Emile | Page 9

My words are vain! When we are sick of worldly pleasures we do not return to the
pleasures of the home. Women have ceased to be mothers, they do not and will not return
to their duty. Could they do it if they would? The contrary custom is firmly established;
each would have to overcome the opposition of her neighbours, leagued together against
the example which some have never given and others do not desire to follow.
Yet there are still a few young women of good natural disposition who refuse to be the
slaves of fashion and rebel against the clamour of other women, who fulfil the sweet task
imposed on them by nature. Would that the reward in store for them might draw others to
follow their example. My conclusion is based upon plain reason, and upon facts I have
never seen disputed; and I venture to promise these worthy mothers the firm and steadfast
affection of their husbands and the truly filial love of their children and the respect of all
the world. Child-birth will be easy and will leave no ill-results, their health will be strong
and vigorous, and they will see their daughters follow their example, and find that
example quoted as a pattern to others.
No mother, no child; their duties are reciprocal, and when ill done by the one they will be
neglected by the other. The child should love his mother before he knows what he owes
her. If the voice of instinct is not strengthened by habit it soon dies, the heart is still-born.
From the outset we have strayed from the path of nature.
There is another by-way which may tempt our feet from the path of nature. The mother
may lavish excessive care on her child instead of neglecting him; she may make an idol
of him; she may develop and increase his weakness to prevent him feeling it; she wards
off every painful experience in the hope of withdrawing him from the power of nature,
and fails to realise that for every trifling ill from which she preserves him the future holds
in store many accidents and dangers, and that it is a cruel kindness to prolong the child's
weakness when the grown man must bear fatigue.
Thetis, so the story goes, plunged her son in the waters of Styx to make him invulnerable.
The truth of this allegory is apparent. The cruel mothers I speak of do otherwise; they
plunge their children into softness, and they are preparing suffering for them, they open
the way to every kind of ill, which their children will not fail to experience after they
grow up.
Fix your eyes on nature, follow the path traced by her. She keeps children at work, she
hardens them by all kinds of difficulties, she soon teaches them the meaning of pain and
grief. They cut their teeth and are feverish, sharp colics bring on convulsions, they are

choked by fits of coughing and tormented by worms, evil humours corrupt the blood,
germs of various kinds ferment in it, causing dangerous eruptions. Sickness and danger
play the chief part in infancy. One half of the children who are born die before their
eighth year. The child who has overcome hardships has gained strength, and as soon as
he can use his life he holds it more securely.
This is nature's law; why contradict it? Do you not see that in your efforts to improve
upon her handiwork you are destroying it; her cares are wasted? To do from without what
she does within is according to you to increase the danger twofold. On the contrary, it is
the way to avert it; experience shows that children delicately nurtured are more likely to
die. Provided we do not overdo it, there is less risk in using their strength than in sparing
it. Accustom them therefore to the hardships they will have to face; train them to endure
extremes of temperature, climate, and condition, hunger, thirst, and weariness. Dip them
in the waters of Styx. Before bodily habits become fixed you may teach what habits you
will without any risk, but once habits are established any change is fraught with peril. A
child will bear changes which a man cannot bear, the muscles of the one are soft and
flexible, they take whatever direction you give them without any effort; the muscles of
the grown man are harder and they only change their accustomed mode of action when
subjected to violence. So we can make a child strong without risking his life or health,
and even if there were some risk, it should not be taken into consideration. Since human
life is full of dangers, can we do better than face them at a time when they can