Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-06-29

COLOSSAL OF tH6 WHOI6 line ANA SidDGS up
on the past as upon platform. Though
human nature remains essentially the
same, each succeeding generation of
men ought to. be wiser in all human
knowledge that the one that went be-
fore it. -. s.-..g =, = -.sz 500 !,
How far the fact that every boy does
not grow up to be better and wiser
man than bis father, as it would seem
that he ought to Is explainable upon.
the theory of ''taking back, must al
ways, in the nature of the case, remain
q question And therefore, when this
supposed fact of heredity, (as in the
case of the Pomeroy boy is argued in
extenuation of guilt or for the purpose
of tightening the puniahment of crime
under the plea that the criminal is . vic.
tim of some pre-. natal mania or trans
mitted taint, very wide door is theoret-
ically set ajar to the entire abolition of
punishment of crime ON the one handy
the dispensing of very partial and dis
eliminating justice on the other For
if the argument is good and the fact is
found to exist in one case where there
is a probability of proof, why may rot
fact exist and the argument be just IS
good in other cases which cannot be
Investigated indeed III all cases where
the family tree can neither be climbed
to its topmost branches or its bottom
roots dug down to.
1t is said that if one goes into certain
family portrait galleries in England
where may be seen the faces of each
successive head of the house for a long
series of generations, he will often find
the same lineaments recurring after long
intervals of time possibly the rough and
bluff visage of the very founder OF the
house itself, overlapping two or three
centuries, and reappearing, thinly dis
guised in the urbane countenance, per-
haps, Of its present courtly representa-
tive. Reasoning from analogy and on
the ground taken by these advanced hu-
manitarians, whoshall say to what remote
ancestor, even though it be Cain him
self, one may not ''take back" for his
idosyncracies of temperament, disposi-
ton and character, or how far any par
ticular transgressor shall be held ac-
countab'e for his conduct?
If we would do equal justice to all, we
must doubtless take men as we find
them. On the question of mental un-
soundness, the family record may well
bear its witness to what is in the blood,
if it has anything to say, but to go back
of ones cradle for support of the theory
of whas is called ''moral insanity" is
merely, we believe, seeking new name
and a specious and delusive apology for
a very old and wicked thing.
That 'sblood is thicker than water"
and hears alone with il i'm its flow, from
one generation to another much that Is
bad as we'll as much that is good is not
ito be doubted-and there may be that in
this doctrine of hereditary moral faint
which may well awaken feeling of char
ity and commiseration towards those
who are supposed to bear its mark.
There may even be something soothing
to some mems conscience in the theory
of heredity as applied to their own ap-
petites and passions, or what they con-
slider their peculiar constitutional infirm-
tiles. We have known an incorporate
man to hold some ancestor accountable
for his vice, and to plead as much help
lessness under the conviction as though
ee were foreordained to be a drunkard.
We suspect however that he failed OF
make the startling discovery till long
after he had ceased t. be a moderate
drinker.
The facts in regard 10 this matter of
heredity that are patent, are bad enough
at the best but to push the latter as far
beyond the former, as some of these
new light philosophers would have us,
and evoke the ghosts of the dead, in or
der to destroy the moral accountability
of the living and shield them from the
penalties of transgression while leaving
them still in the exercise of their reason
ing faculties, we cannot help character
izing as simply monstrous.