=Suppressing evil tendencies.=--“Like begets like.” Parents cannot transmit to their children what they themselves do not possess in a latent or active state. By awakening a slumbering talent and exercising it with zeal it may be reproduced in an intensified form in the child. By refraining from a bad habit, or ceasing to use an undesirable trait and by cultivating a mental opposition to it, the parents may be able to prevent, partly or wholly, its reappearance in the child. This law will apply to any case where tobacco or whisky habit, dishonesty, bad temper, idleness, licentiousness or any other bad trait has existed in the parents or their immediate ancestors. =Effects of culture.=--Prospective parents should read the best literature, attend lecture courses, outline a course of study and follow it, and try to think beyond their usual meditations. Their affection for each other should be strong and pure. In relation to society, they should pay especial attention to honesty, charity, friendliness and love. Their æsthetic natures should be developed by the study and admiration of nature and art. Bible reading, singing and prayer, good works and spiritual devotion should form a part of their daily programme. It will do no good to practice these things in a half-hearted way. They must be made a part of our life if they are to influence favorably the future child. =Primal purpose of marriage.=--The primary purpose of marriage is parentage. No greater early obligation rests upon married people than grows out of the function of parentage. No greater early honor, reward, or happiness comes to the married than when this God-honored duty is faithfully performed. No greater service can be rendered our children, society and God, than when we parent children whose bodies are sound and healthy, minds vigorous and bright, dispositions sweet, lives grand, noble and Christlike. CHAPTER XLVII PRENATAL TRAINING =One-half trained before birth.=--This chapter will be devoted to the training of children before they are born. It is believed by some students of eugenics that heredity is fully as potent as environment and that a child often receives one-half its training before it is born. Oliver Wendell Holmes often said, “A child’s training should begin with his grand-parents.” The proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,” to be proven to be absolutely true, must include both prenatal and postnatal training of a child. In other chapters reference is made to what children may inherit from their grand-parents and parents. In this we shall refer to the influence of parental conditions at the creative moment, and the mental and moral influence of the mother during gestation.