"A lady once interviewed a prominent college president and asked him
when the education of a child should begin. 'Twenty-five years before
it is born,' was the prompt reply."
No better answer was ever given to that question Every mother may well
consider it.
1. THE UNBORN CHILD AFFECTED BY THE THOUGHTS AND THE SURROUNDINGS OF
THE MOTHER.--That the child is affected in the womb of the mother,
through the influences apparently connected with objects by which she
is surrounded, appears to have been well known in ancient days, as
well as at the present time.
2. EVIDENCES.--Many evidences are found in ancient history, especially
among the refined nations, showing that certain expedients
were resorted to by which their females, during the period of
utero-gestation, were surrounded by the superior refinements of the
age, with the hope of thus making upon them impressions which should
have the effect of communicating certain desired qualities to the
offspring. For this reason apartments were adorned with statuary and
paintings, and special pains were taken not only to convey favorable
impressions, but also to guard against unfavorable ones being made,
upon the mind of the pregnant woman.
3. HANKERING AFTER GIN.--A certain mother while pregnant, longed for
gin, which could not be gotten; and her child cried incessantly for
six weeks till gin was given it, which it eagerly clutched and drank
with ravenous greediness, stopped crying, and became healthy.
4. BEGIN TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AT CONCEPTION, and continue during their
entire carriage. Yet maternal study, of little account before the
sixth, after it, is most promotive of talents; which, next to goodness
are the father's joy and the mother's pride. What pains are taken
after they are born, to render them prodigies of learning, by the best
of schools and teachers from their third year; whereas their mother's
study, three months before their birth, would improve their intellects
infinitely more.
5. MOTHERS, DOES GOD THUS PUT the endowment of your darlings into
your moulding power? Then tremble in view of its necessary
responsibilities, and learn how to wield them for their and your
temporal and eternal happiness.
[Illustration]
6. QUALITIES OF THE MIND.--The Qualities of the mind are perhaps
as much liable to hereditary transmission as bodily configuration.
Memory, intelligence, judgment, imagination, passions, diseases, and
what is usually called genius, are often very markedly traced in the
offspring.--I have known mental impressions forcibly impressed upon
the offspring at the time of conception, as concomitant of some
peculiar eccentricity, idiosyncrasy, morbidness, waywardness,
irritability, or proclivity of either one or both parents.
7. THE PLASTIC BRAIN.--The plastic brain of the foetus is prompt
to receive all impressions. It retains them, and they become the
characteristics of the child and the man. Low spirits, violent
passions, irritability, frivolity, in the pregnant woman, leave
indelible marks on the unborn child.
8. FORMATION OF CHARACTER.--I believe that pre-natal influences may
do as much in the formation of character as all the education that
can come after, and that mothers may, in a measure, "will," what that
influence shall be, and that, as knowledge on the subject increases,
it will be more and more under their control. In that, as in
everything else, things that would be possible with one mother would
not be with another, and measures that would be successful with one
would produce opposite results from the other.
9. A HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATION.--A woman rode side by side with her
soldier husband, and witnessed the drilling of troops for battle. The
scene inspired her with a deep longing to see a battle and share in
the excitements of the conquerors. This was but a few months before
her boy was born, and his name was Napoleon.
10. A MUSICIAN.--The following was reported by Dr. F.W. Moffatt, in
the mother's own language, "When I was first pregnant, I wished
my offspring to be a musician, so, during the period of that
pregnancy, settled my whole mind on music, and attended every musical
entertainment I possibly could. I had my husband, who has a violin, to
play for me by the hour. When the child was born, it was a girl, which
grew and prospered, and finally became an expert musician."
11. MURDEROUS INTENT.--The mother of a young man, who was hung not
long ago, was heard to say: "I tried to get rid of him before he was
born; and, oh, how I wish now that I had succeeded!" She added that it
was the only time she had attempted anything of the sort; but, because
of home troubles, she became desperate, and resolved that her burdens
should not be made any greater. Does it not seem probable that the
murderous intent, even though of short duration, was communicated
to the mind of the child, and resulted in the crime for which he was
hung?
12. THE ASSASSIN OF GARFIELD.--Guiteau's father was a man of integrity
and conquerable intellectual ability. His children were born in quick
succession, and the mother was obliged to work very hard. Before this
child was born, she resorted to every means, though unsuccessful, to
produce abortion. The world knows the result. Guiteau's whole life
was full of contradictions. There was little self-controlling power
in him; no common sense, and not a vestige or remorse or shame. In his
wild imagination, he believed himself capable of doing the greatest
work and of filling the loftiest station in life. Who will dare
question that this mother's effort to destroy him while in embryo was
the main cause in bringing him to the level of the brutes?
13. CAUTION.--Any attempt, on the part of the mother, to destroy her
child before birth, is liable, if unsuccessful, to produce murderous
tendencies. Even harboring murderous thoughts, whether toward her own
child or not, might be followed by similar results.
"The great King of kings
Hath in the table of His law commanded
That thou shall do no murder. Wilt thou, then,
Spurn at His edict, and fulfill a man's?
Take heed, for He holds vengeance in His hand
To hurl upon their heads that break his law."
--RICHARD III., _Act I._
[Illustration: The Embryo In Sixty Days.]
* * * * *