If the weaned calf tries to re-establish
the old relationship, its mother, "all heart and no head," will
kick it in the ribs and then butt it across the lot. ----
It's all right for the COW to be all heart and no head; she
does not need the higher education.
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.
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