gns in its stead. Society, instead of
giving its tone to the children, takes it from them, and since it cannot
be juvenile, becomes insipid, and because it is too old to prattle,
jabbers. Talkers are everywhere, but where are the men that say things?
Where are the people that can be listened to and quoted? Where are the
flinty people whose contact strikes fire? Where are the electric people
who thrill a whole circle with sudden vitality? Where are the strong
people who hedge themselves around with their individuality, and will be
roused by no prince's kiss, but taken only by storm, yet, once captured,
are sweeter than the dews of Hymettus? Where are the seers, the
prophets, the Magi, who shall unfold for us the secrets of the sky and
the seas, and the mystery of human hearts?

Yet fathers and mothers not only acquiesce in this state of things,
they approve of it. They foster it. They are forward to annihilate
themselves. They are careful to let their darlings go out alone, lest
they be a restraint upon them,--as if that were not what parents were
made for. If they were what they ought to be, the restraint would be
not only wholesome, but impalpable. The relation between parents and
children should be such that pleasure shall not be quite perfect, unless
shared by both. Parents ought to take such a tender, proud, intellectual
interest in the pursuits and amusements of their children that the
children shall feel the glory of the victory dimmed, unless their
parents are there to witness it. If the presence of a sensible mother is
felt as a restraint, it shows conclusively that restraint is needed.

A woman also needs self-cultivation, both physical and mental, in order
to self-respect. Undoubtedly Diogenes glorified himself in his tub. But
people in general, and women in universal, except the geniuses,--need
the pomp of circumstance. A slouchy garb is both effect and cause of
a slouchy mind. A woman who lets go her hold upon dress, literature,
music, amusement, will almost inevitably slide down into a bog of muggy
moral indolence. She will lose her spirit; and when the spirit is
gone out of a woman, there is not much left of her. When she cheapens
herself, she diminishes her value. Especially when the evanescent charms
of mere youth are gone, when the responsibilities of life have left
their mark upon her, is it indispensable that she attend to all the
fitnesses of externals, and strengthen and polish all her mental
and s