man affection has been so passionately praised as maternal love,
and none is supposed to be so holy or so strong. Even the poetic aspect
of the instinct which inspires the young with their dearest dreams does
not rank so high as this, and neither lover's love nor conjugal love,
neither filial affection nor fraternal, comes near the sanctity or
grandeur of the maternal instinct. But all women are not equally rich in
this great gift; and, to judge by appearances, English women are at this
moment particularly poor. It may seem a harsh thing to say, but it is
none the less true--society has put maternity out of fashion, and the
nursery is nine times out of ten a place of punishment, not of pleasure,
to the modern mother.

Two points connected with this subject are of growing importance at this
present time--the one is the increasing disinclination of married women
to be mothers at all; the other, the large number of those who, being
mothers, will not, or cannot, nurse their own children. In the mad race
after pleasure and excitement now going on all through English society
the tender duties of motherhood have become simply disagreeable
restraints, and the old feeling of the blessing attending the quiver
full is exchanged for one expressive of the very reverse. With some of
the more intellectual and less instinctive sort, maternity is looked on
as a kind of degradation; and women of this stamp, sensible enough in
everything else, talk impatiently among themselves of the base
necessities laid on them by men and nature, and how hateful to them is
everything connected with their characteristic duties.

This wild revolt against nature, and specially this abhorrence of
maternity, is carried to a still greater extent by American women, with
grave national consequences resulting; but though we have not yet
reached the Transatlantic limit, the state of the feminine feeling and
physical condition among ourselves will disastrously affect the future
unless something can be done to bring our women back to a healthier tone
of mind and body. No one can object to women declining marriage
altogether in favor of a voluntary self-devotion to some project or
idea; but, when married, it is a monstrous doctrine to hold that they
are in any way degraded by the consequences, and that natural functions
are less honorable than social excitements. The world can get on without
balls and morning calls, it can get on too without amateur art and
incorre