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Subject:
From:
Patti Blomme <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 2 Mar 2001 20:23:55 -0700
Content-Type:
text/plain
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.......and I thought I'd share it....along with the original posters
permission to forward her own words:

<Dear Ones,
My husband has been  reading  "Ėmile" by Rousseau, not so much as a child
raising
treaty as for
its' historical value.  However, he did point out the following paragraph to
me and I knew you
would enjoy it.....

"Would you restore all men to their primal duties? --begin with the mother;
the results will
surprise you.  Every evil follows in the train of this first sin.
....The mother whose children are out of sight wins scanty esteem; there is
no home life, the
ties of nature are not strenthened by those of habit; fathers, mothers,
brothers, and sisters cease
to exist. They are almost strangers; how should they love one another? Each
thinks of himself.
  But when mothers deign to nurse their own children, there will be a reform
in morals, natural
feeling will revive in every heart; there will be no lack of citizens for
the state; this first step will itself
restore mutual affection.  The charms of home are the best antidote of vice.
The noisy  play of
children whcih we thought so trying, becomes a delights; mother and
father....grow dearer to
each other; the marriage is strengthened....Thus the cure of this one evil
would work a widespread
reformation; nature would regain her rights.  When women become good mothers
men will become
good husbands and fathers.  "

Supposedly, these paragraphs made breast feeding by mothers part of the
change in manners that
began in the final decade of Louis XV's reign.  A similar appeal had been
issued a decade before,
but it had not reached the  women of France.  Now the fairest breasts in
Paris made their debut as
organs of maternity as well as bewitchments of sex. (Will and Ariel Durant).

Pretty strong stuff for a guy who sent his own children to a foundling
asylum and failed as a tutor!!
As the Durants wrote in their treatise "Rousseau and
Revolution"...."Rousseau found it pleasant to give
his imagination free rein, unhampered by experience." <g>
Abrazos, Joni>




**********************************************************************
Patricia Blomme RN
Perinatal Nurse
VP Canadian Childbirth Association
Birth Educator/Doula
Lay Breastfeeding Counselor
**********************************************
my website: Heads Up! All About Breech Babies http://members.home.net/ibirth
my thoughts:
http://www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/author/view_author_info.gsp?auth_id=7
7894
*********************************************
Our greatest food for thought is.......breastmilk!

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