By FRANCES POWER COBBE.
This eminent lady is the daughter of the Archbishop of Dublin, and one of the most distinguished philanthropists in England. In the following pages will be found some timely thoughts she has uttered in a lecture on
SOCIAL DUTIES IN THE FAMILY.
A mother’s love ought to be attuned to the very note of the love divine,—to be, in fact, its echo from the deep cave of her heart.
But, with super-earthly love to light her way what does she see before her? There is, first, the duty of conducing to her child’s moral welfare, the highest of all her duties; secondly, of securing his bodily health; thirdly, of giving him that intellectual training which will enlarge his being and make his moral nature itself more robust and capable of fulfilling his duties in life; and lastly, of making him as happy as she may. These are each and all most complicated problems to many a good mother, working perhaps against wind and tide, with feeble health or limited means, or possibly with a husband who thwarts and opposes her endeavors. It would require not half a lecture, but a whole treatise, to deal with such a subject fitly, even if I possessed the experience or insight needful for the task. There is only one point on which I think ethical science may be of some utility. That point is the problem of obedience. How far ought it to be enforced?
Three things are commonly confounded in speaking of filial obedience—
First—The obedience which must be exacted from a child for its own physical, intellectual, and moral welfare.
Second—The obedience which the parent may exact for his (the parent’s) welfare or convenience.