179.  Bravery, disinterestedness, and maternal affection surpassing these, it is impossible to imagine.  The mother was going right in amongst the feet of these powerful and wild horses, and amongst the wheels of the wagons.  She had no thought for herself; no feeling of fear for her own life; her shriek was the sound of inexpressible joy; joy too great for her to support herself under.  Perhaps ninety-nine mothers out of every hundred would have acted the same part, under similar circumstances.  There are, comparatively, very few women not replete with maternal love; and, by-the-by, take you care, if you meet with a girl who ‘is not fond of children,’ not to marry her by any means.  Some few there are who even make a boast that they ‘cannot bear children,’ that is, cannot endure them.  I never knew a man that was good for much who had a dislike to little children; and I never knew a woman of that taste who was good for any thing at all.  I have seen a few such in the course of my life, and I have never wished to see one of them a second time.

180.  Being fond of little children argues no effeminacy in a man, but, as far as my observation has gone, the contrary.  A regiment of soldiers presents no bad school wherein to study character.  Soldiers have leisure, too, to play with children, as well as with ‘women and dogs,’ for which the proverb has made them famed.  And I have never observed that effeminacy was at all the marked companion of fondness for little children.  This fondness manifestly arises from a compassionate feeling towards creatures that are helpless, and that must be innocent.  For my own part, how many days, how many months, all put together, have I spent with babies in my arms!  My time, when at home, and when babies were going on, was chiefly divided between the pen and the baby.  I have fed them and put them to sleep hundreds of times, though there were servants to whom the task might have been transferred.  Yet, I have not been effeminate; I have not been idle; I have not been a waster of time; but I should have been all these if I had disliked babies, and had liked the porter pot and the grog glass.

181.  It is an old saying, ’Praise the child, and you make love to the mother;’ and it is surprising how far this will go.  To a fond mother you can do nothing so pleasing as to praise the baby, and, the younger it is, the more she values the compliment.  Say fine things to her, and take no notice of her baby, and she will despise you.  I have often beheld this, in many women, with great admiration; and it is a thing that no husband ought to overlook; for if the wife wish her child to be admired by others, what must be the ardour of her wishes with regard to his admiration.  There was a drunken dog of a Norfolk man in our regiment, who came from Thetford, I recollect, who used to say, that his wife would forgive him for spending all the pay, and the washing money into the bargain, ’if he would but kiss her ugly brat, and say it was pretty.’  Now, though this was a very profligate fellow, he had philosophy in him; and certain it is, that there is nothing worthy of the name of conjugal happiness, unless the husband clearly evince that he is fond of his children, and that, too, from their very birth.