What I always wish to impress upon the readers who are kind enough to
be interested in the articles which I write is to keep the end aimed
at in view. So in this second paper upon the responsibility of
motherhood, I must begin by reiterating this necessity.
No mother has a right to drift and trust to chance for the welfare of
her children, and however they develop, for good or ill, she must in
greater or lesser degree be held responsible.
The period when animals cease all interest in and care for their
offspring only commences when these latter can safely be left to look
after themselves; and so it should be with human beings. But, judging
the ages relatively of animals and mankind, numbers of human mothers
entirely neglect their progeny long before they have come even to the
fledgling stage! How often in society one sees women of forty-five and
younger with daughters of fifteen to twenty, about whose real
characters and souls they know nothing! They have always been too busy
with their own personal interest to give the time and sympathy
required for a real mother's understanding of her children. Servants
and governesses have been the directors through the most critical
period of the girls' lives, and it is merely a piece of luck if they
have imbibed no ill from them.
There are numbers of worthy and innocent women married to men whose
characters have certain forcible and unpleasant traits, which are more
than likely to be reproduced in their children, but from the limited
education these good creatures have received, and the absence of all
habit of personal analysation of cause and effect, they never realise
that it is their bounden duty to be on the lookout for the first signs
of the hereditary traits appearing, and the necessity for using
special care and influence to counteract them.
A woman (unless too vain) knows very well her own failings and her own
good qualities, and can, if she is wise, suppress or encourage them
when they show in her children; but she cannot trace the
characteristics of remote ancestors, or even be certain of what her
husband has on his side endowed their joint offspring with, so her
duty is to be on the watch from the very commencement, and to use her
intelligence as she already uses it in every ordinary affair in life.
People of even the most mediocre understanding are quite sensible
enough to select the right implements to carry on any work that they
have undertaken. A woman about to sew a fine piece of muslin does not
dash haphazard into her work-basket and pick out any needle which
comes first, and any thread, coarse or fine, which is handy. She would
know very well that her work would be a sorry affair if she did so,
and that, on the contrary, she must choose the exact fineness of both
thread and needle to sew this particular bit of stuff satisfactorily,
the ones she may have employed an hour before upon firm cloth being of
no use for muslin.
She is keeping _the end_ in view.