Woman and Her Relations to Humanity

Just as an apple tree brings forth fruit, according to its cultivation, depending solely upon the feminine portion of its elementary condition, so the offspring born in this life partakes entirely from the mother's will, nature and spirit.

Every action of the mind, thought and emotion of the mother is transmitted and causes vibration of a sympathetic chord (or nerve) in the foetus. 

Since the mind influences the foetus, it partakes largely from the disposition or passions of the feminine will. 

The will, influenced by anger, passion-craving natures, selfishness, envy and arrogance, all affect the foetus more or less. 

Now, how essential it is that a mother should be passive during gestation. 

How few there are that are physically or mentally organised to take upon themselves the holy responsibility of becoming a mother. 

It is not considered, and little is comprehended of the sacredness of that mission. 

There is a holy, spiritual emanation, that descends from the aromatic spheres of spiritual productiveness, which is imparted to the infant at the moment of its birth—

It is the divine essence of spiritual life. 

Now, then, understand that that essence in its unfoldment is exactly like what the mind of the mother has fashioned. 

The brain of the foetus vibrates in unison with every feeling, which stirs the mother's brain; consequently, the formation of the psychical and mental organs depends wholly upon the mother. 

Since so great a responsibility rests solely on the female, she should be educated and instructed in the philosophy of human nature. 

The attributes of love, sympathy, and charity should be unfolded through the development of her spiritual nature.

Through the cultivation of the female mind, drawing them nearer to spiritual things, obliterating the material, giving her thoughts to purer aspirations, her mental faculties will perceive and unfold themselves more to the pure and elevated conditions of this material life, avoiding frivolity and sensuality, cultivating her spirit, aspiring to a purer and brighter spiritual attainment. 

Cultivating virtue in every sense is her duty but this has been sadly neglected by the majority of mothers.

These laws and habits once comprehended will have a tendency to moralise the human race and perfect it, both in spiritual, as well as physical habits. 

It is the violent, angry passion of the mother that develops the germ of contention within the offspring. 

It is the craving, longing enmity of the mother, that develops the germ of dishonour in her offspring.

Now I have given you an outline of the effect of the mind of the mother upon the developing foetus. 

The father imparts but very little, mentally nothing, physically the whole. 

He gives by impregnating the semen, the physical life-germ in its essential positive force to the negative ovum, which unites and forms the whole. 

Without the positive life-germ, the negative could produce no object; when united, the moment of its blending with the ovum, the two combine as one and there is life of the foetus. 

In this positive life-germ, there is conveyed to the foetus, blood and life of the material of the male. 

The blood, which contains the life, contains nothing of the soul, simply of the nature of the material. 

Consequently, the father gives from the material, blood and life; he gives nothing of his spirit or will. 

Some children partake of the nature of the father in their development—not by impartation through the semen but simply by the father's external habits making impressions on the mother.

The drunkard will make an impression on the mother. 

Any violent passion or any kind of mistreatment of the mother will make an impression upon her. 

That impression is conveyed to the foetus; it is not produced by her own will but by the external influences of the father. 

The father, then, is also held responsible for every unkind act, which he may commit through ignorance at that time. 

If he does a wrong act, which shocks the mother, it is sure to make an impression on the foetus. 

Therefore, the father, as well as the mother, should consider their responsibility in the production and care of offspring, as a sacred mission, to be performed in compliance with nature's laws.

Children are flowers transplanted from the gardens of spiritual spheres to those of this material planet. 

The seed impregnated in good soil, when properly cultivated, will bring forth beautiful flowers, delicious in their fragrance, and resplendent in their beautiful colours. 

Likewise, the little child, depending largely upon the material drawn from the matron, grows and expands—its mental attributes affinitising with, and closely resembling those of its mother.

Having given an outline of correct ideas, as to the development of the foetus, I must state that any habit, which the father, or his ancestors, may have indulged in promiscuously is conveyed in the semen to the foetus in the first stage of its development. 

That, too, should be a study.

They who have a deficient organisation are not fitted to become parents and should not accept the holy mission, for, if they do, they bring misery and suffering upon themselves and the helpless beings they are instrumental in bringing into this life.

Woman, and her Relations to Humanity—Gleams of Celestial Light on the Genesis and Development of the Body, Soul and Spirit and Consequent Moralisation of the Human Family, Colby & Rich, Boston, 1892