The instinct of paternity—the love and care of offspring—is common to all creatures, animal and human, and is indeed necessary to the preservation of their existence. The animal frequently exhibits it more decidedly than the human creature, and however unseemly it may be, we, even our own supremely endowed race, may take a lesson from it. The animal instinct, however, is limited to the mere preservation of the life of its offspring, and the latter, when a certain development is reached, no longer needs it, for its own instinct then guides it to preserve itself. The love, and care, and guidance of the Caucasian mother for her child is both a profound instinct and a lofty sentiment, and indeed calls into action the highest capabilities of her nature, her profoundest intelligence as well as the most exalted and self-sacrificing affection. It begins with the birth and ends only with the death, for though it is constantly modified by time and changes in the development of her offspring, it accompanies the latter through life, and disappears only at the portals of the grave. God has endowed the parents with the highest intelligence, and laid on them the command or the duty of caring for their offspring—not the mere bodily preservation, as in the case of the animal, but the education, the guidance and development of the faculties, the moral capabilities as well as the intellectual powers of their children. He, therefore, has endowed them with affections of corresponding breadth and strength, and adapted them to these duties, and, moreover, rewards them with corresponding enjoyment or happiness in the affections and love of their offspring. These duties are too often imperfectly performed, indeed often misunderstood. They are sometimes delegated to others, sometimes carelessly fulfilled, and often disregarded altogether. They should never be delegated to others unless the loss of health or some imperative cause exists. The mother should always nurse her own child—if able to do so—and the parents should always educate their own children. In the main, this is done in our American society, for though children go to the public schools, the impress of the character is generally made at home. The child arriving at adult age, and no longer needing the care and guidance of the parents, marries and leaves home, but the affection of the parents, especially that of the mother, accompanies it through life, and not unfrequently, after a separation of forty years, it is found to be as strong and fresh as in the days of childhood. The large brain of the Caucasian mother, or her large intellectual nature, as has been said, is associated with corresponding capabilities of affection. The interests of life, the social welfare, the progress of civilization—in short, absolute social necessities, demand this, for were it otherwise, were the affections limited to the infancy of the offspring, society, as it now exists, or indeed anything at all