r, the same spirit in both; and in the modern instance it
wakes, first, the fathers to their protective duty, and then the
guardians of the public health, and then educates the public mind, and
at last accomplishes the desired result through appropriate laws,
well enforced. It is a long step from the indirect "influence," the
often deceitful cunning, the appeal to sex-attraction and the pleading
of weakness by which for ages women sought to protect their children
against harsh punishments, their daughters against marriage to those
whom they loathed, and their sons to apprenticeship to work they could
not choose, to the openly exercised power of the modern mother. In the
days when wives and mothers had no legal rights which society was
bound to respect, appeal was woman's only weapon; now the modern
mother has command of her protective function and exercises it
fearlessly. The same spirit is in all the long process of change,
however, and women to-day banding openly together and joining also
with men on equal terms, to secure laws protecting children from
cruelty even against their own parents; to raise the "age of consent"
in order to prevent the unwitting moral suicide of little girls; to
sweep the streets free from vicious allurements that young boys may be
preserved from debauchery and disease; to place trustees of society's
power of public protection as chaperones in every place of moral
danger; these modern women are near of kin to all motherhood of any
past. So also are those of the same spirit as the ancient mother who
band themselves together, again with men on equal terms, but oftenest,
perhaps, with men whom their own social interest has summoned to the
task, for the establishment of "Health Centres", of adequate and
efficient clinics and dispensaries; for securing necessary education
and care of mothers before the birth of their children, and for
mothers and babies alike needing good, fresh air, rest and comfort
after birth; for the raising of standards of physical well-being all
along the line of life from youth to age. The ancient mother was too
ignorant and had too little power to save her children and family from
physical ills, but she did her best. The modern mother is able to
learn about requirements and to act with power for the better health
and better training of every child. Is she always ready for and equal
to the task?

At least we can claim this for the mother devotion in modern times,
that it s