The union of young persons, affectionate, but unintellectual and
ignorant of law, is followed, not unfrequently, by more or less
deficiency in the first child. No restraint is put on the passions, as
it is believed that after the legal ceremony has taken place any amount
of indulgence is permissible.
More cases of deficiency are found in the families of the rich, and
of the brutalized and ignorant poor, than in households whose moderate
circumstances necessarily force some domestic duties on the wife.
The simplest household labors involve the exercise of calculation,
perception, order and judgment, not to mention the good to the body
of the exercise of many sets of muscles. Consider, then, the loss to
the unborn where wealth has secured abundant service and the pregnant
condition is made an excuse for indolence and over-indulgence!
If the young couple have planned their life wisely; if they are
hospitably inclined, it may be musical and social at once, and the
wife especially take some kindly interest in the welfare of those less
favored than themselves, all will be safe so far as the intellect is
concerned; and if the delicate consideration and courtesy felt and
shown before marriage by each to the other continue after the union
is consummated, a happy temperament, a pleasing natural manner may be
expected for the child.
But if these conditions do not exist, the first child will be greatly
inferior to those that follow it, since the most indolent and selfish
mother will expend some thought on her own little one after its arrival.
* * * * *
Habits of intoxication in either parent result in offspring who prove
to be _non compos mentis_, if not drivelling idiots. No wife should
cohabit with an inebriate. The greatest sin that can be committed is
to create a child who must of necessity be a degraded or helpless
creature. Even if he escape these worst consequences, he will be of
quite inferior organization to those born of temperance.
It would be well if the unmarried would visit asylums where idiots and
inebriates bear testimony to their ante-natal conditions.