Victor has a preference for Hunston, full as strong as I deem desirable, being considerably more potent, decided and indiscriminating than any I ever entertained for that personage myself. Francis too regards it with a sort of unexpressed anxiety. While his son leans on Hunston's knee or rests against his shoulder, she roves with restless movement round, like a dove guarding its young from a hovering hawk. She says she wishes Hunston had children of his own, for then he would better know the danger of inciting their pride and indulging their foibles. Francis approaches my library window, puts aside the honeysuckle which half covers it and tells me tea is ready. Seeing that I continue busy, she enters the room, comes near me quietly and puts her hand on my shoulder. Monsieur chop appliqué. I shall soon have done. She draws a chair near and sits down to wait till I have finished. Her presence is as pleasant to my mind as the perfume of the fresh hay and spicy flowers, as the glow of the westering sun, as the repose of the midsummer eve are to my senses. But Hunston comes, I hear his step, and there he is bending through the lattice, from which he has thrust away the woodbine with unsparing hand, disturbing two bees and a butterfly. Krimsworth, I say, Krimsworth, take that pen out of his handmistress and make him lift up his head. Well, Hunston, I hear you. I was at X yesterday. Your brother Ned is getting richer than creases by railway speculations. They call him in the Peace Hall a stag of ten. And I've heard from Brown, Monsieur and Madame Bandon Hooten and Jean-Baptiste Tocqueuf coming to see you next month. He mentions the pulleys, too. He says their domestic harmony is not the finest in the world, but in business they are doing all ne per mieux. Which circumstance, he concludes, will be a sufficient consolation to both, for any little crosses in the affections. Why don't you invite the pulleys to blankure, Krimsworth? I should so like to see your first flames, Oreid. Mistress, don't be jealous, but he loved that lady to distraction. I know it for a fact. Brown says she weighs twelve stones now. You see what you've lost, Mr. Professor. Now, Monsieur and Madame, if you don't come to tea, Victor and I will begin without you. Papa, come! End of Chapter 25, Part 2. Recording by Martin Geeson in Hazelmere Surrey. End of The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte.


وأقول في القرآن ما جاءت به آياته فهو الكاريم المنزاله وأقول قال الله جل جلاله والمصطف الهدي ولا أتأوّاله الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على عبد الله ورسوله نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته كما always we begin with the praise of Allah by asking Allah to exalt the mention of grand peace to our messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم to his family and his companions we've been speaking about the tarbiyah of our children and remember all of this is in the context of the rights of the child over the parent and the responsibilities and obligations of the parent towards the child and we came to the right the responsibility of a tarbiyah of nurturing preparing and educating our children and having spoken about some of the principles behind tarbiyah examples of tarbiyah we now came to talk about educating our children in terms of Islam and الحمد لله we finish whatever Allah made easy for us to finish in that regard and now we come on to the topic of the worldly education a lot of people might be tempted and even I sometimes find myself tempted to use the expression secular education but I actually don't think this is a very good expression to use because it indicates the word secular indicates that this education has nothing to do with the religion and isn't governed by the religion and that's not true the religion of Islam is one that calls you to the best of this world and the next and it calls for your children to have the best of this world and the next and therefore the religion of Islam governs the matters of our worldly lives it governs what we're allowed to do and not allowed to do and it also directs us in worldly benefits just as it directs us in our acts of worship and coming near to Allah سبحانه وتعالى so I don't really want to call it secular education I'm instead going to call it worldly matters and Allah سبحانه وتعالى He criticized and He rebuked the one whose knowledge is no more than the worldly matters worldly education الله عز وجل said in Surat Al-Rum يعلمون ظاهرا من الحياة الدنيا وهم عن الآخرة هم غافلون they know what is apparent from this worldly life but as for the hereafter they are unaware of it look at how Allah عز وجل rebukes the disbelievers and I believe this is an ayah that is very applicable to the disbelievers today so many people يعلمون ظاهرا من الحياة الدنيا they know what is apparent from this worldly life and that includes things like science science deals with observation primarily things that can be observed and tested and repeated and ultimately that is ظاهرا من الحياة الدنيا that is what is apparent from the worldly life but as for the matters of the hereafter they are unaware so whatever you teach your children from the matters of this worldly life it should never ever be at the exclusion or it should never be at the exclusion of the religion of Islam so that they become people who know so much about the حياة الدنيا but they don't know anything about the آخرة and that's so sad to see some Muslims falling into this and we know the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told us you're going to follow the ways of the people who came before you we see so many Muslims subhan Allah excelling in the sciences in mathematics in languages in their careers becoming subhan Allah at the forefront of their field but subhan Allah becoming more and more ignorant about Islam and more and more ignorant about the آخرة and that's not what we want to see if we want for some of our children to excel in different fields different sciences in the worldly life then we want them to do so as practicing Muslims and that's ultimately what we want for our kids in the sense that we talked about the kids becoming scholars and we said that not every child will be able to do that we want every child to have the minimum knowledge that every Muslim needs in terms of their Islamic knowledge not every child is going to be able to become a scholar not every child is going to choose to study the voluntary aspects of طلب العلم the voluntary seeking of knowledge no matter how virtuous it is so if our children do go into matters of the worldly life if they become business people if they become scientists if they become experts in whatever field they are in engineering, in medicine whatever field it might be they become experts in that field we want them to do so as practicing Muslims as Muslims who fear Allah and we have to understand as well that the worldly sciences should be a servant to the religion and it's not the case that the religion should be in a state of servitude to our worldly life what do I mean by that these worldly sciences why do we pursue them what is our intention what's our near behind it is it just this حيات الدنيا if that's the case then wallahi we have wasted our time there is nothing beneficial from that but if it's the case that we do these worldly sciences and we study them and learn them and there are benefits for that in our religious obligations and our religious life then this is where the benefit comes in so for example a person learns a particular science and uses that science to benefit Islam and the Muslims or even on a much simpler level a person learns a particular worldly science and then they achieve a job through that and through that by the permission of Allah they're able to give صدقه to feed their family to take care of their responsibilities to avoid debt to avoid a haram income and so on so all of this is beneficial when your worldly life is something which is a it's job is to serve you in your religious obligations and your religious life and that's how it should be and if you keep that near you can even be rewarded for your studies that you do in the worldly life you can even be rewarded for those if your near is and your احتصاب your expectation of reward is that oh Allah I am doing this action for a more lofty purpose a more important reason than just for the sake of the needs of this life something more than that maybe it is so that I can fulfill obligations that you have commanded me to fulfill oh Allah so if a person keeps their intention sincerely for Allah that I'm learning these things and I'm in this worldly life doing these worldly sciences for something that will insha'Allah is an obligation that Allah has put upon me to relieve a burden or to support me in my religious obligations and to support the Muslims in general and this can be something which can be of benefit insha'Allah and we have an evidence for that from the evidences for that is the hadith of أبي هوريرة رضي الله عن the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said المؤمن قوي خير وأحب إلى الله من المؤمن ضعيف وفي كل خير احرس على ما ينفعك واستعين بالله ولا تعجز وإن أصابك شيء فلا تقول لو أنني فعلت كان كذا وكذا ولكن قل قدر الله وما شاء فعل فإن لو تفتحوا عمر الشيطان أبي هوريرة رضي الله عن المؤمن صلى الله عليه وسلم that he said the strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer and both of them have good in them and now we come to the part the Shahid that we want from this statement احرس على ما ينفعك بكين for what will benefit you بكين for what will benefit you always be looking for what will benefit you this here and نفع here is not restricted to the matters of the religion rather it encompasses the matters of the religion and the matters of the dunya but when those matters of the dunya are نفع they're beneficial and that's what we want to bring as a delil here for the fact that the worldly matters when they are of benefit in your religion or towards your religious obligations they can be praise worthy to a certain extent if you have that نیا and احتصاب here is the evidence احرس على ما ينفعك the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he didn't specify the benefit بكين have حرس بحرس for what will benefit you بكين for what will benefit you the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he didn't limit this benefit to the matters of the deen he didn't say for example احرس على ما ينفعك بكين for what will benefit you in the religion rather he kept it open anything that will benefit you and from this is an evidence of the permissibility of teaching our children worldly matters if those matters are من ما ينفع ولا يضر from the matters that benefit and they don't harm they're beneficial so from the beneficial matters it is permissible based on this hadith it is permissible for us to teach our children beneficial worldly matters احرس على ما ينفعك be keen for what will benefit you واستعم بالله and seek the help of Allah and subhan Allah look how the religion is integrated into everything the religion is integrated into everything that we do even if you are seeking a benefit for the worldly life in the worldly life you still seek the help of Allah واستعم بالله seek the help of Allah because Allah is the one that controls the matters of the dunya and the akhirah everything is in the hands of Allah and you can't achieve anything without Allah's help we talked about that in the hadith of ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما and the tarbiyah the prophet ﷺ gave to him وَلَا تَعْجِسَ don't ever feel that you can't achieve it don't ever feel you've been defeated don't ever give up and stop working and say that I'm ISIS I can't do it I can't do it can't be done have big lofty goals but make sure that you're not getting deluded also in the dunya make sure that sometimes we have such lofty goals in the dunya and such high aspirations but we don't have those aspirations in the deen and we trick and lie to ourselves we tell ourselves lies we tell ourselves that I'm doing this to benefit the Muslims I'm working 14 hour days to benefit the Muslims and in reality it's taking you away from more important things like knowledge and so on وَلَا تَعْجِسَ don't ever feel that you can't do it وَإِنَ أَصَلَبَكَشَيْعُونَ and if something happens to you don't say if only I did this it would be like this and this don't say if this happened it would have been like that if only like this it could have been like that but say it was the decree of Allah and he does whatever he wills قدر الله ومن شاء فعل because saying if only opens the door to the actions of the shaitan so I believe this hadith is a fundamental principle as it relates to the issue of teaching your children everything that benefits them including matters of the worldly life as long as those matters of the worldly life are beneficial and those matters of the worldly life are matters that إن شاء الله don't harm them and don't bring them away from Islam but they are matters that are from the things that everybody has to deal with and we know in the hadith of حنضلة الأسدي رضي الله عن he mentioned he said that when we are with the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم يذكرنا بالناري والجنة he reminds us of the fire and he reminds us of paradise as though the two of those things are in front of our eyes and when we leave from the messenger of Allah he said to the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم فإذا خرجنا من عندك when we leave from where you are عافسنا الأزواجة والأولاد والضيعت فنسينا كثيرا he said that we become busy with our wives and our children and our worldly life business and so on and we forget much of what the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said and the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to him لو تدومون على ما تكونون عندي وفي الذكر لصافحتكم الملائكة he said that if you were to remain in that state that you are like when you are with me the angels would shake your hands on the roads and in your beds he said ولكن يا حنظلة ساعة وساعة but oh Hanzala there is a time for this and there is a time for that and he said it three times صلى الله عليه وسلم ساعة وساعة ساعة وساعة ساعة وساعة there's a time for this and a time for that a time for this and a time for this and a time for that a time for this and a time for that so that's from the evidence that there is an allowance well I tend to not see it becoming a dunya don't forget your portion of the dunya there is an allowance for the worldly life and educating your children as it relates the worldly life is not a bad thing as long as that is at the right place and the right time and in the right way so it's at the right place the right time and the right amount it's not excluding the religion so they become like those people that Allah said about them يعلمون ظاهرهم من الحياة الدنيا وهم عن الأخيرة وهم غافرون they know the apparent nature of this world but they're unaware when it comes to the hereafter and it's at the right amount and the right time and it's from those things which benefit them إحرس على ما ينفعك look and be keen for what will benefit you and we have another evidence in the statement of أمر ابن الخطاب رضي الله عن he said علموا أولادكم السباحة والرمي والفروسية he said teach your children swimming and a rami which is archery or shooting and الفروسية horse riding and all three of these things are from the worldly life they're matters of worldly knowledge but they're matters of knowledge that have the potential to benefit in terms of Islam all of those have the potential to benefit the Muslim either to benefit them in their personal life like swimming which could be an essential skill like an essential life skill so from this we could take the importance of teaching our children worldly skills that will benefit them in their life life skills could be things like leadership or things that might help them in terms of keep them safe like swimming for example or it could be anything that is you know beneficial that is a beneficial skill that a child can learn from the matters of the worldly life so to teach them سباحة teach them swimming and as for our rami and الفروسية these are both related to war because the Muslims in that time that's what they used to fight upon they used to fight upon horses they used to fight with archery firing bows and arrows so ultimately and our rami is a general word for anything that is anything that's shot whether it's an arrow or anything else so ultimately these are things that are in the worldly life but they're things which relate to the religion so you're teaching your children something which will benefit them in their life or will benefit Islam and the Muslims one way or the other these are the kind of worldly beneficial things that we should be looking to teach our children and so I would say from the most important of the worldly knowledge that you can teach your children is one of two things number one the things that will benefit them personally in their life could be a life lesson could be a life skill like leadership or working as part of a team or it could be a skill of presenting your ideas or something like that something like swimming and likewise anything which will benefit Islam and the Muslims from it because if you look at the statement of Omar here it's either something which will benefit them personally in their life provided and prove to be a great benefit to them in their life or something which will benefit the Muslims like the examples that Omar gave here of Ar-Rami and Al-Fursiyah and also even the issue of things like exercise and keeping fit and healthy are still things which are beneficial for you and your Dean because if you can keep your children healthy and they are fit and they exercise well then إن شاء الله و تعالى this is more likely that they will be able to worship Allah for longer they will be إن شاء الله و تعالى more healthy and able to do their عبادات in a better way with the permission of Allah سبحانه و تعالى so these are the kind of worldly things that we should be giving the most concerned to things that will benefit them in of themselves and things that will benefit Islam and the Muslims so now I want to come in the last part of this episode to talk about our children and school and in the next episode إن شاء الله و تعالى I'm going to talk specifically about homeschooling and we had some questions on that from some of the students who are following the course they were asking about homeschooling and what is your advice about homeschooling إن شاء الله و تعالى I'm going to give a نصيحة إن شاء الله in the next episode as comprehensively as I can as to how to start homeschooling your children and some of the benefits of homeschooling إن شاء الله but right now I want to address in this episode the majority of our children go to school and I want to start with an ayah in terms of my advice to the parents whose children go to school I want to start with an ayah الله عز وجل سرياء يهل الذين آمنوا قو أنفسكم و أهليكم نارا or you who believe save yourselves and your family from a fire وقودوا الناس و الحجار whose fuel is men and stones الآية سبحان الله الله عز وجل commanded us to protect our families to the maximum extent possible and Allah عز وجل told us فتقوا الله مستطعتهم have taqwa of Allah as much as you can and I believe these are two essential elements of how a parent can nurture their child in the worldly sciences when their child is in school the first one is saving your family from the fire the second one is having as much taqwa as you can so when it comes to saving your family from the fire protecting your children from the things which could cause them to be from the people of the fire and ultimately there are two things which cause a person to be from the people of the fire if we categorize all of the sins into two categories and they are شهوات and شبوات they are the desires that come from the nefs and the shaitan stokes them up in the nefs and when the soul is constantly inclined towards evil the desires for things that are wrong and things that are evil and things that are blame worthy and then there are شوبوات and the شوبوات are confusion misconceptions things that are they have شبهن بالحق they resemble the truth but they're not true sort of you can call them false notions misconceptions misguidance and these really are the two that are alluded to in the statement of الله عز وجل إن عربنا الأمانة على السماوات والأرض والجبال فأبين أن يحملناها وأشفقنا منها وحملها الإنسان إنه كان ظالوما جهولة at the end of صورة الحزاب that we offered the responsibility to the heavens and the earth and the mountains they declined it they were fearful of it and mankind took it on indeed he was incredibly oppressive and incredibly ignorant the oppressiveness is when you know something that you know it's wrong you understand that it's wrong but your desires you crave it and as for the ignorance is when you become confused by doubts and misconceptions and misguidance and this is also alluded to in صورة الفاتحة غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين not the path of those whom your anger has that your anger has come upon ولا الله and those who Allah's anger has come upon of those who know the truth and they continue in the falsehood and the ضالين they are those people who don't know the difference between what is true and what is false so ultimately there are two things that misguide mankind in general the first is شهوات desires and craving for things that are wrong and the second are شهوات which are misconceptions misguidance and we need to do our very very best to protect our children from that and there is something that I sometimes hear people say and it is from the worst and from the the greatest examples of ignorance and the worst examples of foolishness that we hear people say is they say expose your children to some of the haram so that like they won't they won't go out of control and they won't go into the haram after that give them a little bit of haram so give them something don't restrict them from the haram completely and there's enough to refute the statement of Allah عز وجل يا يهلذين آمنوا قو أنفسكم وآليكم نارا or you who believe save your family save yourselves and your family from a fire whose fuel is men and stones how does this how do you reconcile between this and between allowing your children just to do you know allow them 20% of the haram to save them from the 80% which of the صحابة did this which of the تابعين of the سلف الصالح they told you that this is the manhage of تربية ولا أحد منهم none of them not even one and this is just nothing but the the confusion and the deception of the shaitan rather your job is as Allah عز وجل فتقوا الله مستطعتهم have as much تقوى as you can you don't know the sin that is going to put you or your children into the fire it could be something very small the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم لا تحكيرون من المعروف شيء don't belittle any good deed حافظ ابن حجر he commented on this رحمه الله و تعالى and he said a person doesn't know the good deed that could be the one that brings them to a sin that could be the one even the small sin that could be the one that puts them in the fire so it's not for a person to belittle the good deeds or to belittle the sins or to see the sins as being too small and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he told us إياكم و محقرات الذنوب he said keep away from the sins that people consider to be very very small very insignificant so ultimately we have to do everything we can to protect our children in every way that we can from the شهوات and from the شروحات but ultimately when we're talking about the setting of schools and education institutions it's often not possible to get things the way that we would like them to be perfectly and that's why my advice genuinely is to all parents نصيح my sincere advice is that if you're able to homeschool your children do it because I don't know anything which corrupts children more than the current state of schooling and education in the world today in every country it is from the biggest of the supporters of the shaitan and the biggest of the things that take our children astray and I think anyone who opens even one eye to this will see it anyone who is even remotely honest will see that the education system in the world today is destroying our children but at the end of the day فتقوا الله مستطعتم fear Allah as much as you can not everybody can homeschool their kids we understand that and that's why we don't say that it is obligatory because the simple situation is that we know that most people or many people would not be able to do that but if you're putting your kids in school فتقوا الله مستطعتم do as much تقوى as you can so first of all you choose the best school that you have an option or an availability to take You know سبحان الله some parents they look at the school for what it does in the dunya to be honest I wouldn't even even give any concern for what the school does in the dunya only look is this school going to be a reason to put my child into jehanam or is the school going to be a reason تتفضلوا وشكرا لهم. nie تتفضلوا لهم أنه يارضال. أو أنت تتناول في مدلوي ، بسبب أنها تؤية جيدية، أو بسبب أنها تفضل مكس ، أو أسخح وخطوية من أسطارة والسجن، لا تفضلوا بكل تعلق. دla you only concern. أجرد your best school that you can. ثم نعرف بأن مباشرة المدينة التي تجدتها ستكون مباشرة جيدة لكي you have chosen the best school that is available in your country وانت تجدتها المساعدة لإسلام ومساعدة الإسلام لكن هناك الكثير من مباشرة ومدينة التي حدثتها لأن حتى إذا كانت المدينة في مباشرة مباشرة في إسلام وانت تجدت هناك أدائاه الأبواب التي ستكون لن يكون أدائها لإستمارة مباشرة حتى تجدتها لذا تبقى الأبواب الذي مساعدة مباشرة من الكثير من the school that might even have an Islamic ethos أو يتعلم أبواب الإسلام أو يكون لأنه في وضع الإسلام لكن الأبواب الذين يموتون مباشرة مباشرة ل...? لن يكون لديهم نفس المساعدة التي تريدونها لكي تصميمك لذلك when I say this, Allah this is the advice of someone who has seen this and the advice of someone who wants good for you and for your kids that I've been in this situation, I've seen this situation I've worked a long long time with young kids from different schools I've seen kids from Islamic schools from non-Islamic schools and ultimately all of them have been exposed to severe trials and tribulations fit and tests and trials from the education that they received in those institutions even the best of them because if it's not the education then the danger is the people around them we know the message of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم المرء على دين خليله فلينظر أحدكم من يخالل A person is upon the religion of their close friend لذلك لكل من ينظروا من يخالل كم يخالل المرء على الناس يتبعون سبحان الله يتبعون sometimes the educational system might take your children away for 7 hours in a day or more or less than that سبحان الله كل ذلك يتبعون مع الناس يتبعون أشخاص منهم كما يتبعون شهوات وكما يتبعون شهوات وكما يتبعون مع المرء والمرء والمرء where the boys and the girls mix this is no doubt opening the shahawat for the kids opening the desires and might say well my children are young but ultimately it's setting a standard and a habit that will carry on for them when they are older and that's why when we have the kids even when they're young we prevent them from what is hara so that is one thing from the shahawat and then the second thing that we worry about as it relates to all of the schools whether they have an Islamic ethos or not are the shubahat and the shubahat are those misconceptions and confusion doubt that creeps into our children and wallah anyone who is involved working with kids has seen the increase in atheism in agnosticism in rejection of Islam among young boys and girls in schools today and this is a calamity wallah it is a moussiba it is a great calamity that we are suffering today in schools with young boys and girls leaving Islam committing apostasy expressing doubts about Islam and understand that this situation is an extreme example of shahawat and shubahat that's what it is it's an example of shahawat and shubahat and this is happening even in Islamic countries it's an example of desires and doubts and I used to believe in the beginning that the issue of doubt was stronger the journey of shubahat was stronger than the journey of the shahawat the desires but actually when I came to speak to these kids and to understand why they felt like they had to leave Islam I came to realise that the journey of the shahawat can be stronger for many of them that their desires they so much want to to see their friends doing and to be able to do it that they even reach the level where they are fearful or they feel that Islam doesn't have what they need for that and then when they feel that when the shaitan gets them from those shahawat how does the shaitan cement it within them how does the shaitan make them stick to it through what through shubahat so the example of this is the child wants to party wants to drink wants to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend wants to do some kind of haram and their nefs craves it and the shaitan tells them and their friends tell them and it builds them up like that the first time, second time third time but eventually it reaches a level where they are craving they wish they could live that life like the non-muslims are living and then along come shubahat misconceptions they tell them actually you know you think that Islam is true and you think you are so sure about it but did you know dot dot dot and then they justify their shahawat through the shubahat they use the shubahat to justify their desires so they say so you meet them and they say I don't want to be a Muslim anymore so why they say I don't want to be a Muslim anymore because I don't agree with the way that Islam treats women for example they say really that's your reason and when you go into it and you delve into it that's the justification that allows their desires to run free that's what the shaitan has told them to allow their desires to run free so how do we protect our children from the shubahat if the protection from the shahawat is the whatever we can give them we do our best for تقول الله مصطعت among the best schools we try to keep them among the best of friends any negative influences that happen we try to counter them with positive influences at home and through the masjid the Islamic centers and so on we do our very best to help them and to give them permissible alternatives for their desires and the desires don't have to always be matters of the heart matters of the opposite gender or whatever they can be desires can be matters of just desiring to do anything that's حرام we look for alternatives we try to keep them busy we try to give them permissible things that will benefit them in the worldly life but ultimately what comes and of course we teach them تسغير to نفس we teach them to purify themselves in اتوبة and استغفار and turning back to Allah but what happens how do we deal with the شبوحة how do we deal with misconceptions confusion misguidance especially when it can be so powerful in these days the way it can be presented the tools to present misguidance have in some ways never been more powerful in that sense I mean even if the the plot of the shaitan is weak in the qaida shaitani كنة ضعيفة the plot of the shaitan is ever weak but the availability the tools that reach into our homes videos and so on that are able to spread misguidance I will give a few points that I would recommend to the parents from the point of view of نصيحة as to how they can filter this and control it first of all I would advise you to take a responsibility as parents seriously the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said ألا كلكم راعن وكلكم مسؤولون عن رعيته all of your shepherds and all of you will be asked about your flock so make sure that you are observant of what is happening you're aware of the information that your children are taking in and you take it as your responsibility to try to keep them away from the things that will harm them as much as possible and when you see that our harm has touched them you try to remedy it and you try to correct it through the means that Islam has given you I think from the major things that a parent needs to do in terms of protecting their children from the شبهات is to talk to your children to talk to them and to know them and their personality and there are amazing examples of this to be honest that you find when you speak to people of parents who know their children and also when the child starts doing something wrong their parents straight away sees there's a change in my child I can observe something isn't right and then they address it and this leads me to my third piece of advice deal with issues quickly and decisively don't delay don't be from the people who delay the issue and say I will deal with it tomorrow and tomorrow because these are issues that get bigger and bigger and bigger the black dots become on the heart until the heart is sealed or the desires become so much that it leads the person to شبهات and confusion deal with the issues as they come and number four as we mentioned about being preemptive and ahead of the curve so try to anticipate the matters that are happening be aware of what's happening to kids other kids who are a little bit older and some of the issues they're going through be aware of it insha'Allah help out your friends who have kids who are a little bit older and be aware of what's going on so you can anticipate the kind of things that might happen to your children and be observant because ultimately if you're responsible that means you have the responsibility of observing what is happening of observing what the children are watching and one of the things I would advise sincerely is to control your children's access to the internet and to gadgets iPhones and iPads and tablets and whatever else people have keep it under control now ultimately we're not going to say that you should prevent your children from this completely because ultimately there is a place for everything and the world is moving in that direction and Alhamdulillah but a person a parent you've got to be you're responsible so you have to keep a degree of control over that keep an eye on things learn the technology so you can learn how to keep an eye and it's not about you being intrusive it's not about you being over the shoulder of your children because we spoke about teaching your children the مراقبة of Allah Azawajal of teaching them to fear Allah and teaching them that Allah is watching them but to be aware not to be not to be unaware of what's going on be aware keep an eye on things keep a look at things keep it friendly with your children to let your children know that's going to happen and to make them feel that it's part of your responsibility and say I wouldn't be a good parent if I didn't keep an eye on you and look after you so I'm not going to restrict you to the extent that you I'm restricting you from what's حلال or anything like that but what I'm going to try to do is keep an eye on what you're doing and give you advice and be like a companion to you be someone who is alongside you like Allah Azawajal mentioned وصحبه هم في الدنيا مع أوروبا accompany them your parents accompany them in this دنيا in a good way so there's a kind of a a صحبة there being around them and accompanying them especially as they get older and looking after them when everyone does we slipped up when we were younger and at the same time saw with your children but you teach your children the tools that they need and that's why in this series we mentioned the Islamic education before we mentioned the worldly education before we came to these matters if you've taught your children the مراقبة of Allah you've taught your children how to make tawba and istighfar how to turn back to Allah and how to repent and you've taught your children the danger of doing sins in private and you've taught your children the danger of bolstering of sins in public and so on then these are things that will help them as they approach these dangers and you kept to control you fear Allah as much as you can you try to keep them away from the haram as much as possible when teenagers watching this video and they might feel sad sometimes that their parents are restricting them or they might feel upset they might feel like I don't see why I'm not allowed to have such and such when my other friends have it wallah you don't know the good that your parents are doing for you you don't know wallah the good and subhan Allah perhaps يوم القيامة it would take you to realize subhan Allah on the day of judgment what your parents are doing for you protecting you from those things and ultimately if it means you have some restrictions but those restrictions are the reason for you to enter jannah then what they are excellent restrictions and Islam is full of restrictions Islam has full of hudud limits things you have to stay within so a Muslim shouldn't feel upset to have some restrictions placed upon them and even in this wallah I advise adults to restrict themselves not just children and don't feel when they are teenagers they might feel like you know it tell our parents to control our internet access and be careful about the gadgets but subhan Allah I would say the same for the adults and the last point I would make on this is be careful about using the gadgets in the TV as a way to get rid of your children just to get a break from your children like I can't just kids are just all around me all the time because subhan Allah you don't know what that's putting into the mind of your kids and if you see the cartoons the movies the songs that our kids are exposed to and I don't recommend you watch them or listen to them but if you just go to for example wikipedia and you just look at the plot or the lyrics for them you would see every kind of kabeer or from the kabeir from shirk polytheism zina evil words and speech the most evil every kind of immorality what is apparent and what is hidden you would see all of it in this music and these movies in their plots and their scripts in the words that they use and even in the cartoons for young children and magic and disbelief what only Allah knows how bad it is so my advice is don't feel that just to get away from your kids and get a break you put them in front of the tv or the ipad or the youtube unlimited without any control over what they're watching and what video comes next this is this is really a really big big issue so this is just some advice as it relates to the matter of children who are in school of course it does also apply to children who are not in school as well it's not only limited to that but I started this from the point of view of the child who is in school because they have a greater exposure to the shahawat and the shubahat to desires and to misguidance because they mix with a larger group of people in a very uncontrolled way in the next episode I'm going to talk about home schooling and many parents have asked advice about that how to begin some of the pitfalls and problems people fall into so from the point of view of the statement of the prophet this religion is about giving good advice I'm going to try to give whatever advice that Allah makes easy for me to give on the topic of home schooling and that's in the next episode and Allah عز وجل was best على نبينا محمد أجمعي السلام عليكم if you're enjoying these videos and you like to keep up to date with all of the courses we're going to be running make sure you head over to amauathome.com


Hi everyone, Dr. Aditi Bussells, City Councilman at large here to talk to you about some improvements that we're making to our water boil advisories. As you all may know, sometimes we experience issues with our water and for that we issue water boil advisories. We've heard you in terms of improving our communications and transparency with these advisories. So here are some things that I want to share with you about the changes that we're making. First and foremost, we'll be communicating more regularly on our social media channels to let you know if there's an advisory. Please make sure you're following our social media channels to get the most timely information. You can also sign up on our website for texts if there's a water boil advisory in your area. In addition to social media alerts, we will be pushing out press releases both when the advisory occurs and if it happens late at night the next day to make sure that you have the information you need to ensure that your water is safe. We have also added our community leaders, neighborhood groups, to ensure that we are getting this information about water boil advisories out to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. In addition to these changes, there are a couple of changes we're making to the advisories themselves. Moving forward, all of our water boil advisories will have a visual map that represents the areas that are impacted. In addition to that, we'll be including a sentence of neighboring areas that should also watch out for any discoloration of their water or any concerns that come up while this water boil advisory is in effect. And we hear you in terms of making sure that we get information out quickly. So know that these advisories will be pushed out multiple times to ensure that all of our communities are getting accurate information. Now keep in mind that our water is safe to drink. We just want to make sure that there are no issues and we are extra careful about ensuring that all of our families and communities have access to water. So as we continue to improve our communications, we hope that these changes will make it easier for you all to know what's happening with your water. Thank you all so much.


Coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19, is a potentially serious acute respiratory infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since the World Health Organization, WHO, declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the virus has spread to more than 200 countries with more than 500 million cases and more than 6 million deaths reported globally. Co-infections and superinfections are common among patients with COVID-19 and can lead to worse outcomes. Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern due to the increased use of antibiotics in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Alternative antimicrobial agents should be used to combat the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in COVID-19 patients. This article was authored by Carmelo Biondo, Elena Ponzo, Angelina Midori, and others.