| Show MATERNAL impressions the transmission by parents t to 0 C if spring of qualities possessed by their ancestors is no longer a matter of theory no doctrine is more thoroughly established than the doctrine cf heredity i thanks to the efforts of great thinkers and observers like that bold aciel scientist and splendid englishman who to 0 our sorrow has just passed away habits haba repeated and persisted in for generations 1 become instincts and faculties of body and mind cultivated for a length ened period become more or less transmissible there may be occasional occasion ad breaks in the chain the natural variants and flaws of continuity and andallo also frequent s symptoms of atavism stav ism but the mysterious forces that influence form and vitality when once fixed in the blood become apparently thus the vices of the fathers are visited upon the children and their virtues virt aea iba e produced for ages like begets like even to our feelings thoughts and add act ions this consideration should alo neUl 1 sent nt bar to vice and a powerful ve to virtue it athe the character of the individual is largely determined by maternal sessions ions between its conception and many mani remarkable instances have 1 recorded and prove how bow strong is reaction of the mothers thoughts I le elings upon her unborn child A men in fright or a disgusting spectacle unpleasant imagination aaion 0 or r an s e and unsatisfied desire may become cause of much evil and of bitter appointment namen an infant for instance s born rn with all its limbs broken owing the fee shock occasioned to its mother thunderstorm thunder and ag 9 a severe storm a deformed or defective child of healthy and well formed par 3 owes its m misfortune is fortune to the anex tasted appearance of some wandering drosity in our streets on the other it is believed that some of the est characters had their first im to greatness bestowed upon them ely E P ly their air mothers care to avoid noxious MOres and to receive only stimulate jog jag and salutary ones tells us in his history of henry the great of france that hat henry dal bat his grandfather made his daughter t promise to sing a song to him in order 1 saad he be that you may bring me a child etho will neither weep nor make wry faces the princess had fortitude enough in the midst of her pains to 44 i kv her word and sang a song in bar noise her own country language As solon as henry entered the ch cham ambert berthe tie ew cd came into the world without cry ng his bis grandfather immediately carried tern to his own apartment and there nabbed his bis little lips with a clove of gar car na aad made him suck some wine out wa baand gold cup to make his constitution strong SUM and vigorous my ewe said aid henry henry dalbert has brought forth allon a lion this child will wili revenge me meon on S spain pain for the injuries I 1 have received feim her 9 he was brought up in the flie castle of Coa rasse in bearn beam situated amidst rocks and mountains henry dalbert dAt bert his grandfather would have him hilin clothed and fed like other children a that country they even accustomed him to run up and down the rocks it is said mid that his ordinary food was brown bread beef cheese and garlic and that they ahey often made him walk barefoot and bareheaded can it be doubted that the queen of navarre who showed so much heroism to make her child worthy had bad communicated to him before his boffi as well as after those patriotic and lofty y impulses which dominated her and which made him the victor of ivry and thi noblest prince and bravest warrior of europe the memoirs of his great Bi 11 inister finister sully show that lord macaulay used no exaggeration r when he made ft huguenots Huguen sing ot of him OKI was there ever such a knight in friendship or in war As our sovereign lord king henry the 1 I 1 soldier of navarre at t was not the physiologists but the pets who first suggested the mysterious power por which a mothers impressions have upon her child as well as the subtle y influence of the mind upon the body prom platos time downwards they have bave not ceased to teach that the lorm form rats the soul and has been t by it and to urge upon mothers the uty ot of cultivating all virtuous and sentiments and of sedulously stoning whatever would contaminate P 4 or lessen the mental moral and bodily vigour of their offspring they were to fare simply to feed their souls with beauty to meditate upon all atiat was glorious and to habituate their thoughts and actions to moral greatness and true nobility even in the matter of reading they were to choose only the best and purest authors were to make their common recreations elevating and in all circumstances to arese prese preserve va a gentle equanimity and they were taught that in so far a as they adhered to all this so far in all probability would be their success as of excellent children history tells us of many mothers who adopted these methods with invariably good fortune it would seem therefore that the character of a child greatly depends upon that of the mother that the germs of its proclivities may be sown by her before its birth and that it lies within her power not only to give a bent to its faculties but also to divert them from hereditary and evil tendencies the poet spencer said every spirit as it is most pure and hath in it the more of heavenly light so it the fairer body doth procure to habit in for of the soul the body form doth take for soul is form and doth the body mak elizabeth barrett browning wrote the soul which grows within a child makes the child grow 11 charles kingsley in the water babies to put it the comprehension of a child says you must know and believe that peoples souls make their bodies just as a snail makes its shell 21 dante however said in the divine comedy A generated nature its own way would always make like its progenitors if providence divine were not triumphant the instrument of providence as we have keenis the mother and so she should be treated tenderly cherished with reverence for her hert function unction and protected in its fulfillment the vestal vir gins were held in greater honor than other citizens otheir their word was as sacred as an oath and received in lieu thereof but a discreet and virtuous mother is worth many vestals ve is more truly carrying out the divine will and should be held in more respect than any other we cannot guard her against her own frailties and imperfection imperfect bonsor sor against her domestic influences which may sometimes be for evil but every mother should have the right to pass along our streets without imperilling impe rilling the child she bears at present she cannot do this many strong minded men in london have received a sudden shock by seeing a human monstrosity crawling on all fours on the crowded pavement beneath their feet the effect of such a sight on woman about to become a mother might b be disastrous it does not seem right in any civilized community that oat those deformed or di deasee eased or monstrously marked should be allowed to exhibit their repulsiveness in public at all much less for money whatever pity we feel for such unfortunate creatures should have other channels of expression |
