The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-16
THE INTELLECTUAL MOTHER.

amusing, to note the many astonishing bits of
presumable information concerning the gentler
sex which are CLEANED from unknown sources
and presented to the public by men who have
disqualified for being regarded as the highest
authority on this complex subject. AS a case
in point, may be cited the overwhelming state
ments made recently by an editorial writer Of
the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette in at
tempted explanation of the average woman's
intellectual shortcomings. A portion of her
mental inferiority to man he attributes to the
superficial quality of her education, and to
her ardent devotion to ornamental accomplish
ments; painting, carving, embroidery and
other fancy work; entirely overlooking the
fact that the untrammeled feminine mind,
truly bent on mental &C vancement, is not very
often satisfied with the preparation Of yellow
worsted dogs and purple farm-houses, or
prone to sit up late in the construc-
ton of the vision narrowing crazy-quilt,
vi II ulAIy-AloSueu anu UeWlluerlhS rlcA-
rack. The next serious stumbling block which
this writer finds in woman's path to mental
heights is her apparently irrepressible ten
dency to matrimony and the maternal duties
therein included. 1t is not with this state
ment in itself that fault should he found,
but with the luscious absurdity of the reasons
attending it. The writer says;
"At each successive babe the mother be-
comes a child in thought and speech. AS the
maternal robin, in enticing the fedgeling to
try its wings and launch out from the nest,
takes short flights back and forth to the nest,
as if itself a fedgeling, so the mother begins
back with the dawning mind of the baby,
and talks like an idiot and invents a gibberish
in the place of language. Thus does she re-
turn to a state of mental infancy, to attend
the little steps of the infant. The process of
intellectual elevation in a frequent mother is,
therefore, like that Of the Irish traveller who
at every step forward slipped back twoIsteps.'
1t is as nonsensically ridiculous to say that a
mothers mind again becomes i~nfantile with
the birth Of each child as to assert that her
body should be kept ON milk diet to accord
with that of the infant. Is it to be under
stood that the father, too, however stately in
person and lofty his mental stature, is to be
regarded as feeble intellectually when, re-
CARELESS of Sunday pantalOons, he crawls
for the entertainment of his offspring, OF suf-
fers the bald headed tyrant to pull his mus
tache and rumple his shirt-bosom to its
hearts content Such an idea would be alb
surdity on absurdity's head to an objectionable
degree. 1t would be interesting to know in
what condition the author of this novel theory
would assume the mind of a mother to be
when she had several small children of va
rious ages. On the basis that her mind, re-
turning to infancy, keeps pace with her
child's mind, the mother of several growing
children would have to be a mental mon
strosity with her mind in various stages of
development at one time.
The only reason why a woman who has in
tellectual tastes before marriage ceases such
pursuits and loses mental step with her hus-
band after marriage, is because her maternal
duties leave no margin for mental recreation
or study. In the average household, supplied
by a moderate purse, the woman who is a good
mother has not much time to be anything
else. Let any professional man have his Office
in his house, and stop his brain work to rock
the cradle, to tie apron-strings, to wash faces,
to wipe noses, to kiss bruised fingers, OF tie
up stumped toes, and he will rapidly compre-
bend the many reasons why the average
mother has no time to read. 1t is The rankest
folly to say that the mere birth or care Of a
child retards q woman's mental growth.
Every new guest from that unknown world
whence came we, and whittier we go-is to
her, if she is a thinking creature, a rich source
of mental elevation and advancement; of
knowledge of lie, and insight into all human
nature; but the physical demands Of the babe,
the days of care and nights of anxious watching,
leave little time for the society Of the muses..
amid the din Of the nursery is as rare as the
lettered blacksmith, and should be esteemed
as highly. When an age of progress in all
things has invented a method of relieving
woman from the wear, and tear, and utter alb
s~orbingness of rearing children, it will be dis
covered that the mere fact of maternity does
not affect the quality of her intellect to
any alarming extent. In the meantime, if the
mother is not an intensely intellectual being,
let her not be upbraided therefor, unless we
also upbraid our lawyers and other professional
men that they do not stay at home and rock
the cradles for whose contents they are par