TOW #22 - ON A MOTHER'S LOVE by T. Augustus Forbes Leith - Written

T. Augustus Forbes Leith was an ornithologist and ethnologist in Australia during the 1800s. His manuscript is held at the National Library of Australia. In this essay, titled "On a Mother's Love", he ruminates on, well, the nature of the love that mothers have for their children. This essay is beautifully written, and ephemerally short, a style and form that match very well the subject matter at hand. He argues that a mother's love is the purest of them all, that no love can ever be as unbiased, unwavering, or unselfish. He cites how it lasts from your birth to your mother's death. This is a rhetorically sound example because in the data that he presents, from the birth of the child to the death of the mother, the entanglement between mother and child is highlighted. It is not the birth and death of just one party that determines the love, it requires the birth of one and the death of another. This demonstrates the almost destiny-like entanglement of souls that Leith argues is present in motherly love. He argues that a mother's love never leaves you, and in that respect, it is the truest, most unbiased love of all. Because it does not discriminate between rich and poor or good and bad, it is true and absolute, and this brings it to rise above all other loves as the purest. Although Leith's evidence is primarily speculative, it is quite effective due to the beautiful and concise form in which he presents it. Leith's views on motherly love are valid and believable.