6 MARCH 1909, Page 16

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—The interesting article on

this subject in your issue of February 27th recalls the lines of Juvenal (Sat. XIV. 44-49) on family life :-

" Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat, intra quae puer est ; • . ...... . maxima debetur puero reverentia. Siquid turpe parse, no to pueri contempseris Runes, sod peccaturo obstet tibi filius Whims."

It is perhaps as necessary to emphasise this aspect of the matter in our own day as it was in Rome in the first century, and the lines are now capable of an even wider application than Juvenal intended. One is tempted to speculate on the bearing of Juvenal's ideal—" nee to pueri conternpserie annos"—on modern Collectivist theories of the relation between " the family " and " the State."—I am, Sir, &c.,