It is all right for the humble savage mother in the dark African jungle to be built on the same lines. Like the cow, all that she has to do is to take care of the baby until it is able to run around and forage for itself.
But the civilized mother, the woman who must do her duty in the present and in the future as well, requires a good mind, love based upon knowledge and a sense of justice, affection that follows the child from the cradle to maturity, gradually substituting for intense motherly physical care an equally intense and loving intellectual companionship and guidance. ——
It is important, of course, that mothers of all kinds, human or animal, should be cheerful, and above all healthy, able to feed their babies themselves and feed them well.
But as the brain in a human being is above the stomach, so the intellect in a mother is above the mere maternal affection inspired by babyhood.
The great mothers are those who, when they cease feeding the child's body, can begin to feed the child's brain.
The great men are great, and they were lucky, because they had mothers who did not cease to feed them when they were weaned, but kept on feeding them mentally into their manhood. ——
The woman with a big brain is the best IN EVERY WAY.
She is better before she is married, for she attracts the man of intelligence, and establishes a family of intelligent beings.
She is better as a young wife, because the ambition and intelligence in her call out the ambition and intelligence in her husband.
Hers is the happy home that needs no divorce lawyer. Pink cheeks, small feet, squeezed waists, curly hair and such things disappear or get tiresome. And all pink cheeks are very much alike, as Dr. Johnson said of the green fields.