The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-04-12
The Home.
(xprrzD BY CLARA STANLEY rwrrcHzLL.l
Wonlan's Department.
The Maternal Principle.

Bazar)
Many of the passing generation. tor
getting the indestructibility and power OF
the maternal principle, have foretold sad
results from the way in which women are
asserting misunderstanding them
selves not SO much through conscious
1, ness or determination as through the i'm
possibility OF the further repression Of ma
lures informed from the beginning with
a sovereign force.
We have been told by science that
when the first cell swan out into the sea,
a living organism, it was undoubtedly
the maternal principle, from which has
since been born. all the sons of God and
the daughters Of men. 1t follows that
nothing in the natural inheritance OF the
race is SO strong as this maternal prin-
ciple We see it declare itself in the
earliest aspect of the individual; we see
it not only in the child's first play but in
moments OF exigency-as when little girl
of 20 months, in dying. put up her trenb-
>ling hand to the tears on the face bend
ing over her. and said. Poor mamma!
poor mammal" expanding herself in the
very act of the mother heart. And later
we see it carry the woman through fire.
and into the face OF death, and through
death. For it is the earthly apparition of
the divine pity: it seems to be for the full
filling force of every woman child that
SO abandoned that she is abandoned OF
that
: Before she goes alone, the girl baby
loves her rag baby. and is in her own
mind its undoubted mother AS she
grows older she is the natural guardian
of every smaller child crossing her path
If you observe her with another little
girl in the street, their arms are about
each others neck; at night, if they occu-
Ply one bed. they sleep in each others
arms; and the greater part of their
games are those that involve stimulation
of this controlling instinct. 1t is safe to
say-and almost any woman who is or
who has been wife knows how true it is
that the alteration of the bride becomes
in time something like the tenderness of
the mother, and in the affection of every
wife for her husband there grows to be.
from year to year, less of the passion Of
the lover and more Of the yearning OF the
mother In fact. the life Of every woman
is one long act of maternity, and that
whether she has brought children into the
world or not; indeed. quite as often when
she has done nothing Of the kind, but has
instead mothered everything that came
to her hand, as it was known of Him that
said, More are the children of the desc
late than the children of the married
wife,
Who is there that has not seen the ear
nestness of the teacher, of the aunt, Of the
elder sitesr. the adopting mother, and has
Not recognized that in that earnestness
was found an opportunity for the employ
ment of that quality which is the chief
feature in her being? In truth, we all
know that when by some fortuity we find
woman apparently destitute OF this in
tegral quality. we at once fancy that there
is something unnatural and abnormal
about her. and feel as if affairs had hamp-
cred her development, as an unyielding
skull prevents the growth and expansion
of the brain. If among such as this for
tuitous being it should be thought that
there is anything less than lofty in the
service OF this maternal principle and
that life should be lived unhindered Of
anything but learning, business, pleasure
and the exploitation of peculiar genius, il
may be remembered that the old Areopa-
Cite, Classifying the hierarchy OF heaven
placed in the highest rank of all-above
Cherubm and Dominations, Principali-
ties and Powers-the Seraphim who de-
noted love alone: and one will not go
amiss in recalling that the Creative Prin-
ciple makes the maternal its vicegerent
and one may think of the latter i'll rev.
erence as OF power that borrows from
~tl,e de;fc.
The simplest simpleton of a mother
will, on occasion. exhibit a self-forgetful-
ness and devotion that-since love is the
greatest thing in the world, as we have
it on better authority than the Areopa-
gites-are superior. in the ability to uplif
to lofty plane, to all the intellectual en-
ergy which can command the elements
rnravel sophistries. amass millions O
money What the higher power Of all
thinks as to the value OF this Principle i.
cvinced not only in the reverence all mer
have for the mother, but in the care taker
for the perpetuation of the type through
out nature. in the never-varying fact tina
the acorn produces only the oak, the ap
pie seed the apple; while we know that
the sun. burning out his blaze, became
only black cinder in space, should an,
impact with foreign body again gener
ale the heat that should start his fire
once more, were there but one cell LEI
sleeping inert upon our frozen globe, /
would be enough to repeople the eartl
and renew its civilization. DR.. Dcwar'
experiments have proven that the frozel
germ still retains its vitality