ere, the victims of
debility, and pain, and suffering, and disease and death, and yet we
very seldom seem to search for one moment for the causes of this
premature destruction. In fact most parents--even many intelligent
mothers--at once stare, if you attempt to inquire into the causes of
their child's death, as if it was either a kind of sacrilege, or an
impeachment of their own parental affection. Diseases, even at this day,
with the sun of science blazing in meridian splendor, they seem to
regard as the judgments of heaven; and to think of tracing out the
causes of the early death of half our race, is, in their estimation, not
only idle, but wicked.

Yet this is obviously one of the first steps, every, where, which
philanthropy demands; to say nothing of the demands of christianity. It
is the first step for the physician, the first step for the educator,
the first step for the parent, and above all, the mother. Nay; more--we
must not suppress so great and important a truth--it is the first step
for the legislator and the minister. What sense is there in continuing,
century after century, and age after age, to expend all our efforts in
merely _mending_ the diseased half of mankind, when those same efforts
are amply sufficient, if early and properly applied, not only to
continue the lives of the whole, but to make them _whole beings_,
instead of passing through life mere _fragments_ of humanity?

But I must not forget that this is merely a small manual, not intended
for those who make it their profession to teach the laws of God and man,
but simply for young mothers. For the sake of erring humanity, would
that I could, but for one moment, divest myself of the idea, that in
writing for the young mother I am not writing for legislators and
ministers! Would that I could banish from my mind the deep conviction
that the mother is everywhere far more the law-giver to her infant--far
more the arbiter of the present and eternal destiny of her child--than
he who is more commonly regarded as such.

Every mother owes it, not only to herself--for on this part she is not
_wholly_ forgetful--but to her offspring, to abstain, during the period
of nursing at least, from all causes which tend to produce a feverish
state of her fluids. Among these are every form of premature exertion,
whether in sitting up, laboring, conversing, or even thinking. It is of
very great importance that both the body and the mind should be kept
quiet; and