" "It is generally admitted," says Theodore Hook, "and frequently
proved, that virtue and genius, and all the natural good qualities which
men possess, are derived from their mothers." "It is well for us," says
Bishop Hare, "that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand
half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with
A CONCEIT OF OUR OWN IMPORTANCE
which would render us insupportable through life. Happy the boy whose
mother is tired of talking nonsense to him before he is old enough to
know the sense of it." Perhaps the praises of our mothers tarry in our
brains too long anyway. It may be a provision of nature that woman shall
inspire her child with sufficient self-esteem to take him through the
world with a first-class ticket, a cabin passage, that he may escape the
poor accommodations of excessive humility, the steerage of the ship of
life. It seems incredible that our mother was mistaken in thinking her
boys the brightest, best, and most creditable in all the region
roundabout! Let us by our lives, marvel rather at the correctness of her
vision than the blindness of her love.
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