d their children have no other source of
dependence, must they not suffer? Is it not better, therefore, that they
should be early accustomed to other food, for a part of the time?
Besides, they may be sick; and then the child must rely on others; and
will it not be useful to accustom it early to do so?

Perhaps few mothers are conscious that this train of reasoning passes
through their minds. But that something like it is often made the
occasion of substituting food which is less proper, for that furnished
by Divine Providence, there cannot be a doubt. And the mischief is, that
she who has gone so far, will not scruple, ere long, to go farther. And,
strange and unnatural as it may seem, that mothers should turn over
their children to be nursed wholly by others, in order to get rid of the
inconvenience of nursing them at their own bosoms, it is only carrying
out to its fullest extent, and reducing to practice, the train of
reasoning mentioned above.

Nor is it necessary that I should stop here to denounce a course of
conduct so unchristian and savage. I know it is very common in some
countries; and those American mothers who ape the other eastern
fashions, or countenance their sons and daughters in doing it, will not
be slow to imitate this also--especially as it is a very _convenient_
fashion. And I question whether I shall succeed in reasoning them out of
it. Habit, both of thought and action, is exceedingly powerful. I will,
therefore, confine myself chiefly to those efforts at prevention, from
which much more is to be hoped, in the present state of society, than
from direct attempts at cure.

It will be soon enough to leave a child with another person, when the
mother is actually sick, or unavoidably absent; or when some other
adequate cause is known to exist. We are to be governed, in these and
similar cases, by general rules, and not by exceptions. The general
rule, in the present case, is, that mothers can nurse their own
children; and, if they have the proper disposition, that they can do it
uninterruptedly.

But those who are so ready to become counsellors on these occasions,
will tell us, perhaps, that the child must be "fed to spare the mother."
That is to say, nursing weakens the mother, and the child must be taken
away, a part of the time, to save her strength.

Now it may safely be doubted whether the process of nursing, in itself
considered, does weaken, at all. The Author of nature has made provision