496 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



can expect naught but a selfish character, a sordid, 

 greedy disposition, in the child. 



3. The influence of the father is, at the outset, as 

 great as that of the mother. The unhappy or immoral 

 thoughts of one alone at the critical moment when life 

 is imparted, may fix for eternity a foul blot upon the 

 character yet unformed. 



4. If, during gestation, the mother is fretful, com- 

 plaining, and exacting; if she requires to be petted and 

 waited upon; if she gratifies every idle whim and in- 

 dulges every depraved desire and perverted appetite, 

 as thousands of mothers do,— the result will surely be 

 a peevish, fretful child, that will develop into a morose 

 and irritable man or woman, imperious, unthankful, 

 disobedient, wilful, gluttonous, and vicious. 



How to Beget Sound Children.— If such unde- 

 sirable results would be avoided, the following sugges- 

 tions should be regarded: 



1. For the beginning of a new life, select the most 

 favorable time, which will be when the bodily health 

 is at its height; when the mind is free from care and 

 anxiety; when the heart is joyous, cheerful, and filled 

 with hope, love, high aspirations, pure and beautiful 

 thoughts. If, as one writer says, it is the duty of every 

 human pair engaging in the reproductive act, to bring 

 into existence the most perfect specimen of the race of 

 which they are capable, then it becomes a monstrous 

 crime to enter into relations which may produce a con- 

 trary result. This may be a truth hard to accept, but 

 who is prepared to dispute it on logical or moral 

 grounds ? 



2. If a child has been properly conceived, the duty 

 then devolves upon the mother to secure its proper 

 development. Is beauty desired, let the mother be sur- 



