LIST OF BOOKS
RECENTLY PUBLISHED, AND PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,
BY
C. S. FRANCIS & CO.
252 BROADWAY,
New-York.
I.
HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF WOMEN IN VARIOUS AGES AND COUNTRIES.
BY L. MARIA CHILD. 2 vols.
II.
THE DREAM, AND OTHER POEMS.
BY HON. MRS. NORTON.
III.
THE CHILD OF THE ISLANDS. A POEM.
BY HON. MRS. NORTON.
IV.
MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF FELICIA HEMANS, BY HER SISTER,
With an Essay on her Genius, by Mrs. SIGOURNEY.
V.
ZENOBIA; OR THE FALL OF PALMYRA.
BY REV. WM. WARE. 2 vols. A new edition.
VI.
TRAGEDIES AND POEMS.
BY T. NOON TALFOURD.
VII.
LALLA ROOKH.
BY THOMAS MOORE. A new edition.
VIII.
THE EPICUREAN.
BY THOMAS MOORE. A new edition.
IX.
POEMS AND ORATIONS OF CHARLES SPRAGUE.
X.
COMPLETE WORKS OF FELICIA HEMANS. WITH MEMOIR BY HER SISTER,
And Essay by Mrs. SIGOURNEY. In seven volumes. Large type. Beautifully
printed.
XI.
ANOTHER EDITION OF MRS. HEMANS’ COMPLETE WORKS.
In three volumes.--Large type.
XII.
JULIAN; OR SCENES IN JUDEA BY THE AUTHOR OF ZENOBIA.
XIII.
LETTERS FROM NEW YORK.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XIV.
LETTERS FROM NEW YORK.
Second Series.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XV.
MENTAL AND MORAL CULTURE AND POPULAR EDUCATION.
BY S. S. RANDALL.
XVI.
A NEW HOME--WHO’LL FOLLOW?
BY MRS. KIRKLAND.
XVII.
THE MOTHER’S BOOK.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XVIII.
POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
In seven volumes. With illustrations.
XIX.
GOOD WIVES.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XX.
SORROWS OF ROSALIE, AND OTHER POEMS.
BY MRS. NORTON.
XXI.
THE UNDYING ONE, AND OTHER POEMS.
BY MRS. NORTON.
XXII.
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE STAEL AND OF MADAME ROLAND.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XXIII.
POEMS OF THOMAS CAMPBELL. COMPLETE.
A new edition.
XXIV.
THE WISDOM AND GENIUS OF SHAKSPERE.
BY REV. THOMAS PRICE.
XXV.
WARRENIANA.
With Notes--Critical and Explanatory.
XXVI.
DRAMAS ON THE PASSIONS.
BY JOANNA BAILLIE.
XXVII.
POEMS OF JOANNA BAILLIE.
XXVIII.
MEMOIRS OF LADY RUSSELL AND OF MADAME GUION.
BY L. MARIA CHILD.
XXIX.
SPECIMENS OF THE EARLY ENGLISH POETS.
BY GEORGE ELLIS.
XXX.
LEGENDS OF LAMPIDOSA, AND SECRETS OF CABALISM.
XXXI.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS’ DISCOURSES ON PAINTING.
THE
MOTHER’S BOOK.
BY L. MARIA CHILD,
AUTHOR OF THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE, THE GIRL’S OWN BOOK,
PHILOTHEA, LETTERS FROM NEW YORK, &C.
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish his days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
WORDSWORTH.
Do you ask, then, what will educate your son? Your example will
educate him; your conversation; the business he sees you transact;
the likings and dislikings you express,--these will educate him;
the society you live in will educate him.--MRS. BARBAULD.
SIXTH EDITION,
WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS BY THE AUTHOR.
NEW YORK:
C. S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY.
BOSTON:
JOSEPH H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON STREET.
1846.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844,
BY C. S. FRANCIS & CO.,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District
of New York.
TO
AMERICAN MOTHERS,
ON
WHOSE INTELLIGENCE AND DISCRETION
THE
SAFETY AND PROSPERITY
OF OUR
REPUBLIC SO MUCH DEPEND,
This Volume
IS
RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
When I wrote the ‘Frugal Housewife,’ some booksellers declined
publishing it, on account of the great variety of cookery books already
in the market. I was perfectly aware of this circumstance; but among
them all, I did not know of one suited to the wants of the middling
class in our own country. I believed such a book was needed; and the
sale of more than six thousand copies in one year has proved that I was
right in my conjecture.
If the same remark is made with regard to adding another to the
numerous books on education, I have the same answer to give--I do not
know of one adapted to popular use in this country.
I make no pretensions to great originality. The leading principles
contained in this little volume have already been advanced in the
standard works on education; and I owe a great deal to frequent
conversations with an intelligent and judicious mother. Perhaps some
will think there is egotism and presumption in the frequent repetition
of ‘_I_ think,’ and ‘_I_ believe,’ and ‘It is _my_ opinion’--but it
must be remembered that this could not well be avoided in a work where
familiarity and directness of expression were particularly required.
I have endeavored to give the result of my own reading and observation
in maxims of plain practical good-sense, written with earnestness and
simplicity of style. How far I have succeeded must be decided by my
readers.
INTRODUCTION.
I cannot offer a better or more appropriate introduction to this work,
than an extract from Mr. Francis’ Discourse on Errors in Education.
‘It is not easy to estimate the influence even of what may seem an
inconsiderable effort, when directed to such an object as education.
It has been said, that a stone thrown into the sea agitates more or
less every drop in that vast expanse of waters. So it may be with the
influence we exert on the minds and hearts of the young. Who can tell
what may be the effects of a single good principle deeply fixed, a
single pure and virtuous association strongly riveted, a single happy
turn effectually given to the thoughts and affections? It may spread a
salutary and sacred influence over the whole life and through the whole
mass of the character of the child. Nay, more, as the characters of
others, who are to come after him, may, and probably will, depend much
on his, the impulse we give may not cease in him who first received it:
it may go down from one generation to another, widening and deepening
its influences as it goes, reaching forth with various modifications,
more or less direct, till the track of its agency shall be completely
beyond human calculation.’
‘We are told, that when Antipater demanded of the Lacedemonians
fifty of their children as hostages, they replied that they would
rather surrender fifty of the most eminent men in the state, whose
principles were already formed, than children to whom the want of early
instruction would be a loss altogether irreparable. The Spartans were
wise; and shall Christians be less so? Oh no;--for we believe that
our labor cannot perish even with life;--we believe that, even if the
inscrutable providence of God removes these objects of affection from
us, neither the pleasure they have poured into our hearts, nor the good
we have imparted to them will, or can, be lost.’
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
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On the Means of developing the Bodily Senses in earliest Infancy, 1