Again Mrs. Spofford in her incomparable little prose-poem, _The Nemesis of Motherhood_, pictures one of the other mothers, a vacuous, trifling woman, who utters the soul-cry, when she began to wake to her real self, as the little firstborn nestled in her bosom. “Do you suppose he knows I am his mother?” and the little head had snuggled into place. She gazed at him in a bewildered wonder; something seemed to be taking hold of her heartstrings. “Oh: this scrap of a creature was part of her life itself; she had made him; she had struck this spark of a soul into a being; the idea; the dear thing had a soul of course! And she fell to wondering what kind of a soul it was. What kind of a soul? Why didn’t people say the son was the avatar of the mother? A soul like hers to be sure. Heaven help her, what kind of a soul _was_ hers? She saw herself. That was the kind of a soul she had, a little paltering, worthless one, and that was what she had given to her boy.” Oh the sorrow of such motherhood! Sorrow for herself, more sorrow for her children, and most sorrow for the great wide world, into which her child has come to take a part—and which must of necessity be a sorrowful part, unless he be regenerated. And even then the superlative of sadness is this, that he is not all he might have been had his progenitors given him his lawful inheritance. Mothers! mothers! choose and live for the highest and noblest in yourselves, and for your children. Bless the world with your offspring. Crown them with your pure and noble life, and your memory shall be blessed. CHAPTER XIX. THE MOTHER THE TEACHER. Mother’s Sphere in the Home.—Mother as Maker of Sunshine.—Food, Clothing and Restraint not the Mother’s Full Duty to Her Children.—Teach Them Self-knowledge.—Mother Should Give Honest Answers to Honest Inquiries.—Ignorance Leads to Vice, and Vice to Ruin.—When Shall Children be Taught Physical Truths.—How to Teach Little Children Physical Truth.—Questions of Sex Should be the Most Sacred Things of Their Knowledge.—How to Teach the Children in This Sacred Way.—The Preparation for the Lesson.—Mothers Should Teach Their Boys as Well as the Girls.—How Boys Grow Away from Their Mothers.—How Mothers May Win and Hold Their Boys.—An Honest Mother’s Reward.—A Mother’s Power Over Her Children. “The best teacher is a wise mother. She will thoroughly equip the child for the journey of life; she will place him on the right road, and she will fill his mind with such ideas of truth and justice as will enable him to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Thrice happy is the child who possesses such a mother. He may have other teachers in school and college, but none whose influence is so far-reaching and lasting as hers.”—THOMAS HUNTER. “As is the mother so is her daughter.” “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”