Los Angeles herald., 1890-12-26
MOTHERHOOD.
An Unpublished Paper by Thomas de
Ouincey.

[Some unpublished MSS. by Thomas de Quin
cey have recently come to light They have
In course of publication by that journal The
following sketch is one of the most striking
The loveliest sight that woman's eye
opens upon in this world is her first
born child; and the holiest sight upon
which the eyes of God settle in almighty
sanction and perfect blessing is the love
which soon kindles between the mother
and her infant; mute and speechless on
the one side, with no language but tears
and kisses and looks. Beautiful is the
philosophy which arises out of that
reflection or passion connected with the
transition that has produced it. First
comes the whole mighty drama of love
purified ever more and more, how
often from grosser feelings, yet of ne
cessity through its very elements oscil-
lating between the finite and the infinite;
the haughtiness of womanly pride, SO
dignified, yet not always free from the
near contagion of error; the romance SO
ennobling, yet not always entirely rea-
sonable; the tender dawn of opening
sentiments pointing to an idea in all
this which it neither can reach nor could
long sustain. Think of the great storm
of agitation, and fear, and hope, through
hood every woman must naturally pass
fulfilling law of her Creator, yet a
law which rests upon her mixed consti-
tuition; animal, though indefinitely
ascending to what is non-animal-as a
daughter of man, frail and imperfect,
yet also as daughter of God, standing
erect, with eyes to the heavens. Next,
when the great vernal passover of sex
ual tenderness and romance has fulfilled
its purpose, we see, rising as phoenix
from this great mystery OF ennobled
instincts, another mystery much more
profound, more affecting, more
divine-not so much rapture
as blissful repose of Sabbath, which
swallows up the more perishing story of
the first; forcing the vast heart of fe-
male nature through stages of ascent;
forcing it to pursue the transmigrations
of the Psyche from the aurelic condition
so glowing in its color, into the winged
creature which mixes with the mystery
of the dawn and ascends to the altar OF
the infinite heavens; rising by ladder
of light from that sympathy which God
surveys with appreciation; and even
more so as he beholds it self-purifying
under his Christianity, to that sym
pathy which needs no publication, but
is the holiest of things on this earth,
and that in which God most reveals
himself through the nature of humanity.
How purified? And if it should be
answered, through and under Christi
anity, the fool in his heart would scott
and say: What woman thinks of relig-
ion in her youthful courtship? No; but
it is not what she thinks of, but what
thinks of her ;notwhat she contemplates
in consciousness, but what contemplates
her, and reaches her by necessity of
social action. Romance is the product
of Christianity, but so is sentiment.
Well is it for the glorifcation of
human nature that through these holy
things the vast majority of women must
forever pass well, also, that, by placing
s sublime germs near to female youth, i,
God thus turns away by anticipation
the divinest of dsciplines from the rapa-
cious absorption of the grave. Time is
found, how often, for those who are
early summoned into rendering back
their glorious privilege, who yet have
tasted in its first fruits the paradise of
maternal love.
And, pertaining also to this part of
the subject, will tell you result of
my observations If no light importance
to women.
1t is this: Nineteen times out of
twenty | have remarked that the true
Z paradise of female life in all ranks not
too elevated for constant intercourse
with the children, is by no means the