The efforts which a mother makes, for the improvement of her child in knowledge and virtue, are necessarily retired and unobtrusive. The world knows not of them; and hence the world has been slow to perceive how powerful and extensive, is this secret and silent influence.
But circumstances, are now directing the eyes of the community to the nursery, and the truth is daily coming more distinctly before the public, that the influence which is exerted upon the mind, during the first eight or ten years of existence, in a great degree guides the destinies of that mind for time and eternity. And as the mother is the guardian and guide of the early years of life, from her, goes the most powerful influence, in the formation of the character of man.
And why should it not be so? What impressions can be more strong, and more lasting, than those received upon the mind, in the freshness and susceptibility of youth? What instructor can gain greater confidence and respect, than a mother? And where can there be delight in acquiring knowledge, if not when the little flock cluster around a mother’s knee, to hear of God and heaven?
The Mother at Home, John S.C. Abbott, 1833
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