material to work with, to produce results.

"By the time a man is married his character is formed, and he changes
very little. His mother has made him; and no matter how hard she
tries, there is very little that his wife can do toward altering him.

"It is not the philosophies, the theories, the code of ethics that a
man acquires in his older years that really influence him. It is the
things that he learned at his mother's knee, the principles that she
instilled in him in his very cradle, the taste and habits that she
formed, the strength and courage that she breathed into him.

"It is the childish impressions that count. It is the memory of
whispered prayers, of bedtime stories, of old ideals held unfalteringly
before a boy's gaze; it is half-forgotten songs, and dim visions of
heroes that a mother taught her child to worship, that make the very
warp and woof of the soul.

"It is the pennies, that a mother teaches a boy to save and the
self-denial that she inculcates in doing it, that form the real
foundation of the fortune of the millionaire.

"It is the mother that loves books, and who gives her sons her love of
learning, who bestows the great scholars, the writers, and orators, on
the world.

"It is the mother that worships science, who turns the eyes of the
child upon her breast up to the wonder of the stars, and who teaches
the little toddler at her side to observe the marvel of beast, and
bird, and flower, and all created things, whose sons become the great
astronomers and naturalists, and biologists."

The very atmosphere that radiates from and surrounds the mother is the
inspiration and constitutes the holy of holies of family life.

"In my mother's presence," said a prominent man, "I become for the time
transformed into another person."

How many of us have felt the truth of this statement! How ashamed we
feel when we meet her eyes, that we have ever harbored an unholy
thought, or dishonorable suggestion! It seems impossible to do wrong
while under that magic influence. What revengeful plans, what thoughts
of hatred and jealousy, have been scattered to the four winds while in
the mother's presence! Her children go out from communion with her
resolved to be better men, nobler women, truer citizens.

"How many of us have stood and watched with admiration the returning
victor of some petty battle, cheering until we were hoarse, exhausting
ourselves with the vehemence of our enthusiasm," says a w