The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-10-21
A Word With Mothers.
BYPETER FARLEY.

Maternal influence is acknowledged
by Legislators, philosophers, aud di-
vines, to be one OF the principal
causes which gives character to- na-
tions as well as to individuals. This
truth, 50 generally al red 18th
through history and experience
ought, Peter Farley thinks, to be suf-
ticient to induce all who value tie
interests OF society or themselves, to
inquire how this influence can be
made the most of, and if there are not
ways and means TO he made available
to render a mother the first and best
agent in education.
The relationship i'm which the
mother stands 10 her child is such,
that it requires on her part all that
| Intelligence can command, all that
self-discipline can accomplish, to en-
able her to fulfill the important Of
fee with which she is invested Dy
nature. The Introduction of a thing
of helplesSness to a sphere Of activity
the developement of the unfoIded
germ of human existence, and the
sentient principle, and, above all,
the fitting OF the immortal part for
the performance Of its duties here,
and for an eternal hereafter; this
mighty work devolves upon the
mother.
10 render the mother equal to the
sorrows, the trials, the anxieties, aud
the cares incumbent upon the mater
.al s.s, seAee, Sa.e'.-e, or rather the divine
AuInOr OF nature, has Implanted III
the mothers breast q love for her off
spring dearer than life itself but this
holy, this beautiful affection, requires
to be supported by the highest intel
ligenee, and to be regulated by the
most comprehensive knowledge. The
mother must reflect that the instinct
i've affection she feels for her offspring
she shares in common with l0bdt are
called the lOIOer animals but the
thinking love, which will alone en-
able her to perform her duty to her
child, Is the result OF experience and
Is dependent upon the reasoning pow
ers. The affection shown to a child,
is the result of experience and is de-
pendent upon the reasoning powers.
The affection shown to a child, which
has not its basis upon reason, is liza
BILE to bring the child to shame aud
the parent to sorrow and hence we
frequently observe, in every grade of
society, that the maternal love is not
returned by dial affection, and that
disobedience and slight are shown
where the deepest veneratiOn ought
to dwell. How often does the fond
mother exclaim to her petted darling,
faye, you will not love me when
you grow q man g prophecy sug-
gested by everyday examples of diso-
bedienee, which are too fearfully real |
iZed.
Why is this ? Simply because it is
the fashion to let education take Its |
course because it is the fashion not to |
study human nature because the |
mother knows little of q child's men
tai and moral economy, and thinks it |
too much trouble to inquire. In the |
earliest periods, how often is the child |
the victim of his own self will ? how |
often the plague of whole household
the cause of contention between pa
rents, of anxious days and sleepless
nights AS the sun of life arrives, it
comes not as q herald of joy, brings
forth no buds of promise, no blossoms
of hops, but stands Gall in a hot and /
copper sky, ,"--seorching rather than
and .blighting rather
than developing.
The mother must reflect that edu-
cation, IN its trae sense, is not mere |
task, q set of patent pro-
cesses, an accumulation OF profound |
dogmas, or a multiplication of cut and |
dried rules. Nor does 1t consist in
series of admonitiOns and corrections, /
Of rewards and punishments, OF i'm
precautions and directions, strung to-
gether without unity of purpose or
of execution, but should pre-
sent an unbroken chain of measures
in the same prinelples-in
q knowledge OF the constant laws Of
of our nature, practiced in the same
spirit, spirit of benevolenee and
frmness. aud tending TO the same
end-the elevation of mans moral |
nature, not only above the sensual |
but even over the intellectual. To |
this every mother stands pledged,
and the great bond, the mind of her
child, is drawn out ready for her to
sign.
Thus the mothers great endeavor
must be to build up humanity the
passions, appetites, intellectual pow
er, mental energy, come alike under
her attention in this work. 1t is for
her to strip the grosser husk from
passion, and to develop the germ of
which lies concealed
within it, to purposes Of good not
so much to repress the appetite, as to
fix its impulses upon pure and whole
some food, with a view to its imbibing
principles of conduct, to Undue the in
tellect with the morality of pure SYM
pathy, and to turn those mighty man
of mind, which seem to re-
bound from the solid earth as in con-
tempt of 1t, into the deep channels Of
that they may run like gen.
tie rivuiets to feltilize and keep green
the otherwise sterile and sere desert Of
human exist ence.