Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/19

14 is alive and present; direct to the attainment of an object, and the question never arises, as it does in after life, whether it is worth while. Why then should the mother not rejoice, when she has this new energy, this strong impulse, and this unquestioning ardor to work with, in preparing for the vicissitudes, as well as the enjoyments of after life? Why should the mother not rejoice, when all that has been exhausted in her own feeble frame, all that has been extinguished in her own waning mind, arises fresh and vigorous beneath her hand, and shoots forth into a new and hopeful existence, so bound up with her own, that while she gives direction to each faculty, she may also derive encouragement and gladness from its healthy and successful exercise?

There are then many causes, both in reason and in nature, why the mother should rejoice; and perhaps it is this very, rebounding of the heart back to all, and more than all it has ever enjoyed in life and love, that constitutes in some measure the temptation to which an affectionate nature yields, so as to rest satisfied with the mere bodily health of a fondly-treasured infant, with the amusements of the nursery, and with the first caresses of childhood, instead of looking beyond the present hour, or regarding it as a season of preparation for a future day. Thus time is trifled on. To avoid contradiction, and consequent distress, becomes the mother's only thought. The occupation of the hand seems to demand her whole attention, as another and another little body springs up to require her care; and the mind, the temper—in fact, the whole moral being is thus set aside a thing to be taken up again at some future time, when the child shall be sent to school, or committed to the care of a governess, to be made wise and good.

Now, it is quite evident to a mother of the meanest capacity, that if the food of her infant was to be withheld, or rendered unwholesome for a single day, the body of the child would suffer; and it is a fact which can not be too forcibly impressed upon all mothers, that the mind, even in its infant state, is depriving nourishment, either of a healthy or unhealthy nature, from everything around it. Let the different effect upon the spirits of a child between