MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS. 217 



men have drifted into the joys and sorrows of 

 fatherhood and motherhood in most cases as 

 ignorant of nature's great and all-important laws 

 of reproduction as the most ignorant savage. It 

 might be said more ignorant than the Indian, as 

 they hold the person of their squaws sacred while 

 in process of nourishing or building the body of 

 the prospective child." 



Prof. O. S. Fowler, the veteran phrenologist, 

 whose years of experience, study and personal 

 observations on this subject exceed those of any 

 other author, in commenting upon the power of 

 the mother to mold the mind and character of her 

 child, says : "Begin to educate children at concep- Should Begin. 

 tion and continue during their entire carriage. 

 Yet maternal study, of little account before the 

 sixth month after it, is most promotive of talents ; 

 which, next to goodness, are the fathers' joy and 

 the mothers' pride. What pains are taken after 

 they are born to render them prodigies of learn- 

 ing by the best schools and teachers from their 

 third year; whereas their mother's study three 

 months before their birth would improve their in- 

 tellects infinitely more. Professional facts, per- 

 petually recurring, strikingly illustrate the ma- Fowler's 

 ternal ordinance, compel belief and overwhelm rvations * 

 with its vast practical importance. Though sure 

 that this doctrine is as true as astronomy, yet, in 

 revisiting places, I am more and more surprised 

 to find how true it is experimentally. The chil- 

 dren of the same parents, born after their mothers 

 learn and practice this doctrine are much finer 

 than those born before, than either parent, and 

 than they could have been but for this knowledge 

 and practice." 



