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Infancy and its Dresses.
43
being of the little one committed to her charge? That the chest which is compressed at the age of six months may have consumption at thirty, or asthma at forty in consequence? And above all, is it too much to ask that she should see to these things herself, and not leave to nurses or servants the care of the present health and future well-being of her babe? Indeed, this is a matter of so much importance that a man ought to be entitled to a divorce from any woman who is too ignorant or too indolent to take care of her own offspring.
"Thus, like a sailor by the tempest hurled
Ashore, the babe is shipwrecked on the world.
Naked he is, and ready to expire;
Helpless of all that human wants require.
Exposed upon inhospitable earth,
From the first moment of his hapless birth,
Straight with foreboding cries he fills the room,
The sure presages of his future doom."
Dryden.
Ashore, the babe is shipwrecked on the world.
Naked he is, and ready to expire;
Helpless of all that human wants require.
Exposed upon inhospitable earth,
From the first moment of his hapless birth,
Straight with foreboding cries he fills the room,
The sure presages of his future doom."
Dryden.
