268 



EDUCATION. 





the father ventures to nourish it. The mother takes some 

 relaxation, and frequently absents herself. She often perches 

 on the rim of the nest, and lovingly contemplates her off- 

 spring. But the latter stirs, feels the need of movement. Poor 

 mother ! in a little while it will escape thee. 



" In this first education of the still passive and elementary life, 

 as in the second (and active, that of flight), of which I have already 

 spoken, one fact, evident and clearly discernible at every moment, 

 was, that everything was proportioned with infinite prudence 

 to the condition least foreseen, a condition essentially variable, the 

 nursling's individual strength ; the quantity, quality, and mode of 

 preparation of the food, the cares of warmth, friction, cleanliness, 

 were all ordered with a skill and an attention to detail, modified 

 according to circumstance, such as the most delicate and provident 

 woman could hardly have surpassed. 



" When I saw her heart throbbing violently, and her eye kindling 

 as she gazed on her precious treasure, I exclaimed : ' Could I do 

 otherwise near the cradle of my son ?' " 



Ah, if she be a machine, what am I myself? and who will then 

 prove that I am a person ? If she has not a soul, who will answer 

 to me for the human soul ? To what thereafter shall we trust ? And 

 is not all this world a dream, a phantasmagoria, if, in the most 



