MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS. 233 



society and by living a secluded life exert an in- 

 fluence over the child that makes it extremely dif- 

 ficult for it to be free and easy in company. Few 

 things are more destructive to the social life and 

 happiness of a person than to have inborn 

 tendencies to shrink from society. Many suffer 

 all their lives from such maternal impressions. 

 Early associations and opportunities largely de- 

 termine one's ease in society and ability to enter- 

 tain, but if a child is born with a cold, retiring, or Self-Conscious- 

 super-sensitive nature, or if it has been made un- ness, 

 duly self-conscious by prenatal influences, no 

 amount of training and social intercourse can en- 

 tirely eradicate these conditions. 



The perceptive faculties seem most susceptible 

 to training during the last four months of gesta- 

 tion. These faculties give the power to perceive, T e Dows of 

 to learn, to know, and to recall what has once been 

 known. They are the primary elements of the 

 objective mind. They are the doors through 

 which the subjective mind receives its knowledge 

 of the physical world. If the mother desires to 

 improve these faculties in her offspring she should 

 vigorously exercise them during the latter half 

 of her period. She should give special training 

 to whatever is weak in herself or whatever she 

 would have especially strong in the intellect of 

 her child. 



The mother who reads and studies with an in- 



^ 



terest will usually endow her child with an apti- Shaping the 



/ . f ,, .. Intellectual ^T\\ 



tude and appreciation for study. Moreover the Tendencies, 

 nature of study pursued tends strongly to deter- 

 mine the bent of the child's mind. To illustrate : 

 a lady whose husband was a physician, became 



