THE INFLUENCE OF SUGGESTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 43

THE INFLUENCE OF SUGGESTION.

We glanced last week at tbe " Power of Suggestion," dwelling chiefly on its virile action upon our meatal faculties. I>9t us this week devote a little space to considering the tremendous influence of suggestion upon the moral faculties. It is here, in its almost limitless educative power over the young, that thoughtful women see their responsibilities and possibilities in regard to suggestion. Susceptibility in regard to moral suggestion varies in different natures just as muoh as does Buiceptibility to mental suggestion. Tbe brighter and more intelligent a child is, the more easily is it impressed by suggestion. It is only by closely observing tbe development of a child's nature that we realise what an imitative oreature it is. Every trick of manner and speech among the elders of the household suggests something to be imitated by the children of the house-" hold. And the most difficult thing is this : it is your own natural self be will imitate, not the excellent little code of morals and manners which you carefully expound to him. With his reasoning powers completely undeveloped the youngest child will yet by some monkey-like instinct discover tbe very look ■of weariness or impatience yon thought you had concealed, imitate the ugly habit you thought was unobserved, pick up the harmless "swear" which is tha relic of his father's bachelor days. Why? Because though everything done by older persons suggests to him a lesson for imitation, yet that mysterious tendency which we call tha " old Adam " in him infallibly seizes upon

tbe evil more readily than the good. It is easy enough for the most casual observer to see how suggestion and imitation go band in hand in these childish days. Scientists, we know, go mueb further back for thair sources of suggestion — back to prs-natal Uflu«Bces, further back still to that awful haunting spectre of heredity. They tell us that vices or follies indulged in, r*stl«9f, negovemed longing?, heartbreaking sorrows and oruel disillusions — in fact, all the mental and moral equipment of the mother, influmtcea and suggests the future of the child. Bat there is a vain and frivolous Bide to this grave theory of pre-natal Buggestion too, for the pleasant vanity of woman truly enters at every door of " the houses of death and of birth." It is told of a very ugly but charming Frenchwoman that she had a husband quite as ugly as herself and children who were models of childish grace and beanty. A friend remarked one day that it was strange the children were so unlike both parents. " Si, Si, but that is fortunate I " laughed the bright Frenchwoman. " Look on mj walls ; here are types more favourable than myself and Alphonee." Then the unobservant friend, led from room to room, noted that on tbe walls were hung pictures or engravings of the mest exquisite types of loveliness. More especially was this the case with madame's own apartments, where only the most beautiful faces suggested to the ocoapants peaceful and pleasurable or spiritaelle thoughts. So, you see there is no nook or oranny of solemn science into which the ingenuity of woman will not enter. Without looking back so far as this, however, we can find plenty of food for reflection first and aotion afterwards in the influence of suggestion during early childhood. We have noted how suggestion and imitation go hand in hand before reason is sufficiently developed to count. That being bo, it is clearly advisablo to surround a child with an atmosphere of healthful, pure, and cheering suggestion. Yet how often we find a mother who is moat particular about the qualifications of her general servant, content with any neat-looking, good-natured girl to tafca'

care of the baby? Theia«»yM^^«j««#B*:i) is already at work in the b» W% Hfet BeHeve] ma, it is far more i«port«*» So a* sore of the' mental and moral £ewc»iJity of the llttlii nurstgirl than the ♦Ajxugtiea for work o£ the ! geseral servant. We all know the mischievous, sometimes fatal results of enftruting a nervous child to some unprincipled nurse who intimidates with threats of "bogie*" or silences the chance of tale-bearing by stories of ghosts. Of course, this, like the suggestion of too hypnotiser, is consolous influence and suggestion, but the unconscious influence- of all that is evil, dishonest, or selfish is jusb as' potent on the little child's moral nature as the fear of bogie is to his nervous temperament. Love, peace, trust, and faith ; these are the things that nbosld be suggested to tbe child's mind by all that he sees and hears in his home. JNot only is the dawning moral nature, but the cvlioro and taste of the child, influenced by early suggestions. Ajrtistic colouring, really good pictures or engravings, good picture book*, no matter how simple— these will suggest to him an ideal and give him a lifelong predilection for the really .beautiful in act. As he grows older the same care should be exercieed with his reading ; let tbe bootehe reads Buggest to him fchose tastes ia which he is backward or deficient Then his companions ? Ab, we all, even the most? frivolous among us, know the- importance of that. We all know that boy friendships and girlfriendships brim over with suggestions for good or evil; that they exeroise an influence no latter-day friendships ever attain. But it is you, yourself, father and mother, who must after all be the head and front of suggestion during your child's infancy and childhood. By ycur own method of managing him, by your own style of punishing him, forgiving him, trusting him, keeping faith with biio. you «ugge»t to you* son tbe standard on which to form himself. In one word, your life is his book of suggestion ; your lectures and counsels are ooly usefol when they are marginal notes bearing out the teaching of the book itself.