Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/71

66 with honors which they blush to wear. Fathers of families in the present day, and the fact can not be acknowledged without serious regret, are for the most part too deeply engaged in the pursuit of objects widely differing in their nature from those which belong to the moral discipline of home; and therefore it becomes more the duty of mothers, especially those of the middle class of society, to look beyond the things of the moment, to consider the almost double responsibility which devolves upon them, and to inquire earnestly into the probable means of ensuring the future good of their children.

It is not, however, so generally from an excess of humility that mothers neglect the opportunity, while their children are young, of inspiring them with a grateful regard for the maternal character, as from a mistaken idea that in the natural relation of a child to its mother, there exists a bond cf such inherent power that circumstances can neither strengthen nor destroy it. They forget that we do not love our relations simply because they are such, and that even the revered name of mother derives its sacred and endearing character from the associations of early life,, rather than from any feeling of mere relationship on the part of the child; though it is a great happiness that, in after life, and when these associations have been tender and endearing, the idea of relationship gives stability and warmth to our feelings of affection.

Of all the disappointments which assail the peace of mothers, and unquestionably they are many, I believe those which originate in the mistaken notion here alluded to, are by far the most numerous; and if the wounded feeling which in after years so often takes possession of the maternal breast, on finding that all the personal sufferings endured, the sacrifices made, and the care bestowed upon the helplessness of childhood, seem to be forgotten as regards, the tender and devoted being from whom originated this constant flow of disinterested love—if such feelings could be obviated by the exercise of a little more calculation as to cause and effect in the training of childhood, what a different position the mothers of some families might hold! while in proportion to the satisfaction of their own minds