Chapter 1—Appeal to Mothers
My Sisters: My apology for addressing you on this subject is, I
am a mother, and feel alarmed for those children and youth who by
solitary vice are ruining themselves for this world, and for that which
is to come. Let us closely inquire into this subject from a physical,
mental, and moral point of view.
Mothers, let us first view the results of this vice upon the physical
strength. Have you not marked the lack of healthful beauty, of strength
and power of endurance, in your dear children? Have you not felt
saddened as you have watched the progress of disease upon them,
which has baffled your skill, and that of physicians? You listen to
numerous complaints of headache, catarrh, dizziness, nervousness,
pain in the shoulders and side, loss of appetite, pain in the back and
limbs, wakeful, feverish nights, of tired feelings in the morning, and
great exhaustion after exercising? As you have seen the beauty of
health disappearing, and have marked the sallow countenance, or the
unnaturally-flushed face, have you been aroused sufficiently to look
beneath the surface, to inquire into the cause of this physical decay?
Have you observed the astonishing mortality among the youth?
[50]
And have you not noticed that there was a deficiency in the mental
health of your children? that their course seemed to be marked with
extremes? that they were absent minded? that they started nervously
when spoken to? and were easily irritated? Have you not noticed that,
when occupied upon a piece of work, they would look dreamingly, as
though the mind was elsewhere? and when they came to their senses,
they were unwilling to own the work as coming from their hands, it was
so full of mistakes, and showed such marks of inattention? Have you
not been astonished at their wonderful forgetfulness? The most simple
and oft-repeated directions would often be forgotten. They might be
quick to learn, but it would be of no special benefit to them. The
mind would not retain it. What they might learn through hard study,
when they would use their knowledge, is missing, lost through their
sieve-like memories. Have you not noticed their reluctance to engage
4