The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
A skilful tactician in the drawing
room, may almost be compared to a general in the field. She notes,
without being perceived, every movement, and by skilful evolutions she
brings about that arrangement of parties which best suits her taste,
and which seems to others, who have not the sagacity to see the game,
the effect of magic, rather than of art. With man it is very
different; concealment and stratagem in the little courtesies and
plans of life, are never expected of him. The maxim of David Crockett,
"go ahead," is the one on which he practices. As woman is the most
skilful manager on these occasions, so is she the most sagacious
observer, and she can sometimes greatly amuse us, by furnishing a key
to the manoeuvring in the social and fashionable world.
_Mother and Child._
I now proceed more particularly to the consideration of the effects
produced upon the female character, by that most interesting and
tender tie, the relation of mother and child. We have already pointed
out the reasons why the mother should be considered, as intended more
particularly by nature, for the office of nursing, rearing, and
tutoring the infant. Although the effects of this position, are first
manifested upon mothers, yet, as they constitute so large and
influential a portion of females, their character, whatever it may be,
will quickly diffuse itself over the whole sex, and consequently we
may predicate of the whole, to a certain extent at least, the
properties and peculiarities of character, which flow from the
relation of mother and child.
There can scarcely be conceived in the whole range of nature, a more
tenderly interesting object, than the perfectly helpless and innocent
babe. The writers on the sublime tell us, that that obscurity and
indistinctness which prevents us from seeing the exact proportions of
objects, is favorable to sublimity, by the increased play which it
gives to the imagination. Now, what is there so well calculated to
rouse the imagination and excite our anticipations, as the listless,
inactive infant,--slumbering from the moment at which he takes his
milky food to the moment at which he awakes to require it again? What
is that infant to become? What is to be his destiny? What the rôle
which he is to play in the great drama of life? He is now at the
starting point; the future lies latent within him. He is to be nursed
and taken by the hand, and led gently along the path of life, until
the growth of body, and the developement of mental powers, shall
enable him, unaided, to combat the difficulties and obstacles which
beset him on his way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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