AN APPEAL TO MOTHERS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 958, 2 April 1872, Page 3

AN APPEAL TO MOTHERS.

As we pointed out in a previous article, crime and intemperance are merely the products of brain-power, uncultivated, undisciplined, misdirected, or run to waste. Both these evils might be reduced to their lowest term, if not altogether eradicated, provided the children of all classes—rich as well as poor—were properly educated. In the case of tho poor, the State, for its own sake and for the welfare and security of the community of which it is the appointed guardian, is obliged to undertake the duty, and ought not to shrink from making education compulsory, if need be. In the case of those who are better off, the taskshould be commenced at home, either by well-qualified, and thereby liberally remunerated and considerately treated, tutors and governesses, or—what is far better—by parents themselves. Instructions so communicated—guided by intelligence and animated by affection is invaluable. It tends both to enlighten and to purify the mind. Great and good men in all ages have owed the formation both of their intellects and of their character to their mothers. Nor can our modern women, among the idle classes, plead that they have no time for the fulfilment of this paramount and sacred duty. The hours that are now wasted in that most frivolous and ridiculous of all occupations—morning calls, or in the inanities or scandal of feminine gossip, would amply suffice for the work of instruction. And no nobler or more beneficial task couldoccupy the thought or exercise the efforts of mothers. A fashionable woman will dissipate hours in devouring flimsy novels ; but let her study the mind of one of her own children,andshe will findin it inexhaustible springs of knowledge and entertainment. She will devote whole days to produce in Berlin wool a hideous caricature of some well-known picture; but let her consecrate tho same time to develop the faculties of a son or daughter, and she will be rewarded' by the creation beneath her hands of a work of nature, unfolded by affectionate art, which will continue to charm and delight her to the end of her life. Not until these truths are recognised and acted upon shall we succeed in staying the plague of larrikins, and larrikinesses—who appear among us clad in broadcloth and in silk and muslins as well as homelier garbs—nor will society arrive at simplicity and purity of life and manners, healthfulness of employments and recreations, and at that condition of affairs in which it can be truly said of every mother — " Her children shall rise up and call her blessed." —" Australasian."