There is so much thoughtlessness and recklessness, so much daring, even to the risk and loss of life. Now are the young to be too much blamed for that, which is indeed a characteristic of youth? An appreciation of danger and the caution which results from it, is the gradual acquisition of experience, and until they are experienced, their heedlessness must be cautioned and supplemented by our wiser fear.*

A father is legally bound to provide for his children's present, he is morally bound to provide for his children's future. There is for every one the endowment of a good education a little fortune in itself. Besides, there is the insurance office. On the mere principle of selfrespect a man ought to make this provision, for where it has been neglected, we often see the orphans brought up in genteel beggary, and old friends and acquaintances helping reluctantly and with murmurs. Of course such a provision is here meant as shall secure them a good education, and support them till they are able to work for themselves. A provision which would make them independent, and enable them to live in idleness, is, in the words of Lord Melbourne, "of all things the most prejudicial to young men."

Here I might say a word about the disposal of daughters. No father has a right " to give them away." ‡

"Sin in tanto omnium metu solus non timet, eo magis refert

me mihi atque vobis timere.”—Sallust. Cat., c. 52.

"It is not to the praise of Shakspeare that his daughter Judith should have made a mark instead of signing her name.”— Memoir," by Dyce.

66

"At istuc periclum in filiâ fieri, grave est."-Ter. Andr., 3, 3, 33.

The phrase is an unhappy one, although sanctioned by consecrated usage. Daughters are the chief hostages of God.* A father who barters his daughter for business, money, title, or any other selfish aggrandisement, sins against his child. Who would not admire and applaud the noble conduct of the Duke of Orleans? On his way to the scaffold he was made to halt twenty minutes, and his life would have been spared, if he had consented to give his daughter in marriage to Robespierre; but he would not. He went on to the scaffold, and because he would not sacrifice his daughter he sacrificed himself.

A father who neglects his children, and takes no pains with them, who depresses or provokes them, should bear in mind the quaint prophecy of Plautus: “That he is preparing a severe winter for himself.”†

What a pleasant sight it is, and happily not a rare one, to see fathers supported by the children they have reared, comforted by the children they have trained, and made illustrious by the children they have educated. And in this noble country, even poor parents, who have trained their son wisely and holily, may have the joy of seeing him sit on the white throne of Canterbury.

* Ἐγὼ δὲ τἄλλα μακάριος πέφυκ' ἀνὴρ

Tλnν is Ovyarέpaç.-Eurip. Orestes, 540. † Trinummus, ii. 3.

CHAPTER VI.

PARENTS: MOTHERS.

A CHILD is a magnet, which attracts both parents to itself, and so to each other. Every mother, therefore, has cause to thank God for this centre of magnetic force; for it establishes a bond of union between man and wife, sacred as the marriage service and stronger than the marriage settlement.

It is to be hoped that it was only a transient mode which prevailed in Boston, Richmond, and New York, when it was accounted a sign of high breeding to be known as a childless wife.* This fashion, like so many other fashions, thoroughly unnatural, appears now and then in the world, and arises sometimes from a desire to be thought rich, and sometimes from a wish to be free from encumbrances, so as to live a life of gaiety. Childless wives pass out of remembrance anonymous, while Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, obtains everlasting fame, because she esteemed her children her best jewels. The small increase in the population of France in our time has been justly regarded as a symptom of corrup

* Hepworth Dixon's "New America,” ii. 310.

tion. Among the old Persians, in their palmy days, next to bravery in battle, this was considered the greatest proof of manliness, to be able to exhibit many children; and to such as could exhibit the greatest number, the king sent presents every year; for numbers were considered strength.*

The curse of work has been transmuted into a blessing. Has not woman's sorrow also been resolved into a "pleasing pain"? Has not God given many secret joys to mothers? Has He not abundantly compensated them for motherhood? Are there not delights to correspond with its cares? Even among birds is there not music as long as incubation goes on? Has God considered birds, and has He forgotten mothers ? The mother of Henry, King of Navarre, sang a gay Béarnese song as he was coming into the world.

The influence of a mother on her children is infinite. The milk is the least that they imbibe, and after a time they are weaned from that; but from other influences they are never weaned. Napoleon said: "My opinion is that the future good or bad conduct of a child depends entirely on the mother." If he had said mainly instead of entirely there would have been no exaggeration.

The mother is eminently conservative; and it is owing to her influence that traditions crystallize in the mind of the child. The watch at the cradle is as vigilant as the watch on the Rhine, and as potent to prevent the inva

* Herod., i. 136. This is also the manly and sensible view of Scripture (Ps. cxxvii. 5).

sion of hostile influences. One reason why children are more helpless than the young of other animals may be that they should be longer under the influence and teaching of the mother; and although her injunctions are often disputed and disobeyed, and although her authority seems slight, yet slight things are often quietly powerful. How light is the bird's wing, and yet how vigorous-propelling it over the stormy ocean and over boundless space!

This influence may be calculated according to the personal character of the mother. If there is a want of thorough truthfulness, if she is one of those who restrains her infant from the nosegay by the assurance that the flowers will bite, her influence for good will be almost inappreciable. If, on the contrary, she is a woman of high character, genuine and upright, who would think it as terrible for her child to imbibe vice as to swallow poison, and if, moreover, she can teach goodness sweetly, her influence will be of the very greatest dimension and of the very longest duration.

This influence originates in the intimate association of mother and child at the most impressive and plastic time of life, in the earnest parental affection, in the quick ear, which hears the faintest signal of pain; in the watchfulness which repels even a fly from the sleeping infant. It is well that a mother should recognise her enormous influence, in order that she may use it rightly and with a due sense of responsibility. The little one is

*

* ὡς ὅτε μήτηρ

παιδὸς ἐέργῃ μυῖαν, ὁθ ̓ ἡδέι λέξεται ὕπνῳ.

-Iliad, iv. 130.