its law, and is caused by those circumstances necessarily attend. ing their origin, in which, mainly, they differ from others, and with which their characteristics coincide perfectly. In what else can it?

Wherein, then, consists this difference? First, in "novelty lending an enchantment" rarely experienced in sated wedlock,* as well as in a power of passion sufficient to break through all restraint, external and internal; and hence their high wrought organization. They are usually wary and on the alert, and their parents drank "stolen waters." They are commonly wanting in moral balance, or else delinquent in some important moral aspect; nor would they have ever been born unless this had been the case, for the time being at least, with their parents. Behold in these, and many other respects easily cited, how striking the coincidence between their characters, on the one hand, and, on the other, those parental conditions necessarily attendant on their origin! Does our theory require any more proof than this range of facts furnishes ?†

*This novelty rarely obtains touching the first products of wedlock, which is not often fruitful for weeks or months after marriage, and for reasons which support our doctrines, yet need not be specified.

† As they neither caused these unfavorable circumstances, nor could prevent them, so far from enhancing, I would rather lessen, that load of odium usually cast upon them. Still, THEIR PERSONAL FEELINGS must not be allowed to INTERRUPT SCIENCE. Though to visit them with scorn or jest is utterly out of place, and evinces a mean, contemptible spirit-he who ridicules the insane, or deformed, or illegitimate, or inferior, almost deserving to exchange places with them--and though humanity and intellect dictate sympathy for all unfortunates, yet they also learn and mpart therefrom, as well as from all other consequences of violated law, lessons of warning, by which to prevent additional misfortunes. Illegitimates should, therefore, cheerfully render service to science and to man by allowing themselves to be used as PRACTICAL SAMPLES for subserving chastity, and restraining sintul passion, in order to prevent

And now, reader, in the name of truth and sound reasoning, do you require any farther proof of this doctrine? Can you open the eyes of intelligence upon it, and yet reject it? Is it so improbable in itself? I it so at variance with what we already know of this matter Let parents recall, as nearly as may be, their circumstances and states of body and mind at this period, and place them by the side of the physical and mental constitutions of their children, and then say whether this law is not a great practical truth, and if so, its importance is as the happiness and misery it is capable of effecting! The application of this mighty engine of good or evil to mankind. to the promotion of human advancement, is the one specific object of this work, to which we now address ourselves.

similar results. As their fathers, by having eaten sour grapes have "set their teeth on edge," they must allow the finger of SCIENCE and MORAL PURITY to warn others against partaking thereof, lest others set on edge the teeth of other hapless children yet unborn. And let ALL learn the great lesson of CONTINENCE thus PRACTICALLY enforced, and take warning against those illicit pleasures which produce consequences so ill-fated to THEIR OWN OFFSPRING who are guilty; and let parents, too, read the lessons, for they are many, here taught.

SECTION III.

THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF PARENTS AT THIS PERIOD TRANSMITTED, AND NECESSITY OF HEALTH AND ABUNDANT VITALITY IN ALL THEIR ANIMAL ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS.

Those parental conditions most favorable for offspring yield the most enjoyment to parents. Law by which the physiology is transmitted. Importance of health. The product more or less perfect according as is the parental function. Children inherit the condition of quantity. Offspring promoted by energy. Prevented by tameness. Talented men from vigorous parents. Necessity of muscular energy. Roman orators. Sedentary habits. Infanticide. Necessity of health of brain and nerves. Cere. bral disease occasions depravity. Sickly children cross. Intemperance causes vice. Nervous diseases cause pain, which is the consequence of violated law, and this is sin. Appeal.

THE inquiry then becomes truly momentous: WHAT paren. tal conditions, at this period, are requisite in order to confer on offspring the strongest and the best physiological organization possible, and at the same time endow them with the most pure and elevated moral, and the highest intellectual, constitution capable of being conferred or received?

The answer to this eventful inquiry, nature has already furnished at our hands, in having instituted this great law of things for our sure and specific guide, our immutable landmark, our pole-star always in sight, and throwing upon this whole matter the clear sunlight of perpetual day, namely, that whatever is best in itself is always most pleasurable, and whatever affords the most happiness, is therefore the best in itself; and vice versa as to what is injurious. In other words, the more perfectly we observe the order and laws of nature, the greater the happiness consequent to all concerned, and vice versa as

PARENTAL CONDITIONS MOST FAVORABLE FOR OFFSPRING. 37

to their infraction and the misery consequent. And since the laws of transmission are among the most important of our whole being, their observance yields a measure of happiness the most exalted imaginable to both parents and offspring, while their violation is proportionally painful to all concerned. Or thus: every thought, word, and deed, consumes that magnetism, the expenditure of which constitutes our very life, and being, and happiness, as well as executes every function of our whole nature; so that our happiness is as the amount of magnetism expended, and this is in proportion to the number and the intensity of the functions brought into simultaneous and harmonious action, except that its abnormal expenditure is proportionally painful. The correctness of this law, every philo. sophical mind will readily perceive, and its application to the case in hand fully assures us, that whatever conditions render parents the most happy at this period, therein and therefore proportionally endow and bless offspring; and this is effected by whatever enlists the greatest number, and promotes the most intense action, of one and all the organs and functions of parents. Let us then proceed to apply this principle in that twofold aspect, the first physical, the other mental, in which it naturally presents itself.

By what instrumentality, then, is our animal nature and organization transmitted, and what physiological conditions must parents observe at this period in order to confer on offspring the greatest degree of physical perfection possible, and what avoid lest they entail suffering, disease, and premature death?

Unless effectually prevented by some means, some efficient instrumentality always acting at this period, human beings night, must, have been born, some without a heart, others without lungs, or muscles, or eyes, or brain &c. How, then, are such fatal results prevented? What law necessarily acting at this period, endows all human beings constitutionally with every physical òrgan and function? This: Just as the stomach has its cerebral organ in Alimentiveness, and the

Be

reproductive system its in Amativeness, so the heart, lungs, muscles, every physical organ, has each its cerebral organ located in the cerebellum, or at the sides, and all around, Amativeness; so that on the principle that organs located together naturally act together, its exercise always and necessarily promotes that action of each individually, and of all collectively, so indispensable to their respective transmission; which harmonizes perfectly with the fact, that this parental function constitutionally and necessarily excites, and in a degree proportionate to its intensity, the combined and simultaneous ac· tion of every bone, muscle, organ, and physical function of parentage. Probably no other function of life equally so. hold, in the experience of all, how it accelerates the laboring pulsations of the heart, promotes perspiration, and augments respiration, till its subjects, paternal in particular, literally pant for breath sufficient to supply the increased demand. Nor, in this enormous taxation of all the vital organs, is that of the entire muscular system omitted, or its tax light; but, besides being absolutely indispensable, the more powerful and perfect its action, the more perfect both this function and its product, because the more forcibly do those spiral muscles which bring the materials employed from their permanent station, (see p. 28,) deposite them in the place of their final destination, this force being all essential to the energy and stamina of offspring. Beho.d, in this imperfect explanation, the instrumentality employed by "heaven's high Architect"

* See illustrations in the American Phrenological Journal for 1844, the series of articles entitled," The Philosophy of Phrenology," &c.

+ So exceedingly delicate are these seeds of life, that, unless planted in a place of PERFECT security, they must all be destroyed, and our race itself extinguished. And what place as secure as that chosen, where they can be reached only with the utmost difficulty, and then only at the peril of even life itself? But, to PLANT them thus deeply requires that powerfully existing apparatus furnished, which, that it may be out of the way when not wanted, retires ex