Sentence:  To comfort the desponding parent with the thought that, without diminishing the stock which is imperiously demanded to furnish the more pressing and homely wants of our nature, he has disposed of one or more perhap out of a numerous offspring, under the shelter of a care scarce less tender than the paternal, where not only their bodily cravings shall be supplied, but that mental <WSD>"pabulum</WSD>" is also dispensed, which smallcaps 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Food for thought.