Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not rendered
unnatural by early debauchery, who did not feel more delight at
seeing his child suckled by its mother, than the most artful
wanton tricks could ever raise; yet this natural way of cementing
the matrimonial tie, and twisting esteem with fonder
recollections, wealth leads women to spurn. To preserve their
beauty, and wear the flowery crown of the day, which gives them a
kind of right to reign for a short time over the sex, they
neglect to stamp impressions on their husbands' hearts, that
would be remembered with more tenderness when the snow on the
head began to chill the bosom, than even their virgin charms. The
maternal solicitude of a reasonable affectionate woman is very
interesting, and the chastened dignity with which a mother
returns the caresses that she and her child receive from a father
who has been fulfilling the serious duties of his station, is not
only a respectable, but a beautiful sight. So singular, indeed,
are my feelings, and I have endeavoured not to catch factitious
ones, that after having been fatigued with the sight of insipid
grandeur and the slavish ceremonies that with cumberous pomp
supplied the place of domestic affections, I have turned to some
other scene to relieve my eye by resting it on the refreshing
green every where scattered by nature. I have then viewed with
pleasure a woman nursing her children, and discharging the duties
of her station with, perhaps, merely a servant maid to take off
her hands the servile part of the household business. I have seen
her prepare herself and children, with only the luxury of
cleanliness, to receive her husband, who returning weary home in
the evening found smiling babes and a clean hearth. My heart has
loitered in the midst of the group, and has even throbbed with
sympathetic emotion, when the scraping of the well known foot has
raised a pleasing tumult.
