Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-01-04
aaisceilai.cous Natter.
A GOOD MOTHER
FROM THE LIFE OF SIR POWELL BUXTON.

II is Of vast advantage to be born OF
healthy and virtuous parents it is fur
ther advantage TO be the children OF those
whose intellect has been thoroughly dis
cipined and developed; further advan-
tage still, to be surrounded in infancy and
early childhood with such guiding and
elrvating home-lniluences as tend to in
spire pure tastes and high aspirations, and
10 create or Strengthen repugnance to what
ever is low, sensual, or false and, last of
all, it is a blessing and an advantage, utterly
incalculabr, 10 have tor a mother wo-
man OF sense, superiority, and goodness;
| with force of character; with talent and
celv-rness; of solid information; with tact,
temper, patience, and ski !, fitted to train
and mould the mind, TO lmplant principles,
and awaken a lofty aud laudahle ambition
and all this presided over aud purified by
| religious faith, deep pietv, and earnest de-
votIon. These are the mothers that the
church and the world alike want. The
drstinieS Of the race depend more on its
future mothers than on anything else that
| is to say, on the sort OF women that young
girls and young ladies are to be made INTO,
or into which they will make themselves;
and the sort OF wives that young men Will
have the sense to prefer, the judgment to
select, and the happiness TO secure. There
! is nothing so little thought OF bv the young,
and no single thing that would be in its
issues OF such moment, as Cor the one sex
to remember that they are horn to BE- the
makers OF future men, and for the other to
feel that what they want in marriage are
| not merely mates Tor themselves, but mo-
thers for their children. Clever women
are OF more importance to the world than
clever men. refer, Of course, not TO H.
lustrious individuals on whom society de-
peuds for advance IN the arts, in legislation
or in scipnce-who extend the boundaries
OF knowledge, who receive and pass the
torch Of genius, 'perprtua'e eloquence, or
preserve truth | reiere TO the culture and
strength that may distinguish the general
miRd-the characteristics of the mass of
men and women who constitute society,
and from whom not only posterity, as a
whole, will receive an impress, but among
whom the individual hero, too, must be
born and bred. On the two supposItlons
that all men We're clever and all women
weak-or that all the women were superior
and all the men fools-thpre would be by
far the best prospect for the world on the
itter alternative both with respect TO the
general condition Of the race, aud the ap'
pearance of those who should BE- personally
comment for ability and genius. The mo-
iher has most TO do with all that awaken'
the young spirit in its ear y freshness, anc
that makes tint child that is to be "iathel
to the an" and she gives, perhaps, more
of the impress of her whole being, physlca
and mental, to the original constitution anc
capacities of her offspring. Weak men
with superior wives, have had sons distin
gush-d by very high intellectual ability
hut the greatest men, with fools for thei
portion, nave seldom been anything but III,
fathers of fools. The great Lord BacoT
was the representative of one that woult
have been memorable and iluStrious bu
tnr the gigantic and overshadowing geniu
. OF his son. His father, Sir Nicholas, wa
t twice married; his first wife was a weal
woman, and bore nothing but mean AN
poor intellectual offspring; his second wii
i was distinguished and superior,-a woma
: OF capacity, of strong sense, mental culture
: and great energy, she was the mother o
> Bacon. Without denying that there ar
many exceptions to what we affirm, W
p still do affirm, that the facts and phenomen
!. are of such nature, in relation to thj
question, as clearly to indicate the gener1
taw, that men, for tine most part, constltu
tionally,-not only as to their bodies, b.
|, as to their intellectual powers. their NOR;
. instincts, and their capacity to take higt
. er or lower polish from external inauenc,
ARE, very much, not only what their r,
y mot. prog-nitors in Paradise provided 70
|" but what their immediate fathers and mt
thers make them.