It has been remarked by travellers in Italy, that many of the native children bear a striking resemblance to the pictures of the child Jesus, from the adoration which the mothers give the Madonnas. The same truth is here again taught, that we not only become like what we most love, and think most about, but that we may transmit this likeness to our little ones. O mothers! what an incentive to high and noble thinking, and to worthy objects for our loves. So far as inheritance goes this is too true, but there is another side which we must not fail to emphasize. Surroundings and education, with the grace of God, may do very much to eradicate harmful hereditary tendencies. Yet the truth remains that the prevailing tendencies of a life are inborn, and unless they are set in the right direction, we do battle against them at fearful odds, and with an expenditure of a vast amount of strength, that used otherwise would give us a long push in the successful journey of life. Harriet Prescott Spofford has in her inimitable way put the truth of this mother inheritance in these words: “No intelligence, no cunning, no benevolence, could evade the inevitable. For what she was, that her child was. You do not gather figs from thistles. What she had made herself, she had made her child; what she had become that her child became also. In being born the child became all that.” That we may train the more systematically our little unborn babes, it will be well for us to study the five stages of prenatal culture. In giving these stages, I would not have you understand that at no other time except at these periods are the given characteristics of mind and body cultured and strengthened; but that in these special periods they receive their strongest impetus and determination. Throughout the entire ten lunar months should we foster and culture all the sweet graces, but especially in these times. In the first two of the ten lunar months of pregnancy the physical nature of the little one is shaped. During this time the mother should pay especial attention to physical exercises which will add to her strength and insure vigorous health through the remaining months. In other words, she should fix her habits of exercise in this period and adhere to them as closely as possible throughout the entire ten months. As far as may be, put pleasure and diversion into your exercise. Look at beautiful pictures, study perfect pieces of statuary, forbid as far as possible the contemplation of unsightly and imperfect models. Make your reading tend toward the same end and you will be rewarded with beautiful, vigorous children. If it be true, as we know it is, that the dog-fancier can produce you a dog at will, that will be marked as you order, why may not this same law be demonstrated in the human family? Remember the story of Jacob’s sheep and the “pilled rods” for illustration in the animal kingdom.