gratifications they may desire. She may indulge them in all their childish
impulses, fancies, and even caprices, to their heart's content, without
at all weakening her authority over them. Indeed, she may make these very
indulgences the means of strengthening her authority. But without the
authority she can never develop in the hearts of her children the only kind
of love that is worth possessing--namely, that in which the feeling of
affection is dignified and ennobled by the sentiment of respect.

_One more Consideration_.

There is one consideration which, if properly appreciated, would have an
overpowering influence on the mind of every mother in inducing her to
establish and maintain a firm authority over her child during the early
years of his life, and that is the possibility that he may not live to
reach maturity. Should the terrible calamity befall her of being compelled
to follow her boy, yet young, to his grave, the character of her grief, and
the degree of distress and anguish which it will occasion her, will depend
very much upon the memories which his life and his relations to her have
left in her soul. When she returns to her home, bowed down by the terrible
burden of her bereavement, and wanders over the now desolated rooms which
were the scenes of his infantile occupations and joys, and sees the now
useless playthings and books, and the various objects of curiosity and
interest with which he was so often and so busily engaged, there can, of
course, be nothing which can really assuage her overwhelming grief; but it
will make a vital difference in the character of this grief, whether the
image of her boy, as it takes its fixed and final position in her memory
and in her heart, is associated with recollections of docility, respectful
regard for his mother's wishes, and of ready and unquestioning submission
to her authority and obedience to her commands; or whether, on the other
hand, the picture of his past life, which is to remain forever in her