When we say that mothers are not always in a condition to suckle their own children, we would not be understood as discouraging that practice. Every mother who can, ought certainly to perform so tender and agreeable an office[3]. But, suppose it to be out of her power, she may, nevertheless, be of great service to her child. The business of nursing is by no means confined to giving suck. To a woman who abounds with milk, this is the easiest part of it. Numberless other offices are necessary for a child, which the mother ought at least to see done. A mother who abandons the fruit of her womb, as soon as it is born, to the sole care of an hireling, hardly deserves that name. A child, by being brought up under the mother’s eye, not only secures her affection, but may reap all the advantages of a parent’s care, though it be suckled by another. How can a mother be better employed than in superintending the nursery? This is at once the most delightful and important office; yet the most trivial business or insipid amusements are often preferred to it! A strong proof both of the bad taste and wrong education of modern females. It is indeed to be regretted, that more care is not bestowed in teaching the proper management of children to those whom Nature has designed for mothers. This, instead of being made the principal, is seldom considered as any part of female education. Is it any wonder, when females so educated come to be mothers, that they should be quite ignorant of the duties belonging to that character? However strange it may appear, it is certainly true, that many mothers, and those of fashion too, are as ignorant, when they have brought a child into the world, of what is to be done for it, as the infant itself. Indeed, the most ignorant of the sex are generally reckoned most knowing in the business of nursing. Hence, sensible people become the dupes of ignorance and superstition; and the nursing of children, instead of being conducted by reason, is the result of whim and caprice[4]. Were the time that is generally spent by females in the acquisition of trifling accomplishments, employed in learning how to bring up their children; how to dress them so as not to hurt, cramp, or confine their motions; how to feed them with wholesome and nourishing food; how to exercise their tender bodies, so as best to promote their growth and strength: were these made the objects of female instruction, mankind would derive the greatest advantages from it. But while the education of females implies little more than what relates to dress and public shew, we have nothing to expect from them but ignorance even in the most important concerns.