I said to her, “Never allow yourself to think for a moment, of taking the life of a little unborn child; it is murder, dear, and nothing else. I know you have not thought of it in this light. Go home, talk it over with your husband candidly, tell him that you will never be guilty of the sin of abortion, no matter how many children you have. Insist upon the better way, namely, such continence in the marriage relation as shall not impose the burden of maternity upon you oftener than once in two or three years. Help him to see that the selfish gratification of his desires are hardly worth while when secured at such a cost to your health and comfort. Make him to see that the children that come from such self-indulgence cannot be the strong, vigorous and noble children they would be if generated under self-control. Occupy separate beds, and help him by every means in your power to attain self-control, and become master of his passions, not their slave.” I do not know the outcome, but I feel certain that the little woman went home with something to think about, and I trust with profit.
Above all, my dear young wives, do not underestimate the mighty, unequalled power of the mother of several children. And know this, that no work is so productive of true culture, in your own life, as the proper bearing and rearing of children. Nothing so cultivates all the virtues that alone serve as the foundation of true education and wisdom. As your children grow you will be inspired to keep pace with them, and when they have gone out from the home nest, you will find ample time to read and study, and you will have the consciousness of a life well spent to urge you on.
I believe firmly, that for the best results, offspring should be limited, but limited in a legitimate way. When temperate lives are lived, not more than five or six children come into a home, and this is but a good family. Mothers of such families if they live within their means and “look well to the ways of their households,” are not fretted, broken down women, but hale and hearty, and as children mature are ready for years of strenuous living, and community service.
No thwarting of nature has any ground for excuse, and the so-called physician who peddles any theory or device for so doing has no right to the name, and has no recognition among the ranks of the reputable of the honored profession of medicine. His work is done in the dark and under the pledge of secrecy, and so he marks himself of the abode of Satan.
No honorable physician can say, “I have never lent myself as a party to this crime, hence my conscience is clear, my duty done.” No: your duty is not done. Physicians stand or should stand as the guardsmen of the unborn generations, and as educators of public opinion along these lines; and their pen, their voice and their practice should form a trinity of power against the inroads of this alarmingly threatening evil—threatening to the best instincts of the moral nature of our time; threatening to the future of our land, when we consider the very few children born into our better homes, while in the byways, among the lower classes, the little ones swarm in hot-beds of sin.
At least four children should be born and grow to maturity in every American home in our land, to keep good the present number of our people. The average is far below this, and the result is that the American race is fast dying out.
We stand at the head of all the nations in the extent and enormity of this crime. Shall we not stand at the head in a true reformation?