Who is so fit to watch over the wants of infancy as she who gave that infant birth?
Can a mother suppose, that if she can so stifle those sensibilities which prompt her to provide for the wants of her children, servants and dependants, in whom no such sensibilities exist, will be very solicitous about their charge?
How many of the infant's cries will be unattended to, which would at once have made their way to the heart of a mother! and, therefore, how many of the child's wants will in consequence remain uncared for! No one can understand so well the wants of a child as a mother--no one is ever so ready to meet those wants as she; and, therefore, to none but a mother, under ordinary circumstances, should the entire charge of a child be committed, And in all countries in which, luxury has not so far attained the ascendency, that in order to partake of its pleasures a mother will desert her offspring, the cares and trials of maternal love are entered upon as the sweetest of enjoyments and the greatest of pleasures.

It was a noble saying of a queen of France, "that none should share with her the privileges of a mother;" and if the same sentiment found its way into every heart, a very different aspect would soon be produced.
How many, through ill-treatment and neglect in childhood, carry the marks to their dying day in weak and sickly constitutions! how many more in a distorted body and crippled limbs! These are but the too sure consequences of the neglect of a mother, and, consequent upon that, the neglect of servants, who, feeling the child a burden, lessen their own trouble; and many a mother who, perhaps, now that her child has grown up, weeps bitter tears over his infirmities, might have saved his pain and her own sorrow by attending to his wants in infancy.
"Can a mother forget her sucking child ?" asks the inspired penman, in a way that it would seem to be so great an anomaly as almost to amount to an impossibility.

Yet modern luxury not only proves that such a thing can be done, but it is one even of common occurrence.
But if done, surely some great stake must be pending--something on which life and property are concerned--that a mother can thus forget the child of her bosom?
Alas! no; the child is neglected, that no interruption may take place in the mother's stream of pleasure.

For the blandishments of the theatre, or the excitements of the dance, is a child left to the charge of those who have nothing of love for it--no sympathy for its sufferings, no joyousness in sharing in its pleasures.
A woman forfeits all claim to the sacred character of a mother if she abandon her offspring to the entire care of others: for ere she can do this, she must have stifled all the best feelings of her nature, and become "worse than the infidel"-- for she gives freely to the stranger, and neglects her own.
Therefore should a woman, if she would fulfil her duty, make her child her first care.

It is not necessary that her whole time should be spent in attending to its wants; but it is necessary that so much of the time should be spent, that nothing should be neglected which could add to the child's comfort and happiness.