The child resembles both.—These cells often remain in the bodies of the respective parents for several days before the initial of a life takes place. It follows that the mental and moral states, as well as the physical condition of the parents, for many days before conception takes place, will influence the child. There is no doubt but the remote conditions of the parents are transmitted, but not so certainly and so fully as the existing, or recently existing, states of the parents. At the initial moment the three natures of each of the parents will be greatly modified in the union of the cells. If the separate natures of the parents did not blend in the child, the child would have two mental natures, two moral natures and two physical natures. The modification of the inherited tendencies from each parent will depend largely upon the relative strength of these natures in the parents. Hence, where the same characteristic exists in each parent it will appear in the child in a reduced, duplicated or exaggerated form.
Prenatal opportunities.—During prenatal life, the forming child in the mother’s body is supplied with its physical, mental and moral building material from the mother’s blood. During the first twelve months of its postnatal life, or the period of lactation, the mother’s blood, environment and education are the child’s sources of physical development. During these periods the child is almost wholly pliable in the hands of its physical sculptors and mental and moral teachers. The prenatal existence of a child affords the parents their greatest opportunity to train the child, “in the way it should go.”
Mother’s advantage.—From these facts we see that the mother has the advantage of the father in influencing the forming body, the plastic brain and the sensitive soul of the child. Owing to the double standard of morals it is certainly a blessing to the world that this is true. Whatever is undesirable in the father, especially in his moral life, in a measure may be overcome by the mother. The story of Abraham’s two sons, Isaac, the true son, and Ishmael, the son of the bond woman, is a familiar illustration of this truth. Isaac became a good man; Ishmael became a bad man, the founder of the Ishmaelites, “whose hand was against every man.” Do you recall to memory a mother fallen in character? What has become of her children? Daughters fallen and sons worthless, often without an exception.
Suppose women all lived as men do, what would be the effect on the coming generation? Suppose men and women were alike temperate, honest, truthful and pure, our civilization would be as much superior to the present as the present civilization is superior to heathenism.
The mother’s larger hereditary influence proven.—Do you recall a drunken mother? How about the children? Dissipated and delinquent. A young lawyer, gifted, conceited, ambitious and eager for position and power had, according to his views, but one thing in his way to the goal of success—money. After thinking over the surest and best methods of getting money he decided to marry it. His first opportunity was a wealthy feeble-minded heiress. He married her. To their marriage five children were born. Three were positively mentally weak. The other two were noticeably so. Of these two, the first was a natural thief and the other a natural liar. Only one child resembled the young lawyer, the last one.
When training should begin.—It was a saying of a Yale president that “a child’s training should begin with its grandparents.” Another has said, “A child’s training should begin one hundred years before it is born.” There is more truth in those quaint sayings than many are willing to accept. Most parents give their children no premeditated and intelligent prenatal training, and many think that when the child has become accountable is soon enough for its training to begin.
Children products of blind chance.—There is an idea among many that every child comes straight from God and made to His order, and that parents are obediently to receive them when God sends them. Let the child be beautiful or homely, blonde or brunette, girl or boy, strong or feeble-minded, good or bad, no matter, God gave the child. Some think these things are all accidents, fortunes or misfortunes, or they belong to “the unknowable.” There are no accidents. Every effect has its cause. Nothing comes by chance alone. Unalterable and invariable law governs everything. The law of heredity is as unerring as the law of gravitation. Our ignorance of the law does not prevent its operation.
Robbed of their birthright.—The great mass of people are not well-born. Aside from the degenerate criminal and the feeble-minded, universally recognized products of heredity, most people are below what nature would teach us they should be. They were born with mediocre capacities for business success and intellectual attainment. Give them the earliest and best advantages and training that this country affords and marked improvements will be made by them, but they will not make great men in any line of life work, for the simple reason that they cannot. It takes some natural capacity for the highest success.
Occasionally a child of unusual gifts is born of parents much below the average. The parents and their friends are likely to believe the gift to be a special divine bestowment. But, if the child’s prenatal history could be fully known this would be accounted for on the basis of hereditary law. The unscientific farmer may occasionally raise a fine ear of corn or a very large crop of potatoes. But the intelligent, scientific farmer raises only the best.
Sowing wild oats.—If girls were addicted to loafing on the streets, swearing and telling vulgar stories, smoking and drinking, gambling and going to questionable places, we should not consider this good training for wifehood and motherhood. No intelligent man would choose such a girl to be the wife of his bosom, the queen of his home, the mother of his children. He is an ardent believer in the training of girls before marriage for wifehood and motherhood. Boys who engage in any of these sins are as much unfitting themselves for parentage as girls would be. “Oh, but a reformed rake makes the best husband.” If he makes the shadow of one, it will be a miracle of grace that he does it. No “rake” can in his own strength make a good father. If by God’s help he makes a good husband and father, this will be done in spite of his former life, and, not because he had been a “rake.” Sowing wild oats in youth does not make it easier to be good in after life, but more difficult. Boys and young men should live with a view to husbandhood and fatherhood.