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. Pool- 

 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 eveiything 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 



