year by year, undermining the constitutions of their
children, and have so inflicted disease and premature
death not only on them but on their descendants.
Consider the young mother and her nursery legislation.
But a few years ago she was at school, where her memory
was crammed with words, names, and dates; where not
one idea was given her respecting the methods of dealing
with the opening mind of childhood. The intervening
years have been passed in practising music, in fancy
work, in novel-reading, and in party-going; no thought
having been yet given to the grave responsibilities
of maternity. And now see her with an unfolding
human character committed to her charge,—see
her profoundly ignorant of the phenomena with which
she has to deal, undertaking to do that which can
be done but imperfectly even with the aid of the profoundest
knowledge.... Lacking knowledge of mental phenomena,
with their causes and consequences, her interference
is frequently more mischievous than absolute passivity
would have been.”
This writer, it seems, would also have young men educated
with a view to their probable duties as fathers, and
so, of course, would we all; and much might be said
on this point, especially of its bearing on the solution
of our problem; still, as Mr. Frothingham said in a
recent address, “The mother, of all others,
is the one to foster and control the individuality
of the child.” It was “good mothers”
which Napoleon needed in order to secure the welfare
of France. “Such kind of women as are the
mothers of great men,” is a significant sentence
I have seen somewhere in print. In fact, so much
depends on mothers, that there seems no possible way
by which our problem can be fully solved until the
right kind of mothers shall have been raised up, and
their children be grown to maturity.
WAYS OF IMMEDIATE ESCAPE.
But is there no possible way by which mothers now
living may escape from this present unsatisfactory
condition? Yes; but not many will adopt it.
Simplicity in food and in dress would set free a very
large number. A great part of what are called
their “domestic” occupations consists
in the preparation of food which is worse than unnecessary.
A great part of their sewing work consists in fabricating
“trimmings” which are worse than useless,
even considering beauty a use, which it is. Let
these simplify their cooking and their dressing, and
time for culture will appear, and for them our problem
be solved. We preach against the vice of intemperance,
and with reason. Let us ask ourselves if intemperance
in eating and in dressing is not even more to be deplored.
The former brings ruin to comparatively a few:
by means of the latter the whole tone of mind among
women is lowered; and we have seen what it costs to
lower the tone of mind among women. We must remember
that not only is the condition of the mother reflected
in the organism of her child, but that the child is
