od. This world
is not made for a tomb, but a garden. You are to be a seed, not a death.
Plant yourself, and you will sprout. Bury yourself, and you can only
decay. For a dead opportunity there is no resurrection. The only
enjoyment, the only use to be attained in this world, must be attained
on the wing. Each day brings its own happiness, its own benefit; but it
has none to spare. What escapes to-day is escaped forever. To-morrow has
no overflow to atone for the lost yesterdays.

Few things are more painful to look upon than the self-renunciation,
the self-abnegation of mothers,--painful both for its testimony and its
prophecy. Its testimony is of over-care, over-work, over-weariness, the
abuse of capacities that were bestowed for most sacred uses, an utter
waste of most pure and life-giving waters. Its prophecy is of early
decline and decadence, forfeiture of position and power, and worst,
perhaps, of all, irreparable loss and grievous wrong to the children for
whom all is sacrificed.

God gives to the mother supremacy in her family. It belongs to her to
maintain it. This cannot be done without exertion. The temptation to
come down from her throne and become a mere hewer of wood, and drawer of
water is very strong. It is so much easier to work with the hands than
with the head. One can chop sticks all day serenely unperplexed. But to
administer a government demands observation and knowledge and judgment
and resolution and inexhaustible patience. Yet, however uneasy lies the
head that wears the crown of womanhood, that crown cannot be bartered
away for any baser wreath without infinite harm. In both cases there
must be sacrifice; but in the one case it is unto death, in the other
unto life. If the mother stands on high ground, she brings her children
up to her own level; if she sinks, they sink with her.

To maintain her rank, no exertion is too great, no means too small.
Dress is one of the most obvious things to a child. If the mother wears
cheap or shabby or ill-assorted clothes, while the children's are fine
and harmonious, it is impossible that they should not receive the
impression that they are of more consequence than their mother.
Therefore, for her children's sake, if not for her own, the mother
should always be well-dressed. Her baby, so far as it is concerned in
the matter, instead of being an excuse for a faded bonnet, should be an
inducement for a fresh one. It is not a question of riches or poverty;
it