is a thing of relations. It is simply that the mother's dress--her
morning and evening and street and church dress--should be quite as good
as, and if there is any difference, better than her child's. It is of no
manner of consequence how a child is clad, provided only its health be
not injured, its taste corrupted, or its self-respect wounded. Children
look prettier in the cheapest and simplest materials than in the richest
and most elaborate. But how common is it to see the children gayly
caparisoned in silk and feathers and flounces, while the mother is
enveloped in an atmosphere of cottony fadiness! One would take the child
to be mistress and the mother a servant. "But," the mother says, "I
do not care for dress, and Caroline does. She, poor child, would be
mortified not to be dressed like the other children." Then do you teach
her better. Plant in her mind a higher standard of self-respect. Don't
tell her you cannot afford to do for her thus and thus; that will
scatter premature thorns along her path; but say that you do not approve
of it; it is proper for her to dress in such and such a way. And be so
nobly and grandly a woman that she shall have faith in you.

It is essential also that the mother have sense, intelligence,
comprehension.

As much as she can add of education and accomplishments will increase
her stock in trade. Her reading and riding and music, instead of being
neglected for her children's sake, should for their sake be scrupulously
cultivated. Of the two things, it is a thousand times better that they
should be attended by a nurserymaid in their infancy than by a feeble,
timid, inefficient matron in their youth. The mother can oversee half
a dozen children with a nurse; but she needs all her strength, all
her mind, her own eyes, and ears, and quick perceptions, and delicate
intuition, and calm self-possession, when her sturdy boys and wild young
girls are leaping and bounding and careering into their lusty life. All
manner of novel temptations beset them,--perils by night and perils by
day,--perils in the house and by the way. Their fierce and hungry young
souls, rioting in awakening consciousness, ravening for pleasure, strong
and tumultuous, snatch eagerly at every bait. They want then a mother
able to curb, and guide, and rule them; and only a mother who commands
their respect can do this. Let them see her sought for her social
worth,--let them see that she is familiar with all the conditions