his brother may not be good for him. The training that will
give one child self-confidence will make a little tyrant of another;
what would render one merely amenable to control might make a coward of
another. So you see, my dear, that a mother needs to have great
knowledge of the laws of mind and great insight in the applying of those
laws to the particular cases she has in hand."

"It really seems, mamma, as if girls ought to study all those things
before they marry."

"Indeed they ought, but I fear they never will until they come to have a
clearer idea of the value and importance of the mother's work. When they
realize that the great and lasting work of the world is done in the
homes, by the mothers, with their little children, then we shall have
men demanding that girls shall be prepared for that important work by
previous education.

"There is another way, too, in which women are given great power over
the destiny of the world, and that is through heredity."

"What does that word mean, mother? I have heard it very often, but
people speak as if it were something undesirable."

"Heredity means the passing on of traits or talents from parents to
children. Now, your eyes are like papa's. They are a part of your
heredity from him. You have other features like him, and you have many
of his traits. It has been easy to teach you to be orderly because you
have inherited his love of order. Then, too, you have many of my
characteristics. My hair, my love of music, my quick temper."

Helen looked at her mother somewhat in surprise.

"Do you mean, mamma, that I have a quick temper because you had one?"

"I certainly do; and if I had known, when I was of your age, what I know
now, I might have given you a different disposition."

"Will my children have a temper because I have one?"

"There will be a greater probability of their having quick tempers
because you have one."

"How can I help it, if I got my temper from you and just passed it on
to them? Certainly I am not to blame."

"Many people excuse themselves for their faults in just that way; but
that is to give evil greater power than good, and we don't believe in
that, you know. Each one has the power to make himself over, and in the
process he may change the direction of the inheritance of his
children."

"You mean that if I overcome my temper, my children will not be so
likely to have tempers?"

"Yes, by controlling yourself you will have given them great