nveloped in an atmosphere of cottony fadiness! One
would take the child to be mistress, and the mother a servant. "But,"
the mother says, "I do not care for dress, and Caroline does. She,
poor child, would be mortified not to be dressed like the other
children." Then do you teach her better. Plant in her mind a higher
standard of self-respect. Don't tell her you cannot afford to do for
her thus and thus; that will scatter premature thorns along her path;
but say that you do not approve of it; it is proper for her to dress in
such and such a way. And be so nobly and grandly a woman that she
shall have faith in you.

It is essential also that the mother have sense, intelligence,
comprehension. As much as she can add of education and accomplishments
will increase her stock in trade. Her reading and riding and music,
instead of being neglected for her children's sake, should for their
sake be scrupulously cultivated. Of the two things, it is a thousand
times better that they should be attended by a nursery-maid in their
infancy than by a feeble, timid, inefficient matron in their youth. The
mother can oversee half a dozen children with a nurse; but she needs
all her strength, all her mind, her own eyes, and ears, and quick
perceptions, and delicate intuition, and calm self-possession, when her
sturdy boys and wild young girls are leaping and bounding and careering
into their lusty life. All manner of novel temptations beset
them,--perils by night and perils by day,--perils in the house and by
the way. Their fierce and hungry young souls, rioting in awakening
consciousness, ravening for pleasure, strong and tumultuous, snatch
eagerly at every bait. They want then a mother able to curb, and
guide, and rule them; and only a mother who commands their respect can
do this. Let them see her sought for her social worth,--let them see
that she is familiar with all the conditions of their life,--that her
vision is at once broader and keener than theirs,--that her feet have
travelled along the paths they are just beginning to explore,--that she
knows all the phases alike of their strength and their weakness,--and
her influence over them is unbounded. Let them see her uncertain,
uncomfortable, hesitating, fearful without discrimination, leaning
where she ought to support, interfering without power of suggesting,
counseling, but not controlling, with no presence, no hearing, no
experience, no prestige, and they will carr