gO ANTE-NATAL IMPRESSIONS. 



generations, a corresponding degree of care and painstaking. For 

 this purpose, we should be in the highest and strongest physical 

 health and vigor of which we are capable; and to secure this state, 

 we should take that amount and quality of bodily exercise which 

 are best calculated to produce it. At the same time, our mental 

 faculties should be in their highest and most active condition. 

 Then, the sentiment and passion of mutual love and attraction 

 should be at their strongest, and the hour selected should be that 

 time of the day when our whole nature is in its fullest force and 

 highest vigor; this is not at night, when we are exhausted by fatigue, 

 nor on waking in the morning, before our faculties are fully 

 aroused. 



Subsequent to conception, and before the birth of the child, 

 much may be done by the mother for its future character and de- 

 velopment. During the first four or five months of pregnancy, 

 while nature is laying its foundation and framework, so to speak, of 

 the future man or woman, the mother may contribute not a little to 

 tne strength and hardihoood of her child's constitution, by the 

 faithful practice of a suitable system of exercise and regimen. 

 Later, in the sixth and seventh months, when the brain is being 

 formed and matured, she may stamp it with the very quality of her 

 own tastes and pursuits. Surrounding herself with beautiful and 

 sheerful objects, communing much with the best books and the 

 most gifted minds, hearing tlie most eloquent speakers and living 

 in the worlds of literature and art, she may give birth to a genius 

 who will astonish the world and delight her o\vn heart; or, reversing 

 all this and giving her attention to the mean and the sordid, the 

 effect will be seen in the lower and more incapable mental qualities 

 of her offspring. As she sows in this season, so will she reap in 

 the harvest-time of maternity. 



Finally, the temper and character of her child will depend 

 veiy greatly upon her own, especially during the last months of her 

 pregnancy. Here and now she becomes almost omnipotent. 

 Fatient, serene, content, gentle, pure, unsefish, cheerful and liappy, 

 the sunny being that will be born of her will brighten and gladden 

 all her life; while, if fretful, turbulent, discontented and unhappy 

 during this period and much more if she be positively vicious 

 phe need not be surprised if she give birth to a public and private 

 pest, that will break her own heart and be a curse to society. 

 Nothing is now more certainly known, or better understood, among 

 those who have given attention to this matter, than this potential 

 effect of the moods of the mother upon the character of her child. 

 If then she would see her children strong and healthy, graceful and 

 beautiful, quick, sprightly, intelligent and gifted, cheerful, obedient 

 and happy, virtuous and respected, the ornaments of society and the 

 lights and jewels of her own heart and home, let her give heed to 

 those immediate laws of ante-natal influence, some hint of which 

 may be found in what we have said above. 



