334
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
But the other law, so powerful, I alone am presenting. Probably because others have not dug so deep and waded through so many pages of scientific volumes, small of print and large of terms. This law has the power to eliminate all the poisoned matter, vicious tendencies that come down from the ancestral spaces.
Frederick the Great understood human cultivation. The emperor’s body-guard was composed of colossal, stalwart men that had been gathered from their own and kidnapped from other nations. He bid them seek wives that could match them in physique, and establish homes for the rearing of future guards. If homes can be established that will insure splendid physique, why not homes to insure splendid mentalities and splendid morals? With this thought in view, I will give you the corner-stone on which every home must be built. That I may not be accused of sentiment, please note the fact that this corner-stone is the result of a life-time of study, of the labor of scientific men investigating natural law. Let me quote from one of them:
“ Marriage is scientifically unnatural when not based upon a supreme affection.” There is no substitute for a supreme affection. There can be no home without it. There may be a place where two persons dwell together, but no home.
We will go to the laboratory of the “why.” We must have a scientific analysis or we will again be accused of sentiment. We have advanced as far as the Laws of Lycurgus in our consideration of these truths.
Their following means perfect health, and perfect health insures pure blood. But the microscope reveals to us the fact that our blood changes with our emotions. Thus the blood that becomes vitalized under the great happiness of the emotion of love, becomes an absolute poison under the emotions of dislike, fear or hate. This poison under the extreme emotion of fear or hate is strong enough to throw a child that may imbibe it into convulsions, and has been known in some instances to kill instantly.
A home started on scientific principles, based upon a supreme affection, as shown by chemical analysis of the blood to be absolutely necessary, built on conditions of superb health, as shown by the results of following the Laws of Lycurgus, with obedience to the law of prenatal influence, offers opportunity for the highest earthly possibilities. But here let us stop a moment. This is the horror of it all.
In one fatal moment, a disobedience to the initial law may cancel all the splendid preparation that has been the work of years. This law, the strongest law of all, that has the power to counteract all that comes from the ancestral spaces, that has power to annul the grand conditions, the resultant of preparation of previous years, is completely ignored in almost every home. So strong is the law, that a spiritualized condition would overcome even unfavorable tendencies, and make favorable conditions. It is a new supply of life from the Creator of life.
So much has been spoken and written on the weeding and watering and removal of stones from the pathway of these human sprouts after they have come to light, I will leave these points for the present, also all comment on hygiene and sanitary laws, upon which so much of the happiness and usefulness of the members depend, and will pass on to the outside aids to the home culture. If we were governed by wise statesmen, they would from national policy go as far as the government of ancient Greece.
In the interest of good citizenship they should decide who should make a home. With our understanding of the necessary mental condition to produce the best results, government should present to every young married couple a house in which to commence their home-life. Then their thoughts could enter upon the wise administration of the laws governing a well-regulated home, and not be wasted in a struggle for finances with which to build a house, in addition to the finances necessary for the bread and butter of their daily living. Every child should be looked upon as a ward of the nation. If accident or incapacity prevents parents from furnishing the mental and manual training necessary to develop the child into a good citizen, government should come to their aid.
If from lust, avarice, or appetite parents are incapable of performing their duty