To Mothers.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1842, 26 April 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

To Mothers.

Wj: all love to see the sweet unconsciousness of youth, full of charming impulses and unstudied graces. Youth is the poetry of life. We come soon enough to the stern realities and the prose of life. There is no time when our daughters stand so much in need of earnest, loving counsel as in youth. When they are most lovely they are most tempted, and often the least ready to meet it. We, as mothers, should teach our girls to know themselves ; to have a true understanding of the needs and desires of their being, and of what they are liable to come in oontact with out in the world. This knowledge would be to them a mantle of protection. Sin and ignorance go hand in hand. We shun not the hidden evils, and sometimes not the glaring ones. Many a good, young girl, the joy and pride of prudish parents, has fallen an easy prey to an ardent and unprincipled lover, who afterward cast her aside, she, unused to the ways of the world, scarooly understanding why he* loves her no more, she had loved so well. Girls, beware ! If a man says he loves you, and is honest, he Avill never allow a breath of scandal to touch you through any act or thought of his. Love means protection, care for your reputation, which he would guard with his life. The genuine article is fair and healthful, and blesses its object ; while the spurious is full of promise, but yields only the fruits of sorrow. Let us mothers try by earnest teaching and loving guidance to help our girls to be strong and true. Let us keep our homes : pure and happy, full of brightness and sunshine, a place where the lamp of love is always i burning for our dear ones. We must teach j our daughters the laws which 'govern their ; lives if we would have them morally and physically strong. BONNIE. — In The Phrenological Journal.