MOTHERS AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 793 



laces ; and the fairy spirit has a body ; the crystal exists. But if 

 the water is confined and has not room enough, why, these frail 

 things break the bond, break the jug, break the giant rocks. If 

 this story is well taught, the child's soul will bow before it in 

 reverence. He will learn, too, one old but great lesson which may 

 be applied in human affairs — " In union there is strength." The 

 single ice crystal seems powerless ; the many do mighty work. 



If a mother is fond of chemistry, she has no less a field of work 

 from the combustion of fuel and the burning of the evening lamp 

 to the whole process of cooking, digesting, and assimilating food. 

 Here, too, comes the question of the purity of air, water, and 

 foods. A child may be taught to detect some impurities in all 

 these, and also to test the safety of the colors in wall papers and 

 in the fabrics used for clothing and furniture. These are but a 

 few of the many topics close at hand for every mother fond of 

 chemistry. Through all of this work in chemistry the mother 

 has admirable opportunity to impress on the mind of the child 

 the great economy of Nature. As the child sees the wax of the 

 evening candle gradually disappear, he may be made to under- 

 stand, by a few simple experiments, that some portion of the air 

 is uniting with the wax ; that invisible watery vapor and gas are 

 produced and pass into the air ; and that soot is given off. She is 

 then prepared to believe Nature's great law — change, but no loss. 

 The child, once impressed by this law, will find abundant illustra- 

 tions of it, and will seek to know and understand the changes 

 which produce the seeming losses so constantly occurring. 



Perhaps some mother has a preference for astronomy. In 

 warm evenings the little ones may sit out awhile to listen to sto- 

 ries about the stars. No subject is more delightful to a child. 

 The little of the great truths which he can grasp will awaken and 

 broaden his young mind and fill his tiny heart with noble and 

 poetic sentiments. 



Botany, zoology, and physiology will suggest fields of work as 

 boundless as they are interesting. It is not necessary to suggest 

 special lines of work in each ; but let me urge that the intimate 

 relations of everything studied to the life of man should be kept 

 before the child, so as to cultivate that sympathetic interest which 

 tends to produce gentleness and humanity toward all things. The 

 song-bird rids his garden of insects, and the pretty wayside flower 

 furnishes him medicine. By invisible but real bonds the life of 

 man is united to the lowest animal and the smallest plant. 



While it does not greatly matter where a mother begins, it 

 does matter that, as she goes on, the child see relations clearly. 

 Hence arrange the work in logical sequence, and branch off soon 

 into other fields, that the little mind may have a natural, broad 

 base on which to arrange its treasures of knowledge. All this, 



