OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By “Hygeia.”')

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of 'Women and Children.

MRS. EARLE’S HOME AND GARDEN.

About 12 years ago an elderly English woman, on the insistence of her nieces, wrote her first book, living the world her intimate experience of home-life. The lady modestly doubted whether the world cared to read her opinions, but the- nieces were right in holding that Mrs Earle s wisdom was more than common wisdom, and her sense more than common sense, and in feeling sure that her f e J _ low women the world over would welcome. what she had to tell them, llie book has gone through over 30 fairly expensive editions. As wife, mother,, and widow and as a woman with singularly extensive personal experience of all phases of life and society, Mrs Earle spoke with a peculiarly broad, practical outlook as to essentials. One of the most intimate chapters is that dealing with “Daughters.” The summary of the contents is suggestive: “Schoolgirls—lgnorance of parents • The confidence of children must be gained—The way to do it—Drawbacks 1 of nurseries and schoolrooms —Over-edu-cation— SJiow-training—Delicate girlsA woman’s vacation —Superficial teaching—Children’s tempers —Modern . girls —Herbert Spencer and education. Here wo may pause to see what Mrs Earle lias to say -regarding one of the greatest thinkers of our time, and one- whoso far-reaching insight into liie is usually more appreciated by men than by women.

QUOTATION FROM MRS EARLE. Broadly speaking, it is far be Her for a woman to be strong, healthy, intelligent, and, above all,, adaptable to the changes and chances of this mortal life than she should be (what is commonly miscalled) well-educated. Intelligence is, no doubt-, inborn, a gift that belongs to no class; bad health may injure it, but no higher education will ever giro it to those who are without it, nor will it ever make, what I consider, the ideal woman. The longer 1 live the more I believe that a woman s education . . • should bo awakening . . . teaching her to stand alone, and yet not destroying her adaptability for a woman’s highest vocation, if she can get it—which is, of course, marriage and motherhood. In my youth, and still more before my time, girls were brought up to think that marriage Avas their one and only chance in Hie, and that if they did not marry quite young they would never marry at all. Now they know/ much more about the difficulties and dangers of life, and pride themselves on not thinking about marriage. Ibis seems to me a mistake; thej 7 ought to think of it very seriously and from every point of view. Marriage should not be'a woman’s only profession, but it should be her best and highest hope. Every girl should try and make herself worthy of it both in body and mind, and this attitude will not make a girl grow into a less sensible old maid if slie has to be one.

In days long ago, when my children were children, and, as is apt to be the case when one is surrounded with a small, growing-up family, half t-lie population of-the world seemed to me to be children, my thoughts were so centred on the subject that nothing else appear, ed to me to be of any great importance. At that time two books gave me much comfort, support, and instruction. One was “Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical,” by Herbert Spencer. This book, now so much read and so widely known, requires no recommendation from anyone, but I do wish to say that every father and mother should read.it —not once, but again and again. Some will disagree with one part- and some with another, but I defy anyone to read it without a certain clearing of the head and opening of the mind, most essential to those who have 1 the heavy responsibility of training the young. If there is one thing above all other that repeats its faults ad nauseam and is blindly conservative, it is .the management- of children in the nursery and schoolroom. Mr. Herbert Spencer’s book lias fortunately now reached a very cheap edition —there is a good sixpenny edition. It is a book created by the hand of genius, and not the result of personal experience. I humbly bow to it in grateful thanks for all the good I derived from its perusal. SPENCER ON MAN’S FOLLY. In last week’s column I quoted some of Herbert Spencer’s remarks bearing on the fact that, as lie says: “Man is subject to the same organic laws as inferior creatures.” Perhaps the following passages from Spencer’s chapter on Physical Education may stimulate some of our readers to consult the original, and may help to cause men in particular to bestow on the rearing of children a fraction of the interest and attention which many of them now so lavishly bestow on the rearing of dogs and horses:— QUOTATION FROM HERBERT SPENCER. Equally at the squire’s table- after the withdrawal of the ladies, at the fanner’s market ordinary, and at the village alehouse, the topic which, after the political question of the day, excites the most general interest is the management of animals. Riding home from hunting the conversation usually gravitates towards horse-breeding and pedigrees and comments on this or that “good point,” while a day on the moors is very unlikely to end without something being said on the treatment of dogs. When crossing the fields together from church the tenants of adjacent farms are apt to pass from criticisms on the sermon to criticisms on the weather, the crops, and the stock; and thence to slide into discussions on the various kinds of fodder and their feeding qualities. Hodge and Giles,, after comparing notes over their respective pigstyes, show by their remarks that they have been observant of their masters’ beasts and. sheep, and of the effects produced oil them by this or that kind of treatment. Nor is it only among the rural population that the regulations of the icennel, the stable, the cow-shed, and the sheep-oen are favorite subjects. In towns, too, the numerous artisans who keep dogs, the young men who are rich enough to now and then indulge their sporting tendencies, and their more staid seniors who talk over agricultural progress, form when added together a large portion of the inhabitants. Take the adult males throughout the kingdom, and a great majority will be found to show some interest in the breeding, rearing, or training of animals of one kind or another. But during after-dinner conversation, or at other times of like intercourse, who hears anything said about the rearing of children ? When the country, gentlemen lias paid his daily visit to the stable, and personally inspected the con-

dition and treatment of liis horses, when lie has "glanced at his minor live stock and given directions about them, how often does be go up to the nursery and examine into its dietary, its hours, its ventilation? On his library shelves may be found Whites “Farriery,” Stephen s “Book of the Farm,” Nimrod on ihc Condition of Hunters,” and with the contents of these lie is more or less familiar, but liow many books has he road on the management of infancy and childhood? The fattening properties of oil cake, the relative value of bay and chopped straw, the dangers of unlimited clover, are points on which every landlord, farmer, and peasant lias some knowledge, but what percentage or them inquire whether the feed they give their children is adapted to the constitutional needs of growing boys and girls? Perhaps the business interests of these classes will be assigned as accounting for this anomoly. The explanation is inadequate, however, seeing that the same contrasts holds among other classes. Of a score of townspeople few, if any, would prove ignorant of the fact that it is undesirable to work a horse soon after it has oaten, and yet on this same score, supposing them all to be fathers, nrobably no one would be found who had considered the time elapsing between his children’s dinner and their resumption of lessons was sufficient —indeed, on cross-exam-ination, nearly every man would disclose the latent opinion that the regimen of the nursery was no concern of his. “OH, I LEAVE ALL . THU.THINGS TO THE WOMEN!” would probably: be the reply. And in most cases the tone of this reply would convey tlio implication that such cares are not consistent with MASCULINE DIGNITY! ! ! !

Regarded from any but a- conventional point- of view, the fact seems strange that while the raising of firstrate bullocks is an occupation on which educated men willingly bestow much time- and thought, the bringing up of fine, human beings is an occupation tacitly voted unworthy of their attention.