gs, for he lived immediately after their date; and if he
had lived in our day, he would have seen instances enough of 'sweet
souls' enwrapped in the same manner, and capable, if not of deeds
equally bloody, of others, discovering a total want of feeling for
sufferings not unfrequently occasioned by their own wanton waste, and
waste arising, too, in part, from their taste for these 'celestial
sounds.'

247. O no! the heart of man is not to be known by this test: a _great_
fondness for music is a mark of great weakness, great vacuity of mind:
not of hardness of heart; not of vice; not of downright folly; but of a
want of capacity, or inclination, for sober thought. This is not always
the case: accidental circumstances almost force the taste upon people:
but, generally speaking, it is a preference of sound to sense. But the
man, and especially the _father_, who is not fond of _babies_; who does
not feel his heart softened when he touches their almost boneless limbs;
when he sees their little eyes first begin to discern; when he hears
their tender accents; the man whose heart does not beat truly to this
test, is, to say the best of him, an object of compassion.

248. But the mother's feelings are here to be thought of too; for, of
all gratifications, the very greatest that a mother can receive, is
notice taken of, and praise bestowed on, her baby. The moment _that_
gets into her arms, every thing else diminishes in value, the father
only excepted. _Her own personal charms_, notwithstanding all that men
say and have written on the subject, become, at most, a secondary object
as soon as the baby arrives. A saying of the old, profligate King of
Prussia is frequently quoted in proof of the truth of the maxim, that a
woman will forgive any thing but _calling her ugly_; a very true maxim,
perhaps, as applied to prostitutes, whether in high or low life; but a
pretty long life of observation has told me, that a _mother_, worthy of
the name, will care little about what you say of _her_ person, so that
you will but extol the beauty of her baby. Her baby is always the very
prettiest that ever was born! It is always an eighth wonder of the
world! And thus it ought to be, or there would be a want of that
wondrous attachment to it which is necessary to bear her up through all
those cares and pains and toils inseparable from the preservation of its
life and health.

249. It is, however, of the part which the _husband_ has to act, in
pa