The San Francisco call., 1896-04-19

ing his ancestors prepared him to commit
the crime by transmitting to him desire
| SO strong to commit crime that the re-
stralning. moral influence of his environ
ment and the command of the law were
too weak to restrain his hand. But some
Will say good and evil Were before him;
that he was free moral agent, and that if
he elected to do evil let the consequence
be upon him. What nonsensei Is it
natural law that one coming into the world
loaded down with the accumulated desires
and propensities for evil of an evil-minded
ancestry, reaching back through the ages,
shall have moral courage and sense of
right in sufficient force to enable him to
overcome every characteristic of his ma
ture?
If character is transmitted, what we call
the processes of individual evolution are
little less than vehicles to keep desires
alive and further stimulate them to deeds
OF vice or virtue, according to the natural
product of the original seed. But human
lty grows better as the generations come
and go when 1t should grow worse as each
generation comes into the world bearing
the sheaves of the harvest of its predeces-
sor's criminal life There is to-day. as
there has been on every other day since
man appeared upon the earth, more of
what is called evil than of what is called
| good In the world, and it would seem that
| the greater ought to have overcome the
lesser by this time. but such is not the
| case.
And, again, if the great and good are
| powerful enough to minimize the evil pro-
pensities OF the race, and that they trans
| NIT lnclinations of increasing strength for
higher and better conduct OF life, it should
certainly follow that the children of great
and good people would be still greater and
better, but no such results obtain. The
history of the world does not record many
| ncfQ nj Jvn no n Iu
distinguished for moral and intellectual
worth sprlnging from the same parents.
On the other hand, it is a fact of history
that for the most part the towering geniuses
OF the world sprang from the lowest walks
OF life, where culture, refinement, wealth
and social advantages were total strangers.
From Moses to Abraham Lincoln the
worlds greatest leaders of men to higher
and truer manhood were, with few ex-
ceptions, born amid poverty and ignorance
| and of parents who did not aspire to
higher life than they were living. Thus
1t will be seen the environment of wealth.
education, polish and high social position
is no warrant that children born under
such desirable and encouraging circum-
stances will be even up to ordinary. We
might ask. If the doctrine of hereditv be
true, from whom did Cain inherit his high
temper and murderous inclination? And
from whom did Abel inherit his meek and
pious disposition? If from Adam and
| Eve, who transmitted these contradictory
dispositions? Ay, there's the rub for
something does not come from nothing.
But referring to Holmes, .Who did sin,
! this man or his parents. that he was born
| (morally) blind ?'' Theosophy teaches the
truer doctrine. Strictly speaking, neither
he nor his parents did sin. He was born
blind in obedience to the law of ethical
causation. He gathered the harvest from
seed sown by his own hand. But this is
! incomprehensiblc unless examined and
analvzed in connection with monadology
and cause and effect, which is the doc
! trine of we reap as we SOW" Holmes was
| the potter and the clay of his own spiritual
! being, and he chose In the long ago to
dwell upon the confines of his lower ma
ture. He resisted the yearning of his soul
for nearer approach to divinity, and
| caroused in his animal desire. He refused
to let the light of moral sense shine upon
| him, preferring the habits and customs of
his cannibal life of ages ago.
He advanced intellectually, but not
upon ethical lines. The habits and
| inclinations of his jungle life cling to him
because he so desires. He differs from the
bushman only in mentality. He is now
and always has been free agent, and the
conduct of his life has always been of his
own choosing, but he must reap in each
! life the legitimate harvest of his former
sowing. There is no escape from the
operation of Karma. He must himself
atone for every criminal act. He must
suffer wrong for every wrong done to
others. He must come and come again
| into the activities of human action until
every tare and poison weed is rooted out
| of his field of existence, and the seed of
| the harvest of each life's planting will be