The subject approached with reluctance.—The marital state should be the most sacred of sanctuaries.—Wrongly interpreted it is the abode of darkness and sin.—Its influence for good or evil upon character.—Responsibility of mothers for the unhappy lives of their daughters.—Commercial marriages.—Marriage as it should be.—The husband’s danger from “aggressiveness.”—The wife should not provoke the wrongs she suffers.—Marital modesty.—Parenthood the justification of the marital act.—Reproduction the primal purpose.—Harmony of purpose and life.—Love’s highest plane.—The value of continence.—The right and wrong of marriage.—The relation during gestation.—Effects of relation during gestation illustrated.—The wrong-doings of good men.—The fruits of ignorance.—The better day coming, 79-96 CHAPTER VIII. PREPARATION FOR MOTHERHOOD. Motherhood the glory of womanhood.—Maternity natural and productive of health.—Prevalence of knowledge of methods used to prevent conception.—Mothers should prepare their daughters for maternity.—Motherhood the sanction for wifehood.—Effect of fixed habits of mother upon offspring.—Adjustment of clothing to expectant motherhood.—Importance of proper exercise.—The sitz bath.—Effects of environment upon the unborn.—Why Italian children resemble the madonnas.—The child the expression of the mother’s thoughts.—The five stages of prenatal culture stated and illustrated.—The mother of the Wesleys.—The child the heir and expression of the mother’s thought and life, 97-112 CHAPTER IX. PREPARATION FOR FATHERHOOD. The command to “replenish the earth.”—Preparation for motherhood more written about than preparation for fatherhood.—Questions which would test the fitness of young men for marriage.—Parents should know the character of young men who desire their daughters in marriage.—Many young men of startling worth.—The improving of a good heritage.—Effects of bad morals and wayward habits.—Effects of tobacco and alcoholics.—How young women help to contribute bad habits in young men.—The years of rooting and weeding necessary.—Attaining the best.—The father reproduced in his children, 113-121 CHAPTER X. ANTENATAL INFANTICIDE.