THE EVOLUTION OF A MOTHER. 281 



hungry, is a wanderer on the earth, Woman makes a 

 Home. And though this Home be but a platform of 

 sticks and leaves, such as the gorilla builds on a tree, 

 it becomes the first great school-room of the human 

 race. For one day there appears in this roofless room 

 that which is to teach the teachers of the world a 

 Little Child. 



No greater day ever dawned for Evolution than this 

 on which the first human child was born. For there 

 entered then into the world the one thing wanting 

 to complete the Ascent of Man a tutor for the 

 affections. It may be that a Mother teaches a Child, 

 but in a far deeper sense it is the Child who teaches 

 the Mother. Millions of millions of Mothers had lived 

 in the world before this, but the higher affections were 

 unborn. Tenderness, gentleness, unselfishness, love, 

 care, self-sacrifice these as yet were not, or were only 

 in the bud. Maternity existed in humble forms, but 

 not yet Motherhood. To create Motherhood and all 

 that enshrines itself in that holy word required a 

 human child. The creation of the Mammalia estab- 

 lished two schools in the world the two oldest and 

 surest and best equipped schools of Ethics that have 

 ever been in it the one for the Child, who must now 

 at least know its Mother, the other for the Mother, 

 who must as certainly attend to her Child. The only 

 thing that remains now is to secure that they shall 

 both be kept in that school as long as it is possible to 

 detain them. The next effort of Evolution, therefore 

 the fifth process as one might call it is to 

 lengthen out these school days, and give affection 

 time to grow. 



No animal except Man was permitted to have hia 



