t need not see herself that
those wants are actually met.

But a woman who does this is far, very far, from doing her duty. Who
is so fit to watch over the wants of infancy as she who gave that
infant birth? Can a mother suppose, that if she can so stifle those
sensibilities which prompt her to provide for the wants of her
children, servants and dependants, in whom no such sensibilities
exist, will be very solicitous about their charge? How many of the
infant's cries will be unattended to, which would at once have made
their way to the heart of a mother! and, therefore, how many of the
child's wants will in consequence remain uncared for!

No one can understand so well the wants of a child as a mother--no
one is ever so ready to meet those wants as she; and, therefore, to
none but a mother, under ordinary circumstances, should the entire
charge of a child be committed, And in all countries in which,
luxury has not so far attained the ascendency, that in order to
partake of its pleasures a mother will desert her offspring, the
cares and trials of maternal love are entered upon as the sweetest
of enjoyments and the greatest of pleasures. It was a noble saying
of a queen of France, "that none should share with her the
privileges of a mother;" and if the same sentiment found its way
into every heart, a very different aspect would soon be produced.
How many, through ill-treatment and neglect in childhood, carry the
marks to their dying day in weak and sickly constitutions! how many
more in a distorted body and crippled limbs! These are but the too
sure consequences of the neglect of a mother, and, consequent upon
that, the neglect of servants, who, feeling the child a burden,
lessen their own trouble; and many a mother who, perhaps, now that
her child has grown up, weeps bitter tears over his infirmities,
might have saved his pain and her own sorrow by attending to his
wants in infancy.

"Can a mother forget her sucking child?" asks the inspired penman,
in a way that it would seem to be so great an anomaly as almost to
amount to an impossibility. Yet modern luxury not only proves that
such a thing can be done, but it is one even of common occurrence.
But if done, surely some great stake must be pending--something on
which life and property are concerned--that a mother can thus forget
the child of her bosom? Alas! no; the child is neglected, that no
interruption may take place in the mother's stream of pleasure. For
the