A SHADOW 237 
she is at least sacred to her son. The Turkish 
Sultan must prostrate himself at the door of 
his mother’s apartments, and were he known 
to have insulted her, it would make his throne 
tremble. Among the savage African Toua- 
ricks, if two parents disagree, it is to the mother 
that the child’s obedience belongs. Over the 
greater part of the earth’s surface, the foremost 
figures in all temples are the Mother and Child. 
Christian and Buddhist nations, numbering to- 
gether two thirds of the world’s population, 
unite in this worship. Into the secrets of the 
ritual that baby in the window had already re- 
ceived initiation. 
And how much spiritual influence may in 
turn have gone forth from that little one! The 
coarsest father gains a new impulse to labor 
from the moment of his baby’s birth; he 
scarcely sees it when awake, and yet it is with 
him all the time. Every stroke he strikes is 
for his child. New social aims, new moral mo- 
tives, come vaguely up to him. The London 
costermonger told Mayhew that he thought 
every man would like his son or daughter to 
have a better start in the world than his own. 
After all, there is no tonic like the affections. 
Philosophers express wonder that the divine 
laws should give to some young girl, almost a 
child, the custody of an immortal soul. But 
