EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4i5 



ventional manner, for the very inferior 

 one of making smart speeches. They 

 are thus forced by the very admiration 

 of their elders into taking conventional 

 instead of unconventional views, and 

 speaking, as it were, to the "gallery" 

 instead of uttering spontaneous truths. 

 Thus 



" Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

 Upon the growing boy " 



or girl altogether too soon. The way to 

 promote originality is to leave the mind 

 as long as possible in direct and living 

 contact with things, and, to do that, it 

 is necessary to avoid any great appear- 

 ance of interest in or astonishment at 

 the judgments the child forms or the 

 phrases it uses. As soon as a child be- 

 gins to find its own opinions interesting, 

 instead of, as before, finding things in- 

 teresting, farewell to originality ! Will 

 any one say that, if girls were taught 

 how the minds of children might be kept 

 fresh, they would not value the knowl- 

 edge and, when the time came, try to 

 turn it to account ? We hardly think so. 

 Too vigorous denunciation could 

 scarcely be bestowed upon the fashion 

 so many mothers have of making their 

 children mere instruments of their own 

 vanity. Most mothers, we imagine, even 

 in this advanced age, regard their chil- 

 dren as gifts from Heaven ; but do they 

 suppose that Heaven gave them children 

 that they might turn them into prepos- 

 terous human dolls, and prematurely age 

 them with the burden of social follies? 

 Here we see the need of a strong appeal 

 to the mother-instinct of those who are 

 not yet mothers, that they may be led 

 to conceive a horror of sacrificing inno- 

 cent children to the Moloch of an artifi- 

 cial and heartless society. What do we 

 want manikins, puppets, little bediz- 

 ened and bemannered creatures full of 

 social spites and rivalries, or children 

 full of healthy impulses, pure, truthful, 

 and loving, of whom it might conceiv- 

 ably be said that " of such is the king- 

 dom of heaven"? Alas, that so many 

 should deliberately choose the former, 



and these not the less but the more re- 

 ligiously devout members of the com- 

 munity ! 



One point on which a judicious 

 teacher, addressing girls on the duties 

 of motherhood, would certainly utter a 

 caution, would be as to allowing the 

 mere maternal instinct to run to excess 

 and pass beyond control. The maternal 

 instinct must be considered as having 

 for its object the good of the child ; but, 

 like all instincts and passions, it tends 

 to become an object to itself, and then 

 the interest which it is meant to sub- 

 serve suffers ; the child is worried and 

 hampered by the over-abundance of ma- 

 ternal caresses and attentions, to the 

 injury sometimes of its regard for the 

 mother. We are well aware that a per- 

 fectly balanced human being is more 

 than the most careful education can be 

 expected to produce ; but that is no rea- 

 son why we should not aim at a desira- 

 ble and possible balance of faculties of 

 reason and imagination, of thoughts and 

 emotions, of judgments and impulses. 

 A woman who is all mother does not 

 make the best kind of mother. Cases 

 are not wanting in which an unrestrained 

 excess of the maternal instinct injures 

 the relation between husband and wife 

 and mars the harmony of the household. 

 All this could be illustrated by numer- 

 ous and varied examples ; and this is 

 the kind of knowledge which we main- 

 tain might with great advantage be im- 

 parted to the rising generation of girls. 

 Why should human happiness be wrecked 

 for want of knowledge which so many 

 could supply from their own experience, 

 and of scientific principles which are 

 the commonplaces of all who think ? 

 The time has surely come when mother- 

 hood should be redeemed from the au- 

 tomatism of blind instinct and wedded, 

 for its own high purposes, with the force 

 of intellect. We shall be happy if these 

 few words should incite to thought on 

 this most important subject, and cause 

 attention to be paid to it in quarters 

 where, as yet, it has been neglected. 



