Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-08-10

u iS nut the judgement should .cout.ol o,,
J"ncleS IN marrying
1t requires but cursory glance ovor tho a.;
rl'!c T world to perceive the lending PRINCIPLES nf
ot%!:lotth'ty and Diversity in accordance with
Which II IS organized; the former manifested in
th"se analoges Of structure, type and GnnrI;om
which enable us TO form groups for convenience
ot investigation and description; the Inter indi
Gated III those differences which conStitnte tho
the characteristics of the various subysions into
classes, ORDERS general and species With This
hhal division the law Of diversity is suspended.
no new species Springing from one already en-
lstlng although infinite varieties ofiudividualitv
| may be produced
Under the operation Of these two ORIGINAL
laws, a writer in the British Quarterly, ofwhose
IictS we avail ourselves, accounts for all the
phenomena OF life. Children inherit the gene.
raj form and appearance of their parents and
also their mental and moral constitutions not
only IN their original and essential characters
ont even in those acquired habits of life, in
.elect, oi virtue or OF VICE. for which they have
| been remarkable. Under the law of diversity
we observe deiOTmity and uglineSs giving oripin
to grace and beauty, health producing disessc
virtue succeeded by vice, intellect by imbccili-
| tY, and the converse of all these phenomena
| The action of these two laws is so interblcnded
that 1t Is impossible to predict exactly the Quail
tues oi a child from knowledge of those OF the
parent.
Much Of the diversity incident to offsprinr is
attributable to the innate tendency of species
after artificial or accidental modification. to re.
turn TO its original type, as in the case Of mixed
breeds often returning to one or the other na-
rent stock. Nature Seems to have an abhorrence
OF mongrel races, and will destroy them in some
way.
The opinion common among our learned men
may be expressed in the words OF the physiolo-
giSt Burdach, "that heritage has in reality more
power over our constitution and character than
| all the influences from Without whether moral
or physical" There is something interesting
in the manner in which some Characteristic
feature is handed down from one generation to
another, sometimes for centuries. Thus the
bourbonS have an HQnilinc nose and n peculiar
form of the car; the imperial house of Austria,
a thick lip, derived from Mary of Burgundy; and
the two cosmopolitan races, the Hebrews ard
the Gipscys, have 81 distinctive phySognomy
little modified by any external circumstances
under which they live. Bodily form and color,
activity and aptitude are hcritablc. Children
born ottaikatiye parents are themselves louna.
ciouS There exists hereditary liability to Ger
tam forms of discasc as apOpleXy, epilepsy,
mental alteration, hemorrhagcs, special inflam-
nations, DC. Fccundity and longevity are
transmissibie, as indeed are idosyncrasics In
entire families the slightest quantity of opium
acts as virulent poison; and we once witnessed
III family sensitive to mercury, child with
swollen joints and unu!iStukable evidences of
the drug had been exhibited by homcrnpa-
thist. Louis XIV. and his descendants posses.
Scd voraciouS appettcS; and Buethius tells US Of
a young girl with Il horrible propensity to can
nlbasm, whose parents during her infancy had
! been burned Tor eating human flesh.
The different races Gf men have characteris.
ties distinctly marked; the red, the white the
yellow man, all comport themselves in a differ
cnt and St!IEingiv cOatraStGd manner when
brought into contact with the white man and
his civilization. Neither will these differences
disapucar by custom the sornbre red man and
the volatile negro are alike incapable Of assini.
!atlon TO the European nature. Even the Celtic,
Ieutnnlc aud Slavic varieties unable to
blend together. Races consist Of aggregatonS
OF individuals; it is clear, therefore, that to a
certain extent individuals have the power of
transmitting their own specific pSvchcal nature
The education Of the parent influences the
capacity OF the offspring. Even among animals
the progeny readily assume tie habits of the
parents, with little or no training to them, even
when those habits first superinduced by
training. \ St. Bernard deg, native of London,
began to track footsteps in the snow. The
pointer descended from trained stock will take
TO pointing without any instruction In the
human family the SAME principle holds true
he child OF the American Indian will naturally
adopt forest habits 10 an extent and with n
sEtIiaitogct!icr foreign to y white child although
both may have been brought up from earliest
association with civilized people, savages and
their children show untamabc and umtcach-
able spIlnG; but after or two genarationS
during which efforts at instruction have been
partially successful, the young children indicate
not only more docility, but much greater api-
tude to learn. DR.. Moore observes that our
education may be said to begin Hith our fore.
fathers The Child Of the morally instructed is
most capable of instruction, and intellectual
excellence is generally the result of ages of
mental cultivation. Sir ~ Carlisle cites the
observation of a schoomaster that the capacities
Of children for learning are affected by the cdu-
cation and aptitude of their parents; and that
the children of people accustomed to arithmetic
learned figures quicker than those of differently
educated persons; while the children Of classi-
cal scholars more easily learned Latin and
Greek, and that notwithstanding few striking
exceptions the natural dullncss OF children bora
of uneducated persons was proverbial. Bur
dach agrees that the development of the intelIec-
tual faculties OF the parents renders the children
more capable of receiving education; and Grou
says that acquired capacities are transmitted bv
generation, and this transmission is more certain
and perfect in proportion aS the cultivation has
extended over more generations, and as that of
one parent Is less opposed bv ibat oC tho otV,rr