rince's kiss, but taken only
by storm, yet once captured, are sweeter than the dews of Hymettus?
Where are the seers, the prophets, the Magi, who shall unfold for us
the secrets of the sky and the seas, and the mystery of human hearts?

Yet fathers and mothers not only acquiesce in this state of things,
they approve of it. They foster it. They are forward to annihilate
themselves. They are careful to let their darlings go out alone, lest
they be a restraint upon them,--as if that were not what parents were
made for. If they were what they ought to be, the restraint would be
not only wholesome, but impalpable. The relation between parents and
children should be such that pleasure shall not be quite perfect,
unless shared by both. Parents ought to take such a tender, proud,
intellectual interest in the pursuits and amusements of their children
that the children shall feel the glory of the victory dimmed, unless
their parents are there to witness it. If the presence of a sensible
mother is felt as a restraint, it shows conclusively that restraint is
needed.

A woman also needs self-cultivation, both physical and mental, in order
to self-respect. Undoubtedly Diogenes glorified himself in his tub.
But people in general, and women in universal,--except the
geniuses,--need the pomp of circumstance. A slouchy garb is both effect
and cause of a slouchy mind. A woman who lets go her hold upon dress,
literature, music, amusement, will almost inevitably slide down into a
bog of muggy moral indolence. She will lose her spirit, and when the
spirit is gone out of a woman, there not much left of her. When she
cheapens herself, she diminishes her value. Especially when the
evanescent charms of mere youth are gone, when the responsibilities of
life have left their mark upon her, is it indispensable that she attend
to all the fitnesses of externals, and strengthen and polish all her
mental and social qualities. By this I do not mean that women should
allow themselves to lose their beauty as they increase in years. Men
grow handsomer as they grow older. There is no reason, there ought to
be no reason, why women should not. They will have a different kind of
beauty, but it will be just as truly beauty and more impressive and
attractive than the beauty of sixteen. It is absurd to suppose that
God has made women so that their glory passes away in half a dozen
years. It is absurd to suppose that thought and feeling and passion