=The need of rest.=--Both parents should be well rested in body for several days before the initial of a new life takes place. If the vitality in their blood has been much exhausted by overwork, the creative cells will be lacking in vitality and the offspring will be weakened in its constitution. Thoughtfully decide upon an ideal child in body, mind and character and try to embody this ideal in your daily life and in this way you will transmit these ideal conditions to your child. “_Like begets like_” is an invariable law. At the conception of life an immortal being is started with a heritage of possibilities obtained from its parents. It is bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, mind of their mind, soul of their soul. It cannot be otherwise than like the parents were at the time of the conception. =Practical dietetics.=--The increase in population among the very poor is far greater than among the more prosperous classes. Their vitality is often very low, due to lack of proper nourishment. If the charity workers in our churches would look after this class of prospective mothers and see that they are supplied during gestation and lactation with wholesome and nutritious food, they would be engaged in the highest form of Christian service, and many of these mothers would give to their country better citizens than those which come from the homes of wealth. The time will come when the governments will declare for international peace and will appropriate a few hundred millions each year for the prospective mothers whose income is not sufficient to meet their needs, instead of appropriating their surplus funds to old soldiers. It is important that every mother be supplied during these periods with the best quality of nutritious food. =Effects of narcotics.=--If the father is addicted to the use of tobacco or alcoholic drinks, he should abandon the habit, if for no other reason, because of its evil effects upon his offspring. One has only to study the children of a few men who are heavy drinkers or tobacco users to see the unmistakable effects of the narcotic habits of parents upon their children. In France there are annually twenty thousand more deaths than births. Eminent French doctors attribute part of this to the inveterate tobacco users. They claim that this class of men are often sterile, or their children die prematurely.