112 



HEREDITY. 



Should Like 

 Many Like ? 



The Law of 

 Compliments* 



The Dream of 

 the Sentimen- 

 talist. 



ous Temperament (indicated by sharp features, 

 quick motion, high-keyed voice, intense feelings, 

 keen intellect, intensity and susceptibility) they 

 will necessarily intensify each other's over-active 

 mentality, are likely to overdo and are apt to irri- 

 tate each other. Children born from such unions 

 are usually delicate, frail and precocious. The 

 same law applies with equal force to all specific 

 mental qualities. Wherever any quality is very 

 strong or very weak, the union with one who is 

 the same or directly opposite frequently proves 

 disastrous to domestic harmony in this particular ; 

 moreover, what is a fault in both parents is liable 

 to be exaggerated to a dangerous degree in the 

 offspring. 



If persons are harmoniously developed mentally 

 and temperamentally, experience indicates that 

 they may marry with impunity those having a sim- 

 ilar constitution, or those of marked extremes; 

 but if one is a combination of extremes, the com- 

 panion should be harmonious. As most persons 

 have a few strong qualities and some weak ones, 

 while the major part of their nature is mediocre, 

 the law of complements is the safest to follow ; it 

 is the only rule for those of extreme tempera- 

 ments. When the extreme traits of one parent are 

 \modified by a moderate degree of the same qual- 

 ities in the other, the children are usually favor- 

 ably born. 



Sentimentalists, who consider love as the only 

 requisite of marriage and parentage, are prone to 

 overlook those physical and mental conditions 

 upon which the continuity of love and the well 

 being of offspring depend. The question is fre- 



