voted to their welfare.
That person may be a "hired expert," it is true, but the successful
nurse must have the mother-feeling. Moreover, it is now agreed that
the best physical stamina is secured by mothers breast-feeding their
own babies, and all manner of incentives, even to state subsidies, are
being used to lead women to this personal office.

If mothers thus nurse their babies they must come close to them in
affectional contact, and it is through affectional contact more than
in any other way that babies seem to thrive. No one can claim that
ability to care for and bring up children "comes by nature." The
affectional tie does, however, give an added earnestness to the desire
to learn how to minister wisely and well to the needs of the child.
That same affectional tie on the part of the mother is shown in a
return of affection from the child. Such personal ministrations of the
mother to the child have also a great effect in forming the whole
character in later life. One may worship from a distance, and the
capacity to justly estimate excellence grows with maturity. But the
child knows best those who serve his needs most intimately and gives
his love to that person.

=The Mother's Compensation for Personal Service.=--There is much
compensation, therefore, for the woman who gives herself to her child
in old-fashioned ways of personal service. She gets the charm and the
allurement of the growing bud on life's tree. If she misses that she
loses something of her birthright and some "substitute-mother" gets
something of satisfaction from the child that she does not.

=Early Drill in Personal Habits.=--The third essential of the
inherited obligation of mothers to their children is the early drill
in personal habits that are required for health and decency and
propriety in any given time and place. For this it is an absolute
necessity that either the mother so serve herself or that she secure
some substitute-mother of refinement, knowledge, affection and
devotion which make her an equal in the family circle. How many nurses
fulfil that demand? Many, even of those least recognized by their
employers as entitled to special gratitude and appreciation. The point
to be noted is, however, that even if experts for "hour-service" as
nursery governess could be had in sufficient numbers and even if the
majority of families could financially meet the expense of those fully
competent, such service would not, as a rule, meet the nee