Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/177

172 had to blush and feel ashamed for his mother, his affection may be considered as held by a very slender thread.

Seeing all this so frequently exhibited as we do, in the familiar aspect of our social and domestic affairs, it becomes a matter of astonishment and regret, that mothers should allow themselves to sink into such apparent indifference about their intellectual influence over their children, and especially their sons — that they should allow themselves to settle down into mere household machines, or the automatons of an occasional party, when the temporal and eternal interests of their sons may perhaps be hanging upon the respect which they inspire in their opening and susceptible minds.

I am aware that many kind-hearted and worthy women, who throw the whole amount of their energies into the means of making their sons and husbands comfortable as regards the body, conscientiously believe they are discharging a duty of paramount importance; and certainly there is no duty, except such as are of a strictly religious character, upon the right discharge of which so many others are dependant, for without attention to the substantial and bodily comforts of a family, I imagine there would be little good to be expected from intellectual influence. But then we should remember that this duty is only one among a many; or rather, only a foundation upon which the superstructure of intellectual influence must rest; and as wisely might we place the solid base of a building at the top, and the light and ornamental architecture beneath; or expose the machinery of a clock to view, and conceal the index plate, as reverse the true order of social economy, so as to make our domestic affairs the most prominent, and neglect those more important matters which belong to the cultivation and right exercise of the immortal mind.

Would that it could be impressed upon the understanding of every woman, that there is no beauty, and there can be no right order, in that establishment, where the domestic machine does not move quietly, and in a manner unseen. It is true there is no comfort when it stops, or is allowed to fall out of order; but there may be almost as much annoyance where it is always exposed to view, in