Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/58

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white as the Alpine snows, he felt his heart warm at their approach. Many a pastor whom he had assisted to consecrate, bore witness to the pathos of his appeal, the solemnity of his intonation, when he inquired, "Brother, lovest thou our Lord Jesus Christ? Then feed these lambs."

The love of children, in man is a virtue: in woman, an element of nature. It is a feature of her constitution, a proof of His wisdom, who having entrusted to her the burden of the early nurture of a whole race, gives that sustaining power which produces harmony, between her dispositions, and her allotted tasks.

To love children, is a graceful lineament, in the character of young ladies. Anxious as they usually are to acquire the art of pleasing, they are not always aware what an attraction it imparts to their manners. It heightens the influence of beauty, and often produces a strong effect, where beauty is wanting.

"Love children," said Madame de Maintenon, in her advice to the young dauphiness; "whether for a prince or a peasant, it is the most amiable accomplishment." It was this very trait in her own character, that won the heart of Louis the Great. When she was governess of his children, and past the bloom of life, he surprised her one morning, in the royal nursery, sustaining with one arm, the oldest son, then feeble from the effects