of training with the
infant in her arms. It is she who directs, so to speak, its first mental
and spiritual pulsations. She conducts it along the impressible years of
childhood and youth, and hopes to deliver it to the stern conflicts and
tumultuous scenes of life, armed by those good principles which her
child has received from maternal care and love.

If we draw within the circle of our contemplation the mothers of a
civilized nation, what do we see? We behold so many artificers working,
not on frail and perishable matter, but on the immortal mind, moulding
and fashioning beings who are to exist for ever. We applaud the artist
whose skill and genius present the mimic man upon the canvas; we admire
and celebrate the sculptor who works out that same image in enduring
marble; but how insignificant are these achievements, though the highest
and the fairest in all the departments of art, in comparison with the
great vocation of human mothers! They work, not upon the canvas that
shall perish, or the marble that shall crumble into dust, but upon mind,
upon spirit, which is to last for ever, and which is to bear, for good
or evil, throughout its duration, the impress of a mother's plastic
hand.

I have already expressed the opinion, which all allow to be correct,
that our security for the duration of the free institutions which bless
our country depends upon habits of virtue and the prevalence of
knowledge and of education. The attainment of knowledge does not
comprise all which is contained in the larger term of education. The
feelings are to be disciplined; the passions are to be restrained; true
and worthy motives are to be inspired; a profound religious feeling is
to be instilled, and pure morality inculcated, under all circumstances.
All this is comprised in education. Mothers who are faithful to this
great duty will tell their children, that neither in political nor in
any other concerns of life can man ever withdraw himself from the
perpetual obligations of conscience and of duty; that in every act,
whether public or private, he incurs a just responsibility; and that in
no condition is he warranted in trifling with important rights and
obligations. They will impress upon their children the truth, that the
exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty, of as solemn a
nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently
trifle with his vote; that every free elector is a trustee, as well for
othe