It certainly ought to encourage any mother to know, that no matter what
her particular faults may be, she can lessen if not obliterate them in
her child, by making a great effort in the right direction for so short
a period as nine or even six months.
That she should make _herself over entirely_ would appear a too
formidable undertaking, but with such a motive she could aid her child.
She may have, for instance, a quick temper, which she will determine to
control; or she may lack order, or a good memory; or she may be wanting
in quiet self-esteem (though she have inward self-respect). Either of
these deficiences may be greatly lessened.
I will here insert a letter which I received some time ago from a
young woman who had become greatly interested in the subject before
us, and who was remarkably wanting in what the phrenologist calls
“concentrativeness,” and also in consecutiveness of thought:
“You know what a day-dreamer I have always been. This has
helped to confirm my ‘scatterbrains’ tendency. At first it
did not seem to me reasonable that _intentional_ activity in
any direction could have the desired effect. If circumstance
_outside of one’s self_ aroused in a woman one or another set
of faculties, naturally enough they might be prominent in the
child. But this going to work with _malice prepense_, I feared,
would avail but little. However, I made up my mind to give my
child the benefit of the doubt.
“Every day I obliged myself to explain certain problems in
geometry. This would favor continuity of thought, I decided.
Then I began to recall continually the ideas that just flitted
into my mind and out again. They would return, and I would
dwell a little more on them--see other sides to them; the
connection in which they stood to some other idea. Then, after
a little I felt tired, and let them go, but still held my
mind in readiness for their return. It really both amused and
astonished me to see them come trooping back. Why, thought is
a series of pictures! I exclaimed. It is all illustration.
The ‘fetching myself up standing’ in this way was rather hard
work the first two months, but it became easier, and I grew
to enjoy my own improvement wonderfully. Of course there were
interruptions and discouragements, but I held on bravely, and
I am sure successfully, for Walter, at three years old, would
fix his mind on a person or a picture in a book, and keep his
attention on it to the amusement of all observers; and now if
you tell him to make his slate full of figures, he pegs away at
it till there is not room for one more.”