Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/69

64 happy; while by neglect or unkindness they are as certainly made miserable.

I can not then believe, but that it might be a help to mothers in the moral training of their children, to allow them the care of animals; because, without drawing into the scheme of education these lower creatures, it is impossible that a child should stand in the position of a responsible being as regards the welfare of others. If, however, the mother should so far lose sight of the end she ought to have in view, as to permit her child merely to caress it favorites, instead of providing for their support, and making them comfortable in every way; if the gardener is to feed the rabbits, and little miss and master are to call them their own; or if the housemaid is to put the aviary in order, while they fondle the birds; then, indeed, the dignified sense of being possessors of property had better be done away with altogether, for any good it is likely to effect. Better, a thousand times, to open the cage, or the rabbit-house, and let the captives go, than suffer little masters and mistresses to grow up in the belief that they are really kind, when they do nothing toward putting their kind feelings into operation for the good of others. If, too, the mother should be so negligent as to allow creatures thus confined to suffer from neglect, she will, as the instrument of inflicting misery, be little qualified for teaching her children how to pity. The only safe and effectual method of turning this system to good account, is for the mother to inspect, or to depute some one else to watch over the welfare of the animals for their good; while, for the good of her children, she allows them to act as if they were the only responsible agents in the whole matter. All neglect must therefore be chargeable upon them; while the health, happiness, and general prosperity of the establishment, must be attributed, so far as it can be with justice, to their good management.

It is a remarkable fact, that the most amiable mothers sometimes train up the most unamiable children. This, however, will only be found to be the case where the mother is either ignorant or inconsiderate. A woman who is merely amiable, and who has never accustomed herself to think of the moral tendency of certain actions, who only