Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/20

Rh a dull and a cheerful nurse be duly considered, and this fact will appear more plain. I am not absurd enough to suppose that the mind of an infant must be treated like that of a mature and rational being. All I would maintain is, that there are little dawnings of intelligence at a very early age, indications of temper, and symptoms of peculiar temperament, which ought to be watched, and either cherished or restrained, with as much assiduity as is generally bestowed upon the animal frame.

It is common, too, with mothers of the humblest capacity, as well as with the more enlightened, to observe with the most scrutinizing attention the bodily health of their children, believing that even where no disease exists, there may still be tendencies in the constitution, and liabilities to certain ailments, which maternal love is ever quick to detect in their first appearance, and which the mother seldom spares either time or pains to arrest in their progress.

In a manner not the less certain, because it is less palpable, does the human mind bring along with it seeds of disease, individual tendencies, and peculiarities of nature, certainly not less important than those which belong more especially to the bodily frame. All these ought to be the care of the mother, to search for, to detect and to turn into a healthy course: for, as in her care of the animal frame, it is for the future that she watches, toils, and labors, in order that her offspring may be healthy, active, and fit for all the useful purposes of life; so it is for the future, and for one which extends far beyond what the body needs to be prepared for, that she has to cultivate the mind—the immortal nature of her child.

It is not for any of the purposes of to-day, or even of the coming morrow, that the infant is practised in the art of placing one foot before another, as in the act of walking. It is not for to-day that the child is encouraged to use its muscles, to grasp, and to appropriate whatever is within its reach, or at least whatever may be laid hold of without injury. If the present time was all we had to consider, most assuredly the less grasping, and the less appropriation, the more easy and pleasant would be the office of the nurse. Instead, however, of consulting her own ease, the