THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FEMALE MIND, 



33 



the shape of the atmosphere of its home. The maternal psycho- 

 logy of the woman here comes into full play, but we must wait 

 for an esoteric view of it from the pen of an able woman, before 

 we can analyse it. All I can say from long experience is that 

 it is a peculiar gift of God for the benefit of humanity. It is 

 more the offspring of instinct than of reason. For instance, 

 the child at an early age is almost entirely under the power of 

 suggestion ; or, as our modern jargon would run — hypnotic 

 influence. How does the mother know this ? By pure instinct. 

 If the child cuts its finger, she assures him it does not hurt, and 

 the tears cease. If she suggests he is a good child and loves 

 his mother, he produces at once the virtues with which he is 

 credited. Hence in child training one should always suggest 

 good and not evil. If you call the child a " limb of the devil " 

 he will probably behave like one. 



This mother's atmosphere is stronger than heredity, as is so 

 well pointed out by Herbert Spencer in the classic sentence, 

 " A man is more like the company he keeps than that from which 

 he is descended" ; and whereas in after life we have often to suit 

 ourselves to our environment, before twelve, at any rate, our en- 

 vironment should be so shaped by our mothers as to overcome 

 any salient points of a bad heredity. For instance, if drink be 

 the curse, the atmosphere will be dry all round ; if morals, 

 the mother's suggestions will be directed to the special horrors 

 and dangers of a corrupt life ; if gambling, it will be on other 

 lines, and so on. All this is a prelude to an earnest plea I am 

 about to advance in these remarks on woman's psychology, to 

 the effect that every training college for women should include 

 special instruction in the right education of childhood. This 

 is done with marked success at Ambleside by the Parents' 

 National Educational Union, but it should, in these enlightened 

 post-bellum days, be extended to all training colleges for women, 

 and made a compulsory part of their training. 



No greater work could be done for England and the next 

 generation. For thirty years I have done my best to induce my 

 patients before motherhood to take a six months' course of 

 applied psychology to this end. 



Matthew Arnold's next requisite is discipline. By this is 

 not meant punishment, or checks, or arbitrary laws, too often 

 forgotten by the law-giver. I do not say for a moment that 

 even a woman's brain will itself specially suggest to her what is 

 meant ; but I do say, that when it is pointed out to her that the 



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