is indeed nothing which more grieves the wise and good, or makes
them tremble for the future of the country, than the way in which our
daughters are educated in the Public Schools. When they become wives and
mothers, they have none of the habits or character necessary to govern
their household and to train their children properly. Hence arise that
growing neglect or laxity of family discipline; that insubordination,
that lawlessness, and precocious depravity of Young America; that almost
total lack of filial reverence and obedience with the children of this
generation. Exceptions there happily are; but the number of children
that grow up without any proper training or discipline at home is
fearfully large, and their evil example corrupts not a few of those who
are well brought up. The country is no better than the town. As a rule,
children are no longer subjected to a steady and firm, but mild and
judicious, discipline, or trained to habits of filial love, respect and
obedience. These habits are acquired only in a school of obedience, made
pleasant and cheerful by a mother's playful smile and a mother's love.
The care and management of children during their early years belong
specially to the mother. The education of children may be said to
commence from the moment they open their eyes and ears to the sights and
sounds of the world about them; and of these sights and sounds the words
and example of the mother are the most impressive and the most enduring.
Of all lessons, those learned at the knees of a good mother sink the
deepest into the mind and heart, and last the longest. Many of the
noblest and best men that ever lived, and adorned and benefited the
world, have declared that, under God, they owed everything that was good
and useful in their lives to the love of virtue, and truthfulness, and
piety, and the fear of God instilled into their hearts by the lips of a
pious mother. It is her special function to plant and develop in their
young and impressible minds the seeds of virtue, love, reverence, and
obedience, and to train her daughters, by precept and example, not to
catch husbands that will give them splendid establishments, but to be,
in due time, modest and affectionate wives, tender and judicious
mothers, and prudent and careful housekeepers. This the father cannot
do; and his interference, except by wise counsel, and to honor and
sustain the mother, will generally be worse than nothing. The task
devolves speci