The Way They Should Go. By J. E. Panton. (Downey
and Co.) —We found so much to like in Mrs. Panton's earlier works that we are sorry to have to express a grave dissent from much that we find in the volume before us. Mrs. Panton gives a strong opinion against mothers nursing their own children. "I myself know of no greater misery than nursing a child," she writes. We can only say that the life which produces this state of feeling is unnatural. One consideration which Mrs. Panton does not take into account is this. A child nursed by its mother is much more likely to get through an illness than one brought up on the "bottle." She would say, however, that she does not write for common people—miserable creatures who have to earn their own living. She holds that the life of cultivated leisure is the only one worth living. No man ought to have daughters unless he can provide them with £300 or £400,—i.e., at the interest which trust funds produce, £10,000 of capital at the least. We are reminded of an old friend who used to declare that every boy who had not a certain prospect of £5,000 a year ought to be strangled at birth. Mrs.Panton's world is a great deal too fine for ordinary people.
Previous page
