In past generations, if mothers had informed themselves in regard to the laws of their being, they would have understood that their constitutional strength, as well as the tone of their morals, and their mental faculties, would in a great measure be represented in their offspring. Their ignorance upon this subject, where so much is involved, is criminal. Many women never should have become mothers. Their blood was filled with scrofula, transmitted to them from their parents, and increased by their gross manner of living. The intellect has been brought down, and enslaved to serve the animal appetites, and children, born of such parents, have been poor sufferers, and of but little use to society. (2SM 431.1) MC VC

It has been one of the greatest causes of degeneracy in generations back, up to the present time, that wives and mothers who otherwise would have had a beneficial influence upon society, in raising the standard of morals, have been lost to society through multiplicity of home cares, because of the fashionable, health-destroying manner of cooking, and also in consequence of too frequent child-bearing. She has been compelled to needless suffering, her constitution has failed, and her intellect has become weakened, by so great a draught upon her vital resources. Her offspring suffer her debility, and society has thrown upon them a class poorly fitted, through her inability to educate them, to be of the least benefit. (2SM 431.2) MC VC

If these mothers had given birth to but few children, and if they had been careful to live upon such food as would preserve physical health, and mental strength, so that the moral and intellectual might predominate over the animal, they could have so educated their children for usefulness, as to have been bright ornaments to society. (2SM 431.3) MC VC

If parents in past generations had, with firmness of purpose, kept the body servant to the mind, and had not allowed the intellectual to be enslaved by animal passions, there would be in this age a different order of beings upon the earth. And if the mother, before the birth of her offspring, had always possessed self-control, realizing that she was giving the stamp of character to future generations, the present state of society would not be so depreciated in character as at the present time. (2SM 431.4) MC VC