CHAPTER II.
THE MOTHER "Strength and dignity are her clothing; She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And the law of kindness is on her tongue.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, And eateth not the bread of idleness.
The heart of her husband trusteth in her; Her children rise up and call her blessed; Give her of the fruit of her hands; And let her works praise her in the gates." -- PROVERBS.
"A being breathing thoughtful breath, A traveller betwixt life and death; The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; A perfect woman, nobly plann'd, To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a spirit still and bright, With something of an angel light." -- WORDSWORTH.
"Yet in herself she dwelleth not, Although no home were half so fair; No simplest duty is forgot; Life hath no dim and lowly spot That doth not in her sunshine share." -- LOWELL.
"I loved the woman; there was one through whom I loved her, one Not learned, save in gracious household ways, Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, No angel, but a dearer being, interpreter between the gods and men.
"Happy he with such a mother! Faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall, He shall not blind his soul with clay." -- TENNYSON.
=Antiquity of the Mother-instinct.=--The mother-instinct of protection of offspring, of care of weakness and of sacrifice for the young, came to high power before the human was reached in the scale of beings.

It must never be forgotten that humbler sisters set the fashion of motherhood's devotion too long ago to reckon the time and in types of organism too remote to be always recognized as kin to the human beings we know to-day.

This is the greatest and most racially useful of all the biological assets stored up for us in the prehuman struggle toward what we now call civilization.

Nor should we fail to give full value to the testimony of primitive human life that the mother and child formed the first social group within the loose association of the herd.

It was the first group to develop, by virtue of its conscious relationship, the sense of trust and the habit of service of the stronger to the weaker, thus leading toward mutual aid within an area of affection and good-will.