THE PHILOSOPHY OF MOTHERHOOD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9074, 24 April 1906, Page 3

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MOTHERHOOD.

(Lady's Pictorial.) The object of study of Plato as a kind cf fashionable fad is, ta@ was recently f ointed out. in these columns, to teach the woman of smart society how to deal with questions of the day on the principles of the Athenian philosopher, and it is strange that this question of the guidance of children should he the first to occupy serious attention, since it seems to one that it is just because the modern mother falls so far short of her predecessors in her methods of training up a child in the way it should go "that society is what il is nowadays. Xo more striking lesson could be read to present-day mothers as to the value in their after-life of unselfishness, discipline and personal influence on children than the just published life of, the late Archbishop of Canterbury. But it would be possible to cite many other notable instances of great men whose characters were moulded by their mothers, and whose success was undoubtedly due to the splendid itaaining they received at their "hands. And one is reluctantly forced to the conclusion that mothers- of the present day aire not cast in the -mould of such women as Dorcas- Temple, who gave sixteen children to the world, brought up ■eight of them on an income of a hundred a year, and so carefully taught them herself that< bier uons weiHs all dis'tiinguished scholars, and one of the youngest achieved one ©i the highest positions in the land Obedience was the earliest lesson she taught, and so thoroughly did she <lo so that her children would have en dured physical suffering lather than have failed to obey her at any period of their lives. She devoted all her energies to th« teaching of her children, Iher sincere piety and unselfishness made them- in turn good end unselfish men and women, and abov^j al! things, she recognised the value of discipline in her own conduct and in the training of th© young. One would not like to say ftlhafc there are not such mothers nowadays, but one cannot blind oneself to * the fact that modern mothers have not the influence over their chdldflen that mothers of previous generations have exercised, -nor do they cultivate by tlhek mode of life, th,edr trend of thought suoh. characters as must necessarily be reflected in a greatei or leaser degree in their offspring. The modern motiher is a wretched disciplinarian ; the modern mother knows nothing of obedience. The modern mother is rare ly unselfish; the modern -mother is pam pered, indulged and pert. How many ' modern mothers iive sincerely pious lives' How many children learn even simple les sons nowadays at their mothers' knees? There is no time for this sort of tiling: ihft little boys are packed off to school ere the baby-look has gone from their faces ; the girls are handed over to gover-ne'-ses, or sent to high schools, when they should be clinging to their mothers. Wha* is the kjnd of converiation the children of to-day hear in their homes? What trouble h taken to guide their taste in ~ literature? What training do they get -for the severe battle of life? And will it 1^ surprising, then, if modern mother* do not give England suc4i men and suck vmnen as have had in tfimos jpast? Motfoernood is in sore danger of becoming a lost art, or, perhaps, one should say. a neglected duty. If ; the study of I'lato awakens the women of England fto .this fact, it is one to be encour^ed. One is inclined to think, fe&Wever, that the' study of Dr Tecipie's early life and training will better help modern mothers to understand where they fall short of tho standaaxJ set up by the mothers of earlier days. One noble-minded Englishwoman of simple faith is wortlh a dozen Greek philosophers when it comes to the training of a child.