238 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
what instruction the baby brings to the mother ! 
She learns patience, self-control, endurance ; 
her very arm grows strong, so that she can 
hold the dear burden longer than the father 
can. She learns to understand character, too, 
by dealing with it. “In training my first chil- 
dren,” said a wise mother to me, “I thought 
that all were born just the same, and that I 
was wholly responsible for what they should 
become. I learned by degrees that each had 
a temperament of its own, which I must study 
before I could teach it.” And thus, as the little 
ones grow older, their dawning instincts guide 
those of the parents; their questions suggest 
new answers, and to have loved them is a lib- 
eral education. 
For the height of heights is love. The phi- 
losopher dries into a skeleton like that he inves- 
tigates, unless love teaches him. He is blind 
among his microscopes, unless he sees in the 
humblest human soul a revelation that dwarfs 
all the world beside. While he grows gray in 
ignorance among his crucibles, every girlish 
mother is being illuminated by every kiss of 
her child. That house is so far sacred, which 
holds within its walls this new-born heir of 
eternity. But to dwell on these high mysteries 
would take us into depths beyond the present 
needs of mother or of infant, and it is better 
