Parents desiring to easily and effectually control a child should exercise that control before the child is born. If they will decide upon the kind of a nature, character, and disposition they desire the child to possess, and then proceed to mentally construct the child upon those plans, they will have little or no trouble in controlling it afterwards.

Bear in mind, that a child is not responsible for the nature and character it inherits, for it did not create itself. If the child has a disagreeable temper or bad habits, the blame belongs to the parents. The child in such cases is an innocent victim of the follies and weaknesses of its parents; it is a living picture of their combined thoughts. If parents will recognize their responsibility, and make the correct use of the Mentalism under their control, they can give to their children pleasant dispositions and attract agreeable souls that are in perfect harmony with their thoughts and desires. Those having children that are difficult to control will need to observe the following advice and instructions.

They must first realize that they and not the children are responsible. The conviction of this fact will make them more sympathetic and generous, and they will then not be inclined to blame the child for the faults they compelled it to inherit. It is always hard to undo that which has been done, therefore, one must exercise patience if he would gain the best results. In dealing with a child, parents should consider that they are dealing with themselves, and be firm but liberal minded. They must control themselves before they attempt to control the child. They should never permit themselves to give way to anger or temper when trying to direct or control the child. If they do, their efforts will be fruitless. If they would develop strength, courage, and calmness in the child, they must feel it and express it themselves, for when they become angry and lose control of their temper, the same thoughts and tendencies are transmitted to and encouraged in the child. Therefore, instead of correcting it, they only add fuel to the fire, and its disposition is made worse than before. They cannot blame the child if it follows their example. When parents find that they cannot control themselves while talking to a child to correct it, they should depend entirely upon Mentalism. Then when they are calm and self-contained, give the child the benefit of their better thoughts for its control. They will gain the most perfect control if they go to its bed-side after it has retired for the night and caress and love it and talk to it of beautiful things, and by this means get into perfect harmony with the better part of its nature. When this has been accomplished, they may then give it the mental thoughts - "that it will desire to be a better child; that it will dislike to display its temper, etc." While talking to it, they should not refer to the things it did contrary to their wishes, for that will call back those contrary thoughts and antagonize it, and then they cannot get into harmony with it. Unless they are in harmony with the child their thoughts will not reach it and, consequently, the time and efforts will be wasted. If the life of the child is filled with good, true, noble thoughts, there will be left no room for the evil. The character displayed by the child is due to hereditary traits, and unless they are curbed and controlled, there is no telling to what extent they may cause others, yet unborn, to suffer. One evil life impregnates future generations as yeast impregnates batter.

Some remarkable statistics have been collected upon the effect of hereditary traits. I will quote a case that has assumed national importance: "A woman of criminal tendencies who died in 1827, had given birth to several children, all of whom inherited her criminal traits. By following the records of the offspring from generation to generation, it has been found that up to May, 1902, no less than seven hundred of them had been convicted of criminal offences at least once, and that thirty-seven had been executed for committing murder. The offspring of this one woman had, up to that date, cost the nation about three million dollars for trials and executions. All this crime resulted from one woman's thoughts. Her thoughts being evil, she attracted to the bodies of her children souls that were in harmony with her thoughts, thus they were born with evil traits. The only chance they had for improvement, after being removed from the mother's influence, was through the thoughts of their associates. The inborn tendencies being so pronounced, they naturally attracted to themselves natures similar to their own, thus the majority of their associates entertained thoughts of a similar character. As a result, the development to better thinking would necessarily be slow, therefore, the sins of the mother continued to be visited upon the children "even unto the third and fourth generation." Through the transmission of thought the law of heredity is demonstrated; character is perpetuated, and our acts, be they good or bad, are sent down to be inherited by posterity. I can safely say that if you show me the child I can tell you the nature of its parents.

While inborn evil cannot be entirely exterminated in one generation, yet it can be kept in check and its development prevented by right thinking and the assistance of pure environment, so that each succeeding generation will be less influenced by it.

It is the duty of every parent to instill in the minds of growing children the thoughts of love, kindness, and generosity toward others; to teach the boys to think that self-control, courtesy, and kindness are a greater indication of noble manhood than proficiency as an athlete or high standing in Greek or Latin; to teach the girls to respect their home and parents, and that kind words gently spoken are more valuable than gold or jewels.