=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.