ANTHROPOLOGY 75 



constructive influence upon the development of the foetus, 

 and upon this fact is based the similarity existing between 

 children and parents/ Twins and other multiple births 

 are caused if the uterus attracts the semen with more 

 than one single draught. The power of attraction which 

 the uterus exercises upon the seminal aura is so great 

 that by coming into contact with the spermatic fluid of 

 animals it may absorb it and bring forth monstrosities.^ 



It may therefore be said that the imagination of the 

 father sets into activity the creative power necessary to 

 generate a human being, and the imagination of the 

 mother furnishes the material for its formation and 

 development ; ^ but neither the father nor the mother is 

 the parent of the essential spiritual man, but the germ 

 of the latter comes from the Mysterium magnum, and 

 God is its father. Parents do not endow their children 

 with reason, although they may furnish the child with 

 a body, in which the principle of reason may or may not 

 be able to act.* Keason is the natural birthright of 

 every human being ; it is eternal and perfect, and need 



* This creative and formative power of the imagination may be used to 

 advantage for the purpose of producing male or female offspring at will, 

 as has also been proved by experiments made in cattle-breeding. If the 

 desire or passion, and consequently the imagination, of the female is 

 stronger than that of the male during coition, male children will be 

 produced. If on such an occasion the imagination of the male is stronger 

 than that of the female, the child will be of the female sex. If the imagi- 

 nation of both parties is equally strong, a " hermaphrodite " may possibly 

 be the result. 



* It will perhaps be difficult to state an example to prove this assertion ; 

 neither has it been disproved. 



' The effects of the mother's imagination on the development of the 

 foetus are well known to the people. Hare-lip, acephali, moles, &c., may 

 be caused by the effects of a morbid imagination. 



^ If a child, as is often the case, manifests the same tastes, talents, and 

 inclinations as those of his father or as other members of the same family, 

 it does by no means necessarily follow that these tastes, &c., have been 

 inherited by it from his parents, and the contrary often takes place. A 

 similarity of tastes, Ac, between the child and his parents would rather 

 go to show that the monad, having developed its tendencies in a previous 

 incarnation, was attracted to a particular family on siccount of an already 

 existing similarity of his own tastes with those of its future parents. 



