Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-05-22

recognized by all WflJeTS anu Ouooi 'Oio ~"
rect, reversional, collateral, and the hereu-
ity of influence. Curious facts have Deeh
observed in race heredity. For instance,
marriages between Danes and East indian
women pro1ure children of the European
type, but this does not hold good IN mar
RACES of East Indian women with other
Europeans. Hottentots and white women
produce always children possessing the
GOOD nature and moral disposition of the
fathers. while the children of white men
and Hottentot women have in them the
germs of all vices and unruly passions.
Direct beredity is that in line from par
ent to child, but the part played by the
parents respectively upon the characters
tics of the child appears by no means uni
form. 1t is well established, however,
that i'm the larger number of cases heredi-
ty goes diagonally by sex; that is, the son
is more often like the mother and the
daughter like the father.
Reversional heredity is a matter OF great
interest. In this an Inherited ancestral
tendency is carried slong, disappearing, it
may be, i'm one or two generations, to re-
appear in subsequent ones in full strength.
There are many instances which illustrate
this point.
Character is largely dependent upon he
redty, fact which we see often illustrated
i'm professional men. The born preacher,
for instance, adds to his zeal and devotion
a certain grace and reverential mein that is
a heritage rather than an requirement
The same is true of the physician and the
lawyer, natural qualifications ever overtop-
ping acquired ones.
National character affords a true meas
ure not only of the virtues and vices of a
people, but of their good or bad fortune
The Jews furnish the best illustration Of
this. Their commercial character comes
from their exclusion in the middle ages
from the practice of the trades. Their
moral qualities no less than peculiarties OF
physognomy have been preserved in way
that stamps them with an image and SUI
prescription no less individual than that OF
Caesar.
In the discussion of heredity, the essayist
said. draw a broad boundary line between
the domain of matter and that of mind.
Heredity appertans to matter AMI only
that. There is a mortal and an immortal
part. and the latter is not subject to disease
and decay. 1t is not mind, nor any of its
attributes. that is inherited, but only apti-
tudes and capacities for its greater or less
freedom of manifestation. All that is
meant, therefore. by heredity is the trans
mission of peculiarities of physical organi-
cation, capabilities for the minds fuller
expression in special ways or as whole
There can be no manifestation of mind in
the human being apart from its physical
organ, and no healthy expression except
through a healthy organ.
There is fatalisiic character in the doc
trine of hercdity which we cannot but
shrink from. What we give to heredity we
take from free will. The two seem opposed
to each other and irreconcilable We pos
sess power that We cannot explain, but
which we are ever sensible of, and are con-
stantly exercising. We have a belief, too,
founded believe in our natures as well as
in revelation, that there is an unseen des-
tiny for each one of lis beyond the seen.
We are conscious of both and of power
to shape that destiny. 1t is claimed that the
will is hereditary; if so it is not the power
itself but the machinery which makes the
use of the power possible,
The law of nature is toward uniformity,
and when any exceptional departure is
made from the uniform character the ten
dency is not to perpetuate the departure,
but rather to leave it as an exceptional
production. In this view it should not be
be the equal of his father, because of this
tendency to spring back to the average type
or standard.
What we see in family resemblances in
dicative of heredity is the most superficial
manifestation. What we trace in lines of
disease is but one of the most familiar
phases, but the influences acting upon man
kind to mould the development of character
open up endless observations. In the dis
tinctive differences of nationality we see
the best types of hersdity by environment.
1t has too limited a Specification as ordi-
narily understood. We usually apply it to
family pecularties and resemblance, but
we must recognize heredity that is world
wide-that of environment, that touches all
families, peoples and races.
have somewhere read legend the es-
sayist finely said, that has a graphic adap-
tation to the influence of environment. Ii
was a tradition connected with circum
scrlbed mountain region to the effect that
one day some great man would appear in
the valley, whose features should bear
resemblance to the colossal, mild. ma
Jestic lineaments tTaceabe in the rugged
contour of the mountain side recogniz-
able by all the villagers. This belief
was shared by all the inhabitants born in
the valley. A country youth reared in this
region was most enthusiastically imbued
with this prophecy. Successfully there
came from time to time a rich merchant a
military hero, an eminent statesman. a
poet, who are each in turn by some of the
villagers believed to be the expected visitor
Meanwhile the native youth grows in intel
lect and character becomes man of noble
life and an eloquent preacher. But not
TILL he is an old man is ii discovered land
then wholly unsupported by himself) that
he is the one of all who have appeared
whose features bear the prophesied resem-
blance; but he disclaims the honor and
still looks for greater than himself True
IL Is, however, that character if not features
Is moulded into fitness with grand surround
lngs; and believe the effect upon the in
habltants of this village of the grand old
mountain over the river is insensiblv but
surely affecting the character of those who
are here born and reared.
Conclusive as seems to be the hereditv
OF environment it is questioned by some
eminent scientists, whose opinions cannot
be disregarded, and who believe environ
ment limited to the individual in its effects
A distinguished writer says in SUMMING mn
the question: SIN the phenomena of eyoln-
ton the principle of the heredity of acquired
characteristics has the advantage, while in
the phenomena of simple hereditv the prin-
clple OF continuous germ-plasm is the
strongest
However this subdivision of the subiect
may ultimately be settled said DIR. Draper