He will not run to you when he has hurt himself; but if any thing happens to _you_, he will leave every thing to hasten to your relief, and bring with him all the comforts and means of enjoyment for you that his resources can command.

The time will thus come when you will have his love to your heart's content, in the second form.
You must be satisfied, while he is so young, with the first form of it, which is all that his powers and faculties in their present stage are capable of developing.
The truth of the case seems to be that the faculties of the human mind--or I should perhaps rather say, the susceptibilities of the soul--like the instincts of animals, are developed in the order in which they are required for the good of the subject of them.
Indeed, it is very interesting and curious to observe how striking the analogy in the order of development, in respect to the nature of the bond of attachment which binds the offspring to the parent, runs through all those ranks of the animal creation in which the young for a time depend upon the mother for food or for protection.

The chickens in any moment of alarm run to the hen; and the lamb, the calf, and the colt to their respective mothers; but none of them would feel the least inclination to come to the rescue of the parent if the parent was in danger.

With the mother herself it is exactly the reverse.

Her heart--if we can speak of the seat of the maternal affections of such creatures as a heart--is filled with desires to bestow good upon her offspring, without a desire, or even a thought, of receiving any good from them in return.
There is this difference, however, between the race of man and those of the inferior animals--namely, that in his case the instinct, or at least a natural desire which is in some respects analogous to an instinct, prompting him to repay to his parents the benefits which he received from them in youth, comes in due time; while in that of the lower animals it seems never to come at all.