MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS. "231 







these qualities and assiduously cultivate her own 

 force of character. She should affirm, "I am vig- 

 orous, I am free;" "I have no fear of anything 

 nor any one;" "I will overcome every opposition." 

 These affirmations should be repeated not only in 

 the Silence, but frequently to herself during the Courage, 

 day. She should silently say to her child, just as 

 she would say to another person, "You are 

 strong," "You are energetic," "You are mamma's 

 brave little man." If there are reasons to believe 

 that the energies are liable to be too strong, an 

 opposite training should be given. 



The acquiring, or mine and thine instinct, 

 should be carefully directed from the fourth to the 

 eighth month. If it is deficient in the family, the Instinct. 

 mother should persistently cultivate it, both by 

 practicing economy and by entering into some 

 line of business that will call this propensity into 

 constant action. I have observed that children 

 born from business women, especially where the 

 mother has continued in business during the 

 period of gestation, are usually highly acquisitive 

 and early manifest a commercial spirit. 



Owing to the tendency to abuse the acquiring 

 propensity, in our commercial age, the prospective Honesty is 

 mother should be particularly careful to be rigidly Imperative, 

 honest in her business relations and in the cultiva- 

 tion of this propensity. The thought of getting 

 should always be accompanied by the thought of 

 getting honestly, and of using for a worthy pur- 

 pose, otherwise there is great danger of producing 

 an abnormally selfish or even thieving tendency in 

 the child. At P , Michigan, I studied a six- 

 year-old boy who was much inclined to steal. I 



