"And," continued the doctor, "it may all be summed up in this verity: 'It
is a mother's duty to nurse her child.' And, besides, a mother, is she
not the symbol of all grandeur, all strength, all beauty? She represents
the eternity of life. She deserves a social culture, she should be
religiously venerated. When we know how to worship motherhood, our
country will be saved. And this is why, my friend, I should like a mother
feeding her babe to be adopted as the highest expression of human beauty.
Ah! how can one persuade our Parisiennes, all our French women, indeed,
that woman's beauty lies in being a mother with an infant on her knees?
Whenever that fashion prevails, we shall be the sovereign nation, the
masters of the world!"
He ended by laughing in a distressed way, in his despair at being unable
to change manners and customs, aware as he was that the nation could be
revolutionized only by a change in its ideal of true beauty.
"To sum up, then, I believe in a child being nursed only by its own
mother. Every mother who neglects that duty when she can perform it is a
criminal. Of course, there are instances when she is physically incapable
of accomplishing her duty, and in that case there is the feeding-bottle,
which, if employed with care and extreme cleanliness, only sterilized
milk being used, will yield a sufficiently good result.
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