We women are exacting creatures; and you can not please us unless we have the whole of you.  Oh, if you knew the sacredness, the beauty, the sweetness of married life, as I do, you would as soon think of entering heaven without a wedding garment, as of venturing on its outskirts even, save by the force of a passionate, overwhelming power that is stronger than death itself!

How warmly she sympathised with mothers, especially with young mothers, in their peculiar experiences and how great she thought their privilege to be, her writings testify.  The same trait is brought out still more fully in her letters.  “Only a mother,” she wrote, “knows the varied discipline of hopes and fears and joys and sorrows through which a mother passes to glory—­for this is the mother’s pathway, and she rarely walks on a higher road or one that may so lead to perfection.”  Some of her letters addressed to bereaved mothers have already been given.  But if her heart was always touched with grief by the death of an infant, it seemed to leap for joy whenever she heard that in the home of a friend a child was coming or had just arrived.  Here are samples of her letters on such occasions.

To Mrs. ——­, Jan 10, 1874.

You little know into what a new world you are going to be introduced!  I wouldn’t be a bit frightened, if I were you; it is ever so much more likely that you’ll get through safely, than that you will not; and then what joy!  You will be a very loving, devoted mother, and I hope this little one will only be the beginning of a houseful.  I spoke for ten, but only had six; and our dear Lord had to take two of them back....  I have just run over your letter again, and want to reiterate my charge to you to feel no fear about your future.  If you live and have a child, your joy will be wonderful, but if you do not live (here) it will be because you are going to dwell with Christ, which is better than having a thousand children.  So I see nothing but bright sides for you.

To the Same, April 18 10, 1874.

By this time you ought to be able to receive letters; at any rate I am going to write one and you can do as you please about reading it.  Well, isn’t a baby an institution?  I am sure you had no idea what a delightful thing it is to be a mother, and that you have had a most bewildering experience of both suffering and joy.  I shall want to hear all about the young gentleman when you get strong enough to write an enthusiastic letter about him; nor have I any objection to hear how his mother is behaving under these new circumstances.

What does your husband think of the upsetting of all home customs and the introduction of this young hero therein?  Thank him for sending me the news in good season.  I should not have liked it from a stranger.  And by-the-bye, don’t let your children say parp-er and marm-er, as nine children out of ten do.  I daresay you never meant they should, having a little mite of sense of your own.  Now this is all a new mother ought to read at once, so with lots of congratulations and thanksgivings, good-bye.